Dubai-based SellAnyCar.com expanded into Saudi Arabia with the launch of new online platform Kayishha as it looks to tap into a growing market for used cars in the kingdom.
The company's move comes after it raised $35 million (Dh128m) in February this year from a group of investors led by Sanabil Investments, a unit of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
“We see tremendous opportunity for Kayishha to redefine how used cars are bought and sold in Saudi Arabia [in] the same way SellAnyCar.com totally disrupted the UAE used car marketplace,” Saygin Yalcin, founder and chief executive of SellAnyCar.com and Kayishha, said.
“We built a proven model with SellAnyCar.com that we are absolutely confident will bring great value to both used car sellers and buyers across Saudi Arabia,” he added.
The company is planning to hire more than 300 people across the country in the next 18 to 24 months and open more than 100 branches in key locations in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam.
"With Kayishha, we are committed to building a distinctively Saudi company that invests locally, hires locally, respects and embraces Saudi culture, and contributes to the economic and social development pillars of Vision 2030.”
Saudi Arabia, the Arab world's largest economy, is stepping up efforts to boost entrepreneurship in the kingdom and create jobs for nationals. Earlier this year, the kingdom said it will grant "instant" work visas to entrepreneurs setting up businesses in the kingdom as part of government efforts to boost non-oil private sector growth.
SellAnyCar.com's expansion is not limited to the kingdom. The start-up plans to expand into other countries in the Gulf, the Levant and North Africa over the next three years, Mr Yalcin told The National in a recent interview. Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait are next on its road map.
"Our business is doing tremendously well," Mr Yalcin said. "We see major structural changes in the automotive industry."
Expansion across the Gulf would also allow the company to benefit from cross-border trading, allowing a customer from one Gulf country could to purchase a used car from another through its platform.
