C2C second-hand car trading platform Guazi.com completed a USD 204.5 million round of financing, according to 58.com’s Sina Weibo. According to the Weibo post, investors who participated in this round of funding include several world-famous investment agencies, but detailed information is not yet available.
According to an internal letter from the CEO of Guazi.com, Yang Haoyong, the company has expanded coverage to 75 cities in China over the past 16 months and has 4,000 employees to date. The letter also says the company recorded 1,027 cars sold on March 10 with a turnover of RMB 83.72 million on that day.
The new funding will be used to further scale-up the company’s presence in the used-car market, improve car valuation systems and build a standardized system for promotion across all industry chains.
Guazi.com was established by online classifieds site Ganji.com, which merged with rival online classifieds site 58.com last April. The second-hand car trading platform was then spun off as a stand-alone company to facilitate faster growth. Yang, the founder of Ganji, resigned from his position as co-CEO of 58 Ganji, to serve as Chairman and CEO of Guazi.com.
“I’m pleased to see Guazi receive such a strong vote of confidence in its future from global sector-focused investors,” Yao Jinbo, founder of 58.com, said in a press release. “By leveraging its highly experienced management team and 58.com’s continuous traffic resources and support, Guazi is well positioned to offer a better and higher quality used car trading service.”
Guazi is already facing strong competition in this rapidly expanding market. Autohome Inc. and Yiche.com are the other main players in China’s second-hand car market.
According to the China Automobile Dealers Association, domestic second-hand car trading volume was estimated to be above 10 million vehicles in 2015 and is likely to double by the end of 2020, with sales exceeding RMB one trillion.
(Top photo from lenovomm.com)