Among those that came in with the new investments in its latest funding round today are existing investors 65 Equity Partners, Seatown Private Capital Master Fund, Qatar Investment Authority, Gobi Partners and Asia Partners.
Joining the stable of investors is EvolutionX Debt Capital, which is providing a long-term debt facility.
EvolutionX Debt Capital is a growth-stage debt financing platform that provides an alternative source of financing to technology companies in Asia.
Carsome had, on June 8, stated that it held a liquidity position of US$150 million (RM692.71 million).
However, there was no interest from government-linked companies (GLCs) or sovereign wealth funds for the Malaysian unicorn.
Carsome had previously written to deputy finance minister Steven Sim expressing hope that the ministry of finance (MoF) could “strongly recommend” the country’s sovereign wealth funds, government-linked investment companies (GLICs) and GLCs to participate in an external fund-raiser for US$10 million (RM46.18 million) later this year.
The group later dismissed market talk that this was an appeal for a bailout.
In its letter to Sim, Carsome also pointed out that GLICs were “overshadowed” by foreign investors when it came to investing in the group.
The letter said that although Carsome was a Malaysian enterprise, Malaysian government-linked investors accounted for less than 10% of its “cap table”.
In its fiscal year ended March 31, 2023, Carsome’s revenue grew by 250% year-on-year (y-o-y) to US$1.5 billion (RM6.92 billion).
In Q1 FY2023, the group hit operational profitability for the first time on the back of a doubling of trade margin from the same period last year.
Carsome co-founder and group CEO Eric Cheng said the group’s “comfortable liquidity position and strong backing from both existing and new investors” placed it on solid footing “to deliver the world’s first integrated car ownership ecosystem”.
In a recent interview, Cheng said the group hoped to break even in the second half of 2023.
On this note, group president and CFO Juliet Zhu added that “profitability is just one of the milestones in our long-term capital planning, and we will continue to invite the right partners who can add strategic value at different stages of our growth”.