More competition for APE's EasyAuto123 is discussed in the...

More competition for APE's EasyAuto123 is discussed in the Wednesday 1 September 2021 'The Australian':

"The new chief executive of Cars24 Australia is urging pandemic shoppers to “draw a parallel” with online convenience platforms Uber Eats and Airbnb when they are scouting for used cars online.

Olga Rudenko, formerly head of consumer strategy and operations at Uber Eats ANZ, this week launched Cars24 in Australia, overseeing a team of 100-plus employees and operations in Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales, and an inventory of more than 1000 vehicles.

Prominent Russian-Israeli tech entrepreneur Yuri Milner, also co-founder of the Breakthrough Prize, is backing Cars24 through his DST Global business. Picture: AFP/Niklas Hallen.

The launch comes as Cars24, backed by Russian-Israeli technology entrepreneur Yuri Milner’s DST Global, finalises a $US350m fundraising, which will boost it valuation to $US2bn and expected to bring on investors like Japanese banking giant SoftBank, Carlyle Group and Falcon Edge Capital on to its books.

Silicon Valley-based Mr Milner’s DST Global is an early investor in today’s internet giants Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Airbnb, Spotify, Alibaba, and others.

Headquartered in Haryana, India, Cars24 was founded in 2015 by Vikram Chopra, Mehul Agrawal, Gajendra Jangid and Ruchit Agarwal as a platform to buy and sell used cars.

Melbourne-based Ms Rudenko said pandemic changes to buying behaviour combined with a “painful used car buying experience” had set the stage for Cars24 to launch here.

“With the current pandemic everything is being bought and sold online and a car is no different.

“But what is giving me more confidence is that people are used to a painful used car buying experience.

“Once the consumers draw the parallel to other convenient services like Uber Eats and Airbnb, they will see the value and it will become so apparent that the old way of buying used cars needs to go,” said Ms Rudenko, who was also Cars24’s customer number 50 with the purchase of her 2015 Mini Cooper Coupe before her appointment in December.

The business has launched now after completing licensing requirements in three states and building up its inventory of cars, which it is currently sourcing from auction houses, businesses (fleet cars) and trade-ins.

“The Australian market for used cars is exciting because it is an under-looked opportunity and demand is quite strong due to new car shortages,” Ms Rudenko said..."

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