Car-sharing platform SOCAR announced that it has raised $18 million in a Series A funding round from South Korean investors Eugene Private Equity and KH Energy, according to a report by e27.
SOCAR is headquartered in South Korea, but currently operates primarily in Malaysia.
The company is expected to use the fresh funding to expand its operation in other countries by the end of this year.
This fresh capital brings SOCAR’s total funding to $40 million at a valuation of $118 million to date, according to the company’s statement.
Founded in 2012 in South Korea’s Jeju Island, the startup chose Malaysia as its first overseas market for expansion in January 2018 and had appointed former general manager of Uber Malaysia to lead its Malaysian operations.
The company claims that it has over 2,000 cars in 27 different models in over 1,000 locations in three major cities in Peninsular Malaysia – Klang Valley, Johor and Penang.
“The extra capital will also be used to improve its app’s user experience, add new modes of car sharing, support more payment options, and expedite the onboarding and processing of license approvals for new users,” Socar Malaysia CEO Leon Foong was quoted as saying.
SOCAR raised around $44 million in a SoftBank Ventures-backed round in January last year. The South Korean car-sharing platform had earlier told us that it was planning to expand in the East Malaysian state of Sabah.
SOCAR is the parent company of the ride-hailing firm Tada, which was yesterday cleared of transport law violations in court, a rare victory in a market that has been particularly unkind to ride-hailing companies.
Since starting up in late 2018, Tada has won 1.7 million users as it capitalized on growing demand and the funding muscle of its Japanese backer SoftBank Group Corp.