Shopee, the leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia and Taiwan, celebrates the growth of the region’s digital economy and shares the impact that e-commerce and digital financial services had on local communities in 2021. Southeast…
Do you want to generate consistent leads for your B2B business? Check out this digital marketing blueprint for B2B businesses and win in your industry! Learn More >>
Malaysia’s fastest growing digital used car ecosystem, myTukar and Genie Malaysia, have recorded strong sustainable growth.
Commemorating its fifth anniversary this year, myTukar started its humble beginnings in a small Glenmarie office in 2018. Today, it is a leading online used car retailer with a 33-branch strong operation nationwide, together with two state-of-the-art reconditioning centres and five workshops with after sales capabilities – a feat unique in the used car industry. myTukar’s steady expansion nationwide is part of the company’s active goal to provide trustworthy, hassle-free and best digital experience when buying and selling, financing, insuring and servicing used cars. It only just began retail last year and has now sold nearly 6,000 cars to end-customers. Together with its wholesale business, it has now sold over 100,000 cars worth over RM3bn via its 2,600-dealership network.
Chairman and Founder of myTukar, Fong Hon Sum says, “Having been in the car retailing industry for twenty years, I have seen its many major pain points. When I first started this business, I had a simple dream: to change and revolutionise the used car industry in Malaysia. Hence, the creation of “myTukar”, a platform to inject transparency, seamlessness and peace of mind in an industry where there was little trust, and to leverage technology to digitalise an age-old, opaque and poorly regulated industry. I am very proud of how myTukarians have changed and will continue to change the industry, every single day.”
myTukar and sister company Genie Financial Services Malaysia are also dedicated to being key contributors to the economy with job creation in Malaysia. During the pandemic, myTukar and Genie Malaysia’s strong financials not only allowed them to sustain their headcount, but also saw sizable expansion across the board from 175 to 1,300 local employees, providing job security to Malaysians in a heavily impacted industry.
CEO of myTukar, Derrick Eng says, “I started myTukar alongside Mr. Fong with a commitment to providing seamless accessibility to all Malaysians; and I am proud to see how far we have come – converting our many crises into strengths. From a workforce of 175 before COVID-19 to about 1,300 employees today, we have strategically hired, trained and upskilled our employees throughout the pandemic. The success we have achieved today is down to the truly extraordinary, passionate but quiet execution of the myTukar family. More importantly, we are very focused on laying the foundations of a sustainable Malaysian tech company, proudly built, and led by Malaysians for the underserved local used car community.”
Genie Malaysia is also on track to becoming the fastest growing used car fintech provider in the country, as it celebrates its first anniversary of its operations this year with an outstanding loan book of RM315 million and zero NPL, while also measuring positive EBITDA. A prudent cost structure allows them to be profitable from day one. Currently, Genie Malaysia processes over 3,000 applications as it offers dealers and used car consumers with seamless, AI-enabled credit scoring and digitised lending.
CEO of Genie Malaysia, Simon Chan says, “After 25 years in the auto financing industry, it is my personal mission to drive financial inclusion and empowerment. Starting Genie Malaysia was an opportunity to address a large but underserved used car financing segment in Malaysia. We have been able to harness technology, big data and AI to effectively offer financial services to dealers and consumers who are otherwise unbanked. We have been able to make lending more credit-worthy and easier for ordinary people who have genuine needs to own cars. Genie Malaysia is backed by financing facilities from at least one leading domestic bank, which is a huge validation of our business model, and we are open to partnerships that will help banks serve the underserved in a better and safer manner.”
myTukar and Genie Malaysia have grown to be significant contributors towards the Malaysian community as well as economy, bolstered by its stronghold of local partners and investors. This includes Sime Darby, DRB-Hicom, approximately 100 local dealer shareholder partners. These successful partnerships cement myTukar and Genie Malaysia not just as leaders within the used car ecosystem in Malaysia, but reaffirm their position as proud Malaysian start-ups.
October also marks the third anniversary of Carro’s investment into myTukar and Malaysia. To this, Chief Financial Officer of Carro, Ernest Chew says, “As a Malaysian myself, it has been remarkable to witness our local team build a sustainable digital used car ecosystem in the country. Beyond just helping people buy and sell cars, we want to be a digital ecosystem of services that improves financeability and supports the entire car ownership experience. I am especially pleased that we have been able to build a high growth business the lean way by avoiding high marketing costs and subsidies. It is incredibly important for us to have positive EBITDA; Carro has recorded positive EBITDA as a group and EBITDA breakeven in three other ASEAN countries in the previous quarter.”
Ernest also added, “We are grateful to our Malaysian investors and partners whose investments have gone back to support our Malaysian businesses, and we look forward to continuing our contributions to the broader local economy and society.”
