Denis Opudo
Frontier Car Group (FCG) majors in launch, development and operation of used automotive marketplaces. The Berlin-based startup operates across market economies with high growth. FCG startup increases the efficiency of selling and buying used cars through infrastructure improvement, technology, innovative business models, and increasing access to capital. Therefore, it gives all shareholders a chance to benefit from its impact.
FCG currently has its operations in Indonesia, Chile, Turkey, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Mexico. It has different brands in each country. For instance, in Mexico it has VendeTuAuto, Indonesia has BeliMobilGue and Pakistan there is CarFirst. The startup said that it is looking forward to transacting vehicles worth more than $250 million in 2018. FCG partnered with OLX Group, a propriety classifieds technology. The partnership led to FCG getting an investment worth $89 million from OLX Group. This came at its Series C round of funding. OLX Group channeled the investment through OLX Ventures its early stage investment arm.
The partnership will offer car dealers and sellers industry-leading products. Used cars’ private sellers will be able to sell their vehicles either through guaranteed buy service of FCG or OLX Group classifieds. FCG’s CEO and co-founder Sujay Tyle said that the partnership offers the startup a platform and international recognition that it needs to become leading marketplace for used cars with high growth markets. It will help the company achieve its aim of growing further and driving digitization of the automotive sales industry. The Series C investment comes less than a month after an announcement by FCG of its Series B funding. It raised $17 million in debt funding and $41 million in equity which totaled to $58 million in that round. TPG Group and Balderton Capital led the Series B round. The two also took part in the FCG’s past round of funding in 2017 where it secured $22 million.
The Asian automotive industry has recorded a number of big deals. This includes funding of $60 million raised by Carro from Singapore. This was on a round led by SoftBank Ventures Korea, B Capital Group and Insignia Ventures Partners. It also recorded investment of $19 million. The investment was raised by Carsome from Malaysia led by Burda Principal Investment. The most significant investment in the sector came when Renrenche secured $200 million from Didi Chuxing. Renrenche is a second car selling platform from Beijing China while Didi Chuxing is a ride-hailing app operator from China.
