Louis Giraud – Founder & CEO @WYZauto
Last week, the Thai online tyre marketplace for vehicle maintenance businesses, WYZauto, announced a US$2.25 million in a pre-Series A investment from Vynn Capital (lead), Vincent Lee (an early investor in Carsome), Oak Drive Ventures, and Kaya Founders. The three-year-old company plans to use the money to build the team and venture into other vehicle parts.
In this interview, WYZauto Founder & CEO Louis Giraud discusses the business, marketing, USP, and more.
Edited excerpts:
How does WYZauto plan to utilise the US$2.25 million raised in the pre-Series A funding round led by Vynn Capital?
Team building. We have proved a lot since we started. It is now time to re-enforce us with great people in order to expand in more markets, product categories and complex customer segments.
Can you elaborate on how WYZauto connects vehicle maintenance businesses with top tyre brands and wholesalers?
We integrate stock, delivery options and operational processes (cut-off time for orders, etc.) of tyre professionals into WYZauto. We have close to 100 wholesalers and 200,000 tyres in stock of more than 70 different brands in both countries, and we can deliver nationwide.
Also Read: WYZauto nets US$2.25M to connect vehicle maintenance businesses with tyre brands in Thailand
What strategies does WYZauto employ to attract vehicle service centres to use its platform, and what benefits do these centres gain from using the WYZauto app?
There is no magic solution here. It is a long and difficult process of convincing sellers to join us to provide the best offer for service centres. In parallel, we visit these centres to present our solution and convince them to join. As far as I am concerned, there is no reason not to use us as we provide with a unique source of information on products they need daily. Having said that, it is always a long journey to change habits.
How does WYZauto differentiate itself from competitors in the market, particularly in terms of its value proposition and offerings?
Actually, there are not many players like us in this part of the world. It is hard to find digital platforms focused on automotive professionals and even harder to find platforms offering a network of sellers. We are really focused on speed of delivery, service quality and streamlining the ordering process. We know both the automotive and tech world and believe we can bring a new service level to this market.
How does WYZauto plan to streamline its maintenance supply chain, especially with its expansion into other vehicle parts?
There is a lot of inefficiency in our industry. Retailers all stock but are not sure they have the right product at the right time and place. While building a digitised network of stock and delivery options, we help them to find a solution if there is a customer need. This will apply to spare parts with a much higher level of complexity, given the number of references existing.
Could you share more details about the expansion into Malaysia and the significance of partnering with Vynn Capital for this expansion?
We launched WYZauto in Malaysia almost one year ago. I wanted to prove that we have the capacity and knowledge to expand into another market as I am convinced about the added value our solution brings.
By growing quickly, we are still at the beginning stage and are eager to work with key market stakeholders to help them in their tyre business and tomorrow’s spare parts. Vynn Capital is from Malaysia and specialises in mobility and supply. I have felt as well a good fit with the team during the fundraising process. I believe they are the right partner to help us to build synergy with their ecosystem and expand our solution.
Can you discuss the impact of WYZauto’s platform on increasing the e-commerce presence of wholesalers and brands in the automotive industry?
Our industry is still very traditional and fragmented. The vast majority of players have no time, money or expertise to invest in a digital platform to ease their lives and the ones of their customers. This is what we bring to them: we invest our time, expertise and resources to digitise their offer and bring a new service to the country we are targeting. We also give them access to large-scale networks requiring nationwide and sometimes complex system integration solutions.
What is your business model? How do you earn revenue?
We earn money out of each transaction. Once we have established ourselves as a significant player in the aftermarket automotive space, we believe we could bring incredible insights through the data and traffic from our platform.
Also Read: No time to have your car serviced? MisterTyre comes to your aid at the tap of a button
With nearly 3,000 vehicle service centres already using the WYZauto app, what are the company’s plans to scale its user base further?
We are only at the beginning. Our user base in Thailand is around 2,500 service centres, which we can triple once we expand to other product categories. In Malaysia, we are getting close to 300 users, which we should increase by at least ten times.
The automotive aftermarket is a big industry, and there are a lot of service centres we can bring value to in each of the countries we identified.
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