Carro, a play on the words “car hero,” is a Southeast Asian online auto marketplace that uses artificial intelligence technologies to streamline vehicle sales.
Tan and his college buddies Aditya Lesmana and Kelvin Chng founded it in 2015, and company attained the coveted $1 billion unicorn status in June after raising $360 million in investment. The investment makes the total amount funded to more than $500 million and places Carro among significant competitors such as Malaysia’s Carsome and Germany’s Carmudi in an industry worth $50 billion and rising.
However, as Tan explained, it was a long trip to get there.
Aaron Tan is going places. As the co-founder of a newly crowned unicorn and one of Asia Pacific’s fastest growing start-ups, the Carro CEO is now on the road to a public listing.
And with investors including Softbank getting onboard, he has no plans to slow down.
“The question is, now that we have reached $1 billion, how do we reach $10 billion? How do we reach $100 billion?” Says Tan.