Chinese auto parts e-commerce platform Casstime has raised as much as 564 million yuan ($80 million) in a Series C1 funding found co-led by Sequoia Capital China and Source Code Capital, according to an announcement
The round also saw the participation of its long-standing investor HUA Partners. With the current round investment, the total amount of funding garnered by the Shenzhen-headquartered company stands at around $200 million.
Established in 2015, Casstime is one of the prominent players in China’s automotive aftermarket. It has a big data-driven network that integrates the industrial supply chain and claims to have connected over 1200 suppliers across 300 cities in China.
“We are focused on strengthening the capacities on technology innovation, technical infrastructure and market expansion,” said Overmars Jiang, CEO at Casstime in a company statement.
The funding raised will be used to spruce up technical research and development, enhance services to cater to a nationwide market.
“Technology is the biggest driver of change in any industry. Casstime used its leading technology to develop the biggest and most accurate database of vehicle parts in China’s aftermarket,” Nathan Fu, director at China TH Capital said.
The transaction has been facilitated by China TH Capital.
The automative aftermarket is witnessing significant growth and going forward, it is expected to outnumber the United States and become the largest market by 2020, according to Deloitte China that released China Automative Aftermarket White Paper 2019 in September 2019.
Currently, there are as many as 250 million vehicles in operation in China.
According to the white paper, the conflicts between China’s underdeveloped automative aftermarket industry and the rapid rising digital era are amongst factors that are pushing the industry to innovate. The industry is expected to witness 17 per cent growth by 2025, as compared to 10 per cent currently.