7:24 am, February 23, 2023
Used car dealer Cazoo has sold yet another firm that it snapped up on its initial spending spree – this time selling off data business Cazana.
Hailed at the time of purchase as a deal that would ‘optimize’ its car buying and pricing across the UK and Europe, Cazoo shelled out ‘approximately’ £25m in cash for the firm in September 2021.
Cazoo did not reveal how much it sold Cazana for, or to whom.
However, Car Dealer sources named Percayso Vehicle Intelligence, a provider of used car data to the insurance industry, as the firm that bought the business.
In a statement, Percayso boss Richard Tomlinson, confirmed the deal, and said: ‘Cazana have been our motor data partner of choice since we launched our insight as a service offering to the UK insurance market back in 2019 and their data tools are relied upon by some of the biggest names in insurance.
‘When the opportunity arose to bring those services under the Percayso banner, we saw it as one that we had to take. This is a transformational deal for our business.’
The great Cazoo sell off has been gathering pace in recent months as the firm looks to concentrate on its used car business in the UK and wind down its initial ambitious growth plans.
It is desperately working to preserve cash and turn the business profitable.
Cazana was started by serial entrepreneur Tom Wood who ran Car & Classic, the marketplace and online auction business, alongside the data firm. When the Cazoo deal went through, he left Cazana to concentrate on the classic car side of the firm.
Cazoo revealed the sale in an investor briefing late last night.
It said: ‘The disposal aligns with Cazoo’s strategy to focus on its core business as the leading online car buying and selling platform in the UK as opposed to providing data services to third parties.
‘The agreement includes the sale of the Cazana brand, platform and commercial contracts and Cazoo will continue to benefit from the expertise gained from acquiring Cazana in 2021.
‘The sale is not expected to have any material impact on anticipated revenues for Cazoo in 2023.’
Cazoo sold its Italian business in November, its Spanish business in December and its German subscription business Cluno last week.
It has also abruptly wound down its car subscription service. This has angered customers and led BBC Radio 4’s You & Yours programme to feature it yesterday. Car Dealer took part in the programme.
Cazoo is currently consulting with staff about proposals to close 15 of its 22 customer handover centres, a number of its preparation centres and has put staff in its head office and technology teams at ricks of redundancy too.
Former Cazana boss Wood told the Car Dealer Podcast in October last year that Cazoo acquired Cazana because they wanted the used car data insights for themselves.
He said they slowly wound down the external contracts his team had set up.
Wood told our podcast: ‘I think they wanted the technology and the data for internal use. And they continue to use that.
‘I think there are kind of ongoing contracts that they’ve kind of run out with them. But I think the intention was they wanted to shift a lot of cars, and they are shifting a lot of cars, and they wanted that data for their own purposes internally.’
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