Personalized end-to-end solution for car buyers Mobilkamu has secured an undisclosed amount of seed funding from early stage venture capital firm Denali Partners and East Ventures.
East Ventures is the leading fundraising company in Indonesia, Singapore and Japan. Meanwhile, Denali Partners (Denali Mitra) is an angel company based in Indonesia founded Chris Angkasa.
Mobilkamu is founded in 2015 by CEO Wilton Halim and COO Kalen Iselt as an online car financing platform that looks to assist consumers in finding cars via personalized experience that sees the platform curating the best deals for them.
Halim has a background in Australia-based The Exchange Group and previously founded PerabotIndonesia, while Iselt previously worked for the Australian marketplaces Bike Exchange and car platform CarDeals2U.
Mobilkamu aims to enable first-time car buyers in Indonesia, who are price-sensitive to enjoy savings and low financing rates on their platform through the selection of several financing options.
Halim told this portal, “We initially moved to Indonesia with the idea to work only with new car dealerships, and to help people find the largest discount between individual dealers.”
“We soon realized that while there is some money to be saved by comparing dealers, the real help we should provide to customers was with new car financing, where we could save customers much more than just a few million rupiah.”
It was this mission that led the startup to begin cooperating with financing companies and eventually leading them to have a large network of both partner dealerships and finance companies to help provide the best price for our customers.
Besides, this seed round will also see them opening offices in Tangerang and Bekasi to expand their reach throughout different areas of Jakarta. By March 2018, the startup plans to expand to other large Indonesian cities with a high demand for vehicles – not just limited to within Java, but also in Surabaya, Bandung, and Medan as well.
Commenting on the investment, Denali Partners’ Chris Angkasa said, “Mobilku has a strategic position to improve the car-buying process and access in Indonesia. There are many problems to be solved in the industry, and they can bring many solutions to improve existing ecosystem.”
Since Mobilkamu has received funding, the startup has secured an exclusive partnership with Bukalapak to manage “Bukamobil”. The team is in the process of reaching more than half a million dollars in revenue in 2017 alone and will use the funding to continue its expansion to more towns in Indonesia.
When talking about their exit plans, Halim said: “At this stage, we are still focused on expanding operations throughout Jakarta and beyond, but we see that our technology will be a big part of what makes us successful in the longer term and bring value to our company in the future.”
Despite there being a lot of online car classifieds right now, the startup is more focused on placing itself as a platform to provide leads to dealers (for both new and used cars), as well as creating new car sales. The startup presents a viable business model and valuable service as opposed to other business which focuses on mass advertising of vehicles only.
By 2017, Mobilkamu is already in a profit position of over half a million dollars.
