Southeast Asia's Largest Used Car Platform To Provide P2P Financing Carsome's partnership with P2P lending platform Funding Societies Malaysia will help solve several pain points for SMEs looking to expand their businesses

Southeast Asia's largest used car trading platform Carsome on Monday said it would partner with a peer-to-peer financing platform, Funding Societies Malaysia, to enable loans on its platform.

As part of the deal, registered used car dealers on Carsome's platform will be able to access financing of up to 70 per cent of the transaction value of the used cars. The financing will be open for application to any type of businesses through Carsome, the companies said.

Traditional financing avenues do not usually cater to used car dealers, often forcing them to raise money from lenders that charge hefty interest rates. These extra interest rates are then passed on to used car buyers, who sometimes fail to find much value in purchasing used cars, instead of a brand new car.

The partnership also addresses pain points such as a 100 per cent upfront payment by the SME and lengthy documentation of business operations, among others, that prevents SMEs from expanding their businesses.

"This is where we come in by providing a seamless process and, through automation and technology, speed up and lower the cost to serve the financing needs of these SMEs in a viable manner," says Wong Kah Meng, co-founder and chief executive officer of Funding Societies Malaysia.

The deal is expected to help 1,600 car dealers access nearly $200 million in financing, the companies said.

Carsome has raised over $27 million in funding over five rounds, according to data aggregator, Crunchbase. The company's latest series B round saw participation from Burda Principal and Gobi Partners.