7:04 am, December 6, 2021
Carwow has raised $55m (£41.5m) to boost its ‘Sell Your Car’ service, just six months after the product first launched.
Since launching – following the online marketplace’s acquisition of Wizzle in June – Sell Your Car has become one of the top sources of used car stock for the UK car trade, says the firm.
An average of 900 cars are listed on the platform every day, with dealers encouraged to bid on cars directly from consumers.
The success has lead to fresh investment, coming in the form of venture debt from Hercules Capital.
It follows a year of strong performance across the rest of the Carwow business, which saw revenues increase 60 per cent year on year.
Since launching, monthly revenues for Sell Your Car have risen by around 600 per cent.
Carwow is now planning to invest in technology and platform development, international expansion and user growth.
Over 150 roles in the Sell Your Car division will be created over the next 12 months, adding to the existing team of 350.
James Hind, Carwow founder and CEO, said: ‘We are incredibly pleased with how quickly our users and trade buyers have taken to Sell Your Car, proving the value of a unified, digital selling and buying experience.
‘The size of our customer base and reach of our brand gives us a significant platform for growth advantage but this latest investment will help supercharge our service and experience on all fronts.
‘In just three months, we hit our first target of 7,000 live listings and have helped sell £200 million worth of cars in the first six months.
‘All this has been achieved so rapidly by just leveraging what already exists within carwow; our huge reach via content, our great relationship with dealers and our in-house technology.
‘We now plan to use part of the additional funding to advertise Sell Your Car to all car owners.
‘With great results and learnings in the UK, we’ve begun testing in Germany. Ultimately our aims are global – just like the rest of the carwow business.’
Steve Kuo, partner at Hercules Capital added: ‘We are pleased to be providing this growth capital to carwow as they look to continue to rapidly scale their Sell Your Car division in Europe and further expand their addressable market.’
Sell Your Car works by consumers listing their car by taking photos, and inviting dealers to bid and buy it directly from them.
All offers include the cost of collecting the vehicle.
Hind added: ‘Whilst the focus of this investment is on Sell Your Car, our rapidly growing team also delivered a record year for our new car business.
‘We’ve led the market on the switch to electric vehicles, with over 30 per cent of sales now pure electric, and captured huge consumer demand for finding the best route for getting a new car and selling an old one.’
James Hind recently appeared on the Car Dealer Podcast and talked about the firm’s challenges with new car supply. You can listen to the episode on Spotify here.
