Kavak Enters the Turkish Market as "Carvak"!

Kavak was founded by Ottati, a former executive of Amazon. Now the company, which is one of the biggest unicorns in Latin America, bought the the Turkish startup Garajsepetini. With this, it made a very assertive and strong entry into the used car market in Turkey. The company has also invested half a million dollars in the market. The group, which named its company in Turkey as Carvak, aims to establish a leadership from the Middle East to Africa with this move.

Kavak is a company that directs the second-hand automotive sector with the model it has created. The company is also the largest private enterprise in Latin America, with a valuation of $8.7 billion. Being one of the fastest growing startup companies in the world, Kavak aims to sell more than 300,000 cars in total by the end of 2025. With this move, Kavak aims to become the largest used automotive company in Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Carvak, which started its services with activities such as buying, selling and renewing second-hand vehicles, currently has 500 employees. However, the company aims to create more than 1000 jobs in a short time. The company has showrooms in Istanbul, but will also establish vehicle buying and selling points in various regions of Turkey. Carvak will offer approximately one thousand vehicles to its customers. Last year, Carvak also implemented a renewal center in Istanbul with a monthly capacity of 2,000 vehicles.

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Kavak Is Growing Fast Towards Its Targets

Mehmet Çelikol, Chairman and CEO of Carvak Turkey, made statements on the subject. Çelikol said that the company has grown over 100% every year since its establishment in 2016. He said that with this growth, Kavak company reached a value of 8.7 billion dollars in 6 years and with this value, Kavak is the most valuable private startup company in Latin America. Saying that the success in Latin America comes with the data and technology-based model, Çelikol stated that they aim to achieve this success in the Turkish market as well. Çelikol said that there is a need for trust and transparency in the second-hand automobile industry. He also stated that they want to meet this need by combining speed and technology and creating high satisfaction for customers and stakeholders.

Çelikol said that they started their activities in the market with a total of 18 different trading locations, mainly in MetroCity, Hilltown Küçükyalı AVM, Maltepe Park AVM and Vialand AVM. The company stated that they already have approximately one thousand vehicles in their portfolio. Çelikol also expressed that they have serious confidence in the renewal times of their vehicles. For this reason, he said that they offer their customers a guarantee for 15 months. He added that all these facilitate the life and decision-making processes of customers, thanks to options such as motor insurance and insurance, on-site and fast financing.

Company Background

Kavak started its activities first in Mexico. The company then entered the Argentine market in 2020 and the Brazilian market in 2021 under the leadership of CEO Carlos Garcia Ottati. Kavak later became Mexico's first unicorn thanks to a total valuation of 1.15 in October 2020. Afterwards, the company continued to grow rapidly and managed to reach a valuation of $8.7 billion a year later.

In addition to all these, since its establishment in 2016, Kavak has received a total investment of over 1.6 billion dollars. In this way, the company, which has the title of being the most valuable startup company in Latin America, is also the world's most important investors such as Softbank, Greenoaks, DST Global, Kaszek Ventures, QED Investors, General Atlantic, D1, Ribbit, Bond, General Catalyst and Founders Fund. continues to be supported by a large group of investors, including.

Kavak currently has 85 centers in 4 countries, more than 8,500 employees and a portfolio of more than 40,000 vehicles. With all these growth and targets, Kavak aims to become the world's largest used vehicle purchase and sale company.