Carsome gears up growth strategy with new head of M&A

USED-CAR platform Carsome has appointed Digbijoy Shukla as the new head of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and ecosystem strategy.

This comes amid a host of other senior appointments. Juliet Zhu has been appointed to group president, while retaining her role as chief financial officer, and AirAsia's former chief growth officer Ravi Shankar Mallavarapu has been appointed as chief marketing officer.

"The appointment of Digbijoy is timely as he will enable us to continue our customer-focused mission, paired with industry participants to make the car ownership experience better in South-east Asia," said Eric Cheng, founder of Carsome.

This new role will see Shukla develop Carsome's end-to-end ecosystem strategy, as well as look for M&A targets and partnerships. He will also be building out the M&A team in South-east Asia.

Shukla's appointment comes on the heels of Carsome's acquisition of iCar Asia, an automotive listings and content platform, a deal which he was involved in. The automotive space has been abuzz with deals in recent times, such as Singapore automotive platform sgCarMart's acquisition by a Toyota consortium for S$150 million.

Industry observers have noted that Carsome has been looking at potential acquisition targets in Singapore. Shukla's appointment does hint at Carsome seriously considering their M&A strategy to carve out their stake in the automotive space in the region.

"I look forward to contributing to the expansion of Carsome's vision and creating the most trusted vehicle ownership ecosystem powered by technology and data by driving synergetic business value via strategic partnerships in South-east Asia," said Shukla.

Read more:

• SPH selling sgCarMart to Toyota consortium for S$150 million
• What's turbocharging Carro and Carsome's funding fever?
• Carsome raises US$290m Series E round from Temasek-backed 65 Equity Partners and Seatown