6:30 am, July 11, 2023
Carwow founder James Hind has stepped down from his role as chief executive officer of the business with immediate effect.
Hind – who has run the business for 14 years – has handed day-to-day control of the business to chief operating officer John Veichmanis, who joined the business three years ago.
His appointment is still subject to FCA approval.
Hind is said to be taking up an executive director role on the board instead.
He said: ‘John has been transformational to Carwow since he joined as COO three years ago.
‘The business is in the strongest place it has ever been – a big part of that is down to him. John is exactly who we need to lead Carwow to the next level and achieve its true potential in further helping consumers and our industry partners.
‘I am incredibly proud of everything Carwow has achieved so far.
‘I vividly remember the first car ever bought through Carwow, and it’s amazing that now hundreds of thousands of people have either bought or sold their car via Carwow across the UK, Germany and Spain.’
Carwow told Car Dealer that Hind had recently become a father and wanted a better ‘work-life balance’.
A spokesperson added: ‘James will continue to be involved in strategy, fundraising and on strategic projects as well as supporting John, the Exec and continuing to serve on the board.’
Hind is still the largest individual shareholder in Carwow. The company’s chairman Giles Andrew, who founded Fintech business Zopa, also stepped down from his CEO role a few years ago and handed the reins to his COO.
On his appointment, Veichmanis said: ‘Carwow’s success is a testament to James’ vision and determination to help our customers and partners find, buy and sell cars online.
‘I’m so excited and grateful for the opportunity to lead our amazing team at Carwow and work with the very best partners in the industry to build the go-to destination for anyone that is thinking about changing their car.’
Carwow was founded in 2009 and now has more than 12m registered users, 3,000 trusted dealer partners and a rating of 4.6 out of 5 on Trustpilot. It has 8.2m subscribers on YouTube.
In its most recent accounts for 2021, Carwow lost £12.3m on group revenues of £36.6m.
The firm was also recently named the Car Dealer Power 2023 winner in the Online Advertiser for New Cars category. It beat Auto Trader and What Car? to the title and won the accolade for the third year in a row.
The Carwow spokesperson added: ‘James has been running Carwow for 14 years, since founding it aged 23, and feels it is in the strongest place it has ever been.
‘He started it from nothing and is very proud that the reviews site it originally began life as has now transformed into the most influential car content business in the world.
‘The new car part of the business was highly disruptive at the time, consumers loved it, but many dealers did not. He’s proud of how it has evolved not only to be the number one new car marketplace in three countries, but also into something that consumers still love and that dealer and OEM partners now truly value too.’
