Promising to be a “Facebook for vehicle buyers and sellers”, SA’s YouSellCars platform is looking to raise R6-million in an equity crowdfunding campaign for what its founder claims is the country’s first social network for buying cars.
YouSellCars launched the campaign on Uprise.Africa earlier this month and is seeking to raise R6-million from investors in return for a 16.7% stake in the company. With 55 days left of its campaign, the startup has so far raised a just R8000 from four investors.
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Behind the wheel of the company is Raymond Wynne (pictured above), who is also the CEO of Irish app developer ChatFind’s SA subsidiary. ChatFind developed YouSellCars’ platform.
According to ChatFind’s website Wynne has gathered 26 years of experience in forestry, heavy manufacturing and software operations. He has founded a number of significant apps and software products.
YouSellCars was founded by Raymond Wynne, who is the CEO of Irish app developer ChatFind’s SA office
Wynne told Ventureburn that he’s invested about R2.5-million in developing the YouSellCars platform.
The platform has been licensed by ChatFind to YouSellCars SA, which Wynne operates, as well as to seperate operators in Canada, the US and UK (because of the auto industry licensing rules, one operator cannot operate across different markets). Each operator pays a licensing fee to ChatFind, for the use of the software it developed.
Essentially YouSellCars’ platform functions like a regular social media network.
Users can choose to follow other profiles, which in this case would be dealerships or the private seller of cars, so that they can see new posts, which in this industry means that the users can see their latest stock added in real time.
Users can also comment, like or interact with a brand in exactly the same manner as they do on a regular social network.
To find out more, Ventureburn quizzed Wynne on how the platform works and what the startup intends doing with the R6-million.
What makes YouSellCars SA’s first social network for buying cars?
Our platform operates like a regular social media network where people can choose to follow other profiles, which in this case would be dealerships or the private seller of cars, so that they can see new posts, which in this industry means that the users can see their latest stock added in real time.
Users can also comment, like or interact with a brand in exactly the same manner as they do on a regular social network.
Furthermore, our platform is based on a very different type of software compared to existing platforms, which has a couple of benefits — geo-location is always Uber-style so as to be relevant to your exact search location.
You can also search for stock using multiple words rather than having to select categories.
Our system can work entirely from a smartphone with no need for a computer to load stock, but then a link can be shared by the seller, via WhatsApp for example, to show all the stock at a particular dealership online, for buyers who do not have the app.
We have also introduced video stories for the first time, which is another popular social media initiative.
How do you vet who is on the portal?
We vet all dealerships and rely on an endorsement system for private sellers. Buyers, however, are not vetted and they cannot be spammed on the system.
When did you launch the portal?
We officially launched in January 2019, but we have been quietly perfecting the software.
What is your background before starting YouSellCars?
I started my career in the heavy engineering and manufacturing space and then latter I became a supplier to the building industry.
What’s the current performance of the business like?
We have been taking it slow because we believe our technology is superior and over time the consumer will gravitate to our types of platform because it behaves the same as any other popular social media site.
The reason we want to raise money is mostly for marketing to get the product in front of more consumers.
What’s the monthly revenue?
We are only starting to chase for payment from dealerships in 2020 in SA (the company also has a Canadian entity — YouSellCars Canada — Ed), so no significant revenue up until now.
How big is your team?
The team has consisted mostly tech software and specialised app developers, but from this year we are setting up a sales and marketing team.
We have had four of our own staff members in 2019 travel throughout SA to investigate the best car sales solution, and specify the product.
This team then also did the groundwork for our admin and pricing structures, and then started to build the sales team in anticipation of the 2020 drive.
We hope to grow the team to 11 people in 2020.
How many cars do you have listed and how many have you sold?
Around 5000 cars are loaded by various dealerships or private sellers at any one time but this number is growing fast.
We do not sell any cars ourselves, but rather facilitate the process easier for a seller than on other platforms.
How many users do you have monthly, that access the platform?
We are small startup at the moment and therefore most of our users are actually viewing these cars via the website or via an internet search, but once they start experiencing the app we believe they will gravitate there.
We also run regular photo competitions on the app and each contests already gets about 3000 interactions.
Have you netted investment from anyone else for the company?
Not yet, we are trying the Uprise Africa route first.
How much in own capital have you put into the business?
The capital cost has been about R2.5-million so far.
What do you plan on doing with the R6m?
Marketing and Sales. And then we want to add some new features which we believe will further revolutionise the industry.
Why did you go the crowdfunding route, to raise finance?
I liked the idea that the investment can be linked to a stock exchange and therefore traded easily, so we will try this route first and if that fails seek private equity investment.
Was the platform developed by ChatFind (same developer as ChefDirect)?
Yes, we licensed the same social media software on a similar basis, but for the car industry in SA.
When you say you have spent about R2.5m developing the platform — is this what you have paid ChatFind?
Correct, this is just the once-off direct costs for the development of that software so far, which was paid to ChatFind Limited, and does not include our own staff and marketing investments to date which is in the region of R1.3 million.
Featured image: YouSellCars founder Raymond Wynne (Supplied)
