Indonesian used car marketplace BeliMobilGue.co.id has received an investment commitment of over $30 million from Berlin-based JV partner Frontier Car Group.
The investment will be made over the next two years, it announced in an official statement.
The move is part of the company’s efforts to capture a dominant market position in Southeast Asia’s largest automobile market. The auto platform has also appointed OVO director Johnny Widodo as its new CEO.
The new investment comes only six months after the company closed a $10-million Series A round led by parent company Frontier Car Group, with participation from new and existing investors, including Jardines-owned PT Toyota Tunas Indonesia.
BeliMobilGue is a joint venture between founder Rolf Monteiro, Berlin-based Frontier Car Group, which is backed by Naspers/OLX, Balderton Capital, TPG Growth and Partech Ventures, and Indonesia-only independent venture capital firm Intudo Ventures.
Additional backers include local automotive giant PT Tunas Ridean Tbk, Amand Ventures, Tasman Fund, Digital Garage and Go-jek co-founder Michaelangelo Moran.
Through its platform, Jakarta-based BeliMobilGue.co.id enables consumers to sell their cars to a large private network of over 1,000 qualified buyers. It claims to conduct a 300-point inspection on each used car and then uploads the inspection report onto its partner app, which allows buyers around Indonesia to make an offer on the car while viewing competing offers.
In 2018, the company opened over a dozen new physical locations in the Greater Jakarta region, representing a total of 30 locations throughout the metro area. The company also introduced financial services and trade-in services for new car showrooms and fleet services, allowing large corporations to offload vehicles in bulk.
In Widodo, BeliMobilGue.co.id will be led by an experienced entrepreneur with experience spanning roles in engineering, management consulting, strategy, marketing and sales across Indonesia, Singapore, the United States and around the world.
At Grab-backed OVO, Widodo counted as part of the founding team and led various functions, including marketing, operations, analytics. His most recent position was as OVO’s Director of Sales and Partnerships.
For 2019-2020, Widodo will oversee a number of strategic initiatives for BeliMobilGue.co.id including hiring efforts to build a team in order to accelerate business progress; improving operations and service and provide greater support to dealers through targeted products and services; as well as optimizing and creating new partnerships to generate growth.
“As CEO of BeliMobilGue.co.id, we will continue to work closely with dealers, customers and business partners to better meet their needs, infusing local knowledge, relationships and expertise with global resources and capital,” said Widodo.
Commenting on the move, Johan Nel, Director GM of OLX Indonesia, said: “As a strategic partner we are delighted to see such a strong CEO coming to lead Belimobilgue.co.id, whom we believe can bring the company through a new phase of increased investment and growth. We look forward to deepening our partnership to continue to build, create and grow new services which can benefit from the full ecosystem in Indonesia’s automotive industry.”