London-based Carwow, a platform that connects car buyers to car dealers to make buying cars easy, announced that it has raised $55M (approx €48.66M) in a fresh round of funding. As per the company, this is it’s largest-ever fundraise.
The news comes after Carwow’s recent acquisition of used car buying platform Wizzle, which was founded by Sebastien Duval in 2012 to help consumers sell their car by taking photos to list it on the platform and then receive offers from dealers who wish to buy it.
The acquisition helped the company to witness rapid growth recently. It grew its “Sell Your Car” business by 600 per cent in six months, hit the 7,000 live listings milestone in two months, listed 900 consumer cars for dealers to buy each day, and sold £4.2B worth of new cars in the UK, DE, and ES in 2021.
About the investor
The investment was made by US-based venture capital and private equity firm Hercules Capital. It is a specialty finance company focused on providing venture growth loans to high-growth, innovative venture capital-backed companies in a diversified variety of technology, life sciences, and sustainable and renewable technology industries.
Since its inception in 2003, Hercules claims to have invested more than $12.8B in over 540 companies and is the lender of choice for entrepreneurs and venture capital firms seeking growth capital financing. Today, the firm’s value is in excess of $3B and a market capitalisation of over $2B.
Carwow looks to create more jobs
Carwow says the proceeds from this round will help it accelerate its international expansion as well as grow its “Sell Your Car” division – the service that lets consumers list their car with images and invites dealers to bid on it.
The company also reported on a LinkedIn post that it will create 150 new roles in its “Sell Your Car” division over next month, in addition to the team of 350 people.
About Carwow
Founded in 2013 by Alexandra Margolis, David Santoro, and James Hind, Carwow aims to make the car buying process easier for consumers with its car buying comparison platform. It connects online car buyers who want to research, configure and find their perfect new car online with dealers and OEMs.
The company has helped 12 million car buying users buy over £5B of cars from its industry customers including the biggest manufacturers, dealerships and franchises in the UK, Spain and Germany.
Powered by a team of experienced auto journalists and professional videographers, Carwow claims to be one of the most influential names in automotive media. The company says its content receives over 130 million views per month and has the biggest car channel on YouTube with 5.7 million subscribers. It has a website editorial as well which claims to feature unbiased, in-depth reviews, news, and advice guides.
The company is backed by many technology and automotive investors including Vitruvian Partners, Balderton Capital, Accel, Episode 1 and Daimler.
