myTukar And Genie Malaysia Celebrate Anniversary And Strong Revenue Growth
myTukar and its sister fintech company, Genie Financial Services Malaysia, are enjoying strong revenue growth as myTukar celebrates its 5th anniversary. Started in 2018 in a small office in Glenmarie, myTukar has grown into a leading online used car retailer with network of 33 branches nationwide, and supported by 2 state-of-the-art reconditioning centres and 5 workshops for aftersales services. The retail business only began last year and it has since sold about 6,000 used vehicles to end users. Combined with its used car wholesale business, the company has sold over 100,000 cars with an estimated value of RM3 billion, through its network of 2,600 dealers.
myTukar’s steady expansion nationwide is part of its goal to provide trustworthy and hassle-free digital experience for buying and selling, financing, insuring and servicing used cars.
“Having been in the car retailing industry for 20 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,” commented Chairman and Founder of myTukar, Fong Hon Sum.
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 operations this year. It currently has an outstanding loan book of RM315 million and 0 NPL (non-performing loans), and also recording positive EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation).
“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,” said CEO of Genie Malaysia, Simon Chan.
A prudent cost structure had allowed Genie to be profitable from Day 1. Currently, Genie Malaysia processes over 3,000 loan applications, offering dealers and used car buyers a proprietary seamless, AI-enabled credit scoring and digitised lending.
myTukar and Genie Financial Services Malaysia are also dedicated to job creation in Malaysia and contribute positively to the economy. During the pandemic, myTukar and Genie’s strong financials not only allowed them to sustain their headcount, but also allowed for a sizable expansion across the board. Headcount was increased from 175 to 1,300 local employees, providing job security to Malaysians in a heavily impacted industry.
“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,” said CEO of myTukar, Derrick Eng.
myTukar and Genie Malaysia have also strengthened its partnerships in the automotive retail sector, particularly with conglomerates Sime Darby and DRB-Hicom, along with approximately 100 local dealer shareholder partners. These successful partnerships have made myTukar and Genie Malaysia leaders within the used car ecosystem in Malaysia.
The month of October also marked the 3rd anniversary of Carro’s investment into myTukar and Malaysia. To this, Chief Financial Officer of Carro, Ernest Chew said, “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 3 other ASEAN countries in the previous quarter.”
Ernest 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.”
To learn more about how myTukar, visit https://mytukar.com/. To know more about used car financing possibilities with Genie Malaysia, visit https://www.geniefinancing.com/.
