Global used-car market builder secures $22M investment
Frontier Car Group, a new global company that builds and runs marketplaces for used cars in five countries, recently announced the closing of a $22 million investment made by a portfolio of global investors led by Balderton Capital.
With operations in Chile, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey, the group said it will put the funds toward growing the emerging markets within each country.
"Frontier Car Group is an exciting company with huge potential and we are delighted to lead an investment in this company," Balderton Capital general partner Daniel Waterhouse said in a news release. "The co-founders have a clear vision for the future of automotive sales and are leading a Berlin-based team who have developed a technical solution and operational model that allows the company to scale effectively at great speed. The fact that they are already live in five continents is a testament to their diligence and determination."
EchoVC+, TPG/Satya, NEA and Partech Ventures also partnered with Balderton Capital in the investment round. Waterhouse and Eghosa Omoigui of EchoVC+ have assumed seats on the FCG board of directors.
FCG's current businesses include VendeNosTuAuto of Chile, VendeTuAuto of Mexico, Cars45 of Nigeria, CarFirst of Pakistan and Ototrink of Turkey.
Founded last year, the global company has grown to have 200 employees around the world, including operations in Berlin, home of its technical, financial and operational headquarters.
"The automotive sales sector is fundamentally broken in top tier emerging markets around the world. Despite massive consumer demand, there is no good scalable way for people to sell their used cars efficiently for a fair price," FCG co-founder and chief executive officer Sujay Tyle said. "Our vision is to reinvent how the used automotive sales sector works in global emerging markets through technology and infrastructure creation."
Tyle, along with Peter Lindholm and Andre Kussmann, launched FCG in September.
Before launching the group, Tyle co-founded Hired.com and served as its chief operations officer, Lindholm was an investment manager at Millicom, and Kussmann was director of engineering at Auto1 in Berlin.