The UK-based startup Cazoo closed its pre-launching round at 62 million EUR. The investment is led by dmg ventures together with Stride.VC LLP, Octopus Ventures and Entree Capital.
Snatching the last opportunities
Cazoo, the London-based used car startup, is founded by the British serial entrepreneur Alex Chesterman OBE, who previously founded the video streaming platform LoveFilm and the property search engine Zoopla. Chesterman’s latest venture is Cazoo, a used-car marketplace that provides buyers with an efficient and hassle-free buying experience.
Chesterman is not the first one to go to the car-buying market. His rivals include Motors.co.uk, Carcela and Hellocar, which are expecting to generate a total of 40M EUR revenue this year. The fierce competition does not intimidate Sir Chesterman because he sees a huge demand in the second-hand cars market in the UK — An average of 8 million used cars was sold in the UK every year.
It grows VERY rapidly
As a seasoned entrepreneur, Chesterman expanded Cazoo from zero to 100 staff in less than one year. In December 2018, the startup received the seed round funding at 34 million EUR from Stride.VC and closed its pre-launching round led by dmg ventures with over 60 million EUR in September 2019.
The key features of the platform are still unknown because the startup is still preparing its official launch. But they have promised that all sold pre-owned cars will be delivered to buyers’ doorsteps within 48 hours which is a major selling point of its service. To make this happen, the startup is now using the raised funds to expand its marketing and operation team and hopefully its service will go live at the end of this year.