1:21 pm, September 16, 2026
Online auction platform Motorway says its investments are starting to ‘pay off’ despite posting another pre-tax loss for 2025.
Accounts, published today via Companies House, show that the car buying service cut its losses to £25.3m in the 12 months to the end of December last year.
The figure is a marked improvement on 2024’s £37.3m loss, as well as 2023’s £31.8m deficit, with bosses backing the firm to keep growing ‘more efficiently’.
Car Dealer reported in January that Motorway was aiming to achieve profitability by 2026 and directors say that the target is now very much in sight.
The latest accounts show that turnover climbed 18% to £78.3m, boosted by a strong end to the year which saw fourth-quarter revenues grow by 25%.
Motorway said the improvement came as it continued to invest heavily in the infrastructure behind its consumer-to-dealer marketplace.
Throughout the year, the business regularly listed more than 2,000 vehicles a day in its auctions, while dealer bid volumes increased by 20% year-on-year. It also now has more than 8,000 verified dealers using the platform.
A year of investments
Motorway continued to splash the cash in 2025 as it looked to invest in its service.
A major area of investment was its Motorway Pay payments platform which handled £10bn of transactions throughout the year.
The company also ploughed money into improving its transport operation, dealer buying tools and vehicle profiling, as well as rolling out AI technology across the business.
Partially as a result of the financial backing, Motorway’s cash reserves fell from £29.6m to £22.5m.
At the same time, the firm’s net assets dropped from from £37.4m to £14.2m.
Reacting to the figures, Tom Leathes, CEO and co-founder of Motorway, said: ‘We have spent years working on all the things behind the scenes that make used car transactions better for our customers – helping sellers create an accurate car profile quickly and easily, giving dealers the stock, tools and confidence to buy at scale, and supporting both sides through collection and payment.
‘Those investments are paying off. We’re growing faster, accelerating the business more efficiently and continuing to deliver a great service for sellers and dealers.
‘I am proud of what the team delivered in 2025, and we’re very ambitious about what comes next.’
What else is in the accounts?
Elsewhere, the documents show that Motorway also secured a £25m term loan facility in December of 2025, with £15m drawn down before the year end and a further £10m available.
Meanwhile, the firm’s workforce shrank to an average of 403 employees, from 448 in 2024, with staff costs totalling £32.16m.
A further £21.2m was absorbed through operations during the year, although that was down from £30.1m in 2024.
Motorway’s operating cash outflow was £20.8m, compared with £29.6m a year earlier.
The accounts also show that the highest-paid director received total remuneration of £227,000, while the company ended the year with £13.7m of non-current borrowings following the new funding facility.