Gazelle Finance Universal Credit organisation invests in GNGK subsidiary Garaj.am
Gazelle Finance Universal Credit Organisation (UCO) has made an investment in GNGK Group to support the expansion of its subsidiary Garaj.am, a chain of car repair and service centers, and an online retail sales shop serving the Armenian and Georgian markets.
“The automotive spare parts and services sector is a high growth market segment in the South Caucasus”, said Zakar Boyajyan, CIO of Gazelle Finance. “We believe the GNGK Group has the right combination of entrepreneurial talent, a proven management team and business model, including brick and mortar and online sales presence, to build Garaj.am into a market leader in the region.”
High-growth SMEs
Gazelle Finance UCO targets high-growth SMEs known as “gazelles” in Armenia that are often under collateralised, but with the provision of the right combination of capital and know-how can rapidly scale their business. Gazelle Finance UCO’s investment in Garaj.am will enable the company to increase its inventory and grow its markets share in both Armenia and Georgia.
“We have an ambitious expansion strategy to build-out our footprint in the South Caucasus, and Gazelle Finance UCO is the right partner to help us to achieve our goals,” said Aram Gasparyan, CEO of GNGK Group. "Gazelle Finance UCO is the right financial partner to help GNGK Group to develop new innovative products and services in the market".
Rapid growth
Gazelle Finance offers an investment product that is like private equity, but is specifically designed for under-collateralised, well-managed, small and medium companies with ambitious growth plans. Gazelle Finance partners with its investees by offering a combination of growth capital and know-how in the form of technical resources. This pairing of financing and technical resources enables a strong entrepreneurial team to rapidly grow its business despite lower levels of collateralisation.
Leading supplier of spare parts
The GNGK Group established Garaj.am in 2017 to better serve the automotive repair and spare parts market in Armenia. Shortly after launching the company it established an online sales store and then in 2018 began exporting into Georgia. Garaj.am is one of the leading suppliers of spare parts for Russian, Korean, German, and Japanese vehicles in Armenia and is rapidly developing a strong sales presence in Georgia.
Gazelle Finance UCO is financed with the support of the U.S. investment fund manager, Gazelle Finance that manages private equity funds in the Eurasia region targeting a double bottom line goals of (i) financial returns for the funds it manages, and (ii) enhanced prosperity for the communities where the funds’ portfolio companies do business. Gazelle Finance has established Gazelle Fund to provide risk capital to growing, yet underserved, small and medium enterprises in the Eurasia region. (www.gazellefinance.com).
Opportunity to build
GNGK Group was founded in 2016 by four university classmates who saw an opportunity to build a new business that can operate both through traditional and online retail sales channels. Armenia has been a leader in the IT sector in the South Caucasus, and it was the initiative and creativity of these four close friends that has led to the transformation of the automotive spare parts industry in the region. GNGK is the owner of Garaj.am, which is one of the leading automotive repair and service retail chains in Armenia and has a growing presence in its neighbour country Georgia. In addition, Garaj.am is the leading distributor for Emex in the South Caucasus, which is a major B2B and B2C online spare parts supplier in Russia.