Owning a car in Singapore is hard enough; what more trying to sell it off at a reasonable price? After all, there is no one more silver-tongued than a car’s salesman.
Enter Motorist, a comprehensive AutoConcierge platform that helps drivers conveniently manage all aspects of vehicle ownership and vehicle transactions.
Motorist announced today (Sept 9) it has closed S$1.2 million in seed funding invested by AngelCentral and introduced new features on its app that will help enhance the driver’s experience.
This seed round also saw participation from previous investors, Royston Tay, co-founder of Zopim; and Huang Shao-Ning, co-founder of JobsCentral.
The raised funds will help Motorist accelerate even faster and create an ecosystem of smart tools and services that will help car owners with vehicle purchases, vehicle loans and motor insurance.
Funds will also be deployed to support the expansion into Thailand, its third market. The earlier announced entry into Thailand has been delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and Motorist now aims to be operational in Thailand by the end of 2021.
“As we prepare for the opening of the economy, our team will accelerate our execution across markets to support more motorists in their ownership cycle”, said Damian Sia, founder and CEO of Motorist.
Growing the Motorist app to become a “super app”
According to Motorist, it is the leading vehicle auction platform in Singapore, having served close to 500,000 drivers and facilitated over S$600 million worth of vehicle transactions.
Since its previous angel round back in January 2019, its Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) has grown from S$176 million to over S$650 million currently.
Revenue has grown five times between 2018 and 2021, and the company believes there is vastly more untapped growth potential in the vehicle auction space and across the entire vehicle ownership cycle.
Lead investor Lim Der Shing said, “I was an early angel investor in Motorist a few years ago and have tracked Damian and his team for more than two years before investing further in them. They have demonstrated their ability to be capital efficient and have built a profitable multimillion-dollar business by mostly bootstrapping.”
“It’s been an exciting journey bringing Motorist to where it is today. We have evolved from a contemporary car-dealing platform to one that supports motorists in all stages of their vehicle ownership cycle. Our team is grateful for the vote of confidence from our existing investors.
The Motorist app, which was officially launched in 2019, has grown to over 120,000 users in the last two years.
The platform aims to take all the fuss out of owning a vehicle, selling one, and everything in between. From the maintenance, buying and selling of vehicles, the app supports users from start to end.
It’s not just an app to buy and sell your car; it’s a community as well. New features that have been introduced include its Car Group Chat feature that allows drivers with similar vehicles to share car-specific tips and insights with one other.
Users can also find recommended workshops to service their vehicles under Workshop Directory and enjoy cash rebates with mPay, its online payment feature.
The app said it assists an approximated 10 per cent of Singapore’s overall vehicle population with vehicle management matters.
The startup plans to scale and onboard 40 per cent of the vehicle population to the Motorist app by 2023.
Featured Image Credit: Motorist