Second-hand car auction platform Motorway hits Unicorn status after $190M raise with Index, ICONIQ – TechCrunch
It was solely in June that Motormethod – a U.K. platform on which expert automotive sellers can bid in an public sale for privately personaled automotives On the market – enhanced $67.7 million in a Collection B spherical. It’s now enhanced a $190m Collection C funding spherical led by Index Ventures and ICONIQ Progress, A quantity one Silicon Valley know-how growt…….
It was solely in June that Motormethod – a U.K. platform on which expert automotive sellers can bid in an public sale for privately personaled automotives On the market – enhanced $67.7 million in a Collection B spherical. It’s now enhanced a $190m Collection C funding spherical led by Index Ventures and ICONIQ Progress, A quantity one Silicon Valley know-how growth funding agency. Current buyers Latitude, Unbound, and BMW i Ventures additionally halficipated Inside the spherical. The startup is now claiming a valuation of over $1bn.
An factor of The rationale is the influence of the COVID pandemic on present chains. Second-hand automotives have boomed in worth as a Outcome of new automotives are being made in smaller quantitys Because of lack of present of pc chips and completely different important gear from China.
On Motormethod consumers can promote their automotive by way of a smartphone app that additionally makes use of pc imaginative and prescient To evaluate the state of the automotive. The automotives are then bid on by expert automotive sellers in a Daily on-line public sale, with the automotive collected Freed from cost by the worthwhile supplier within 24 hours. Given it’s additionally a “contactless” course of, sellers and automotive house personalers more and more looking for To buy and promote automotives on-line.
Motormethod says it now has a community of 4,000 expert automotive sellers using the platform and claims it has booked a 300% uplift in third-quarter gross sales to $411 million in contrast with $105 million final yr. Some 100,000 used automotives have been purchased on Motormethod since launch, with over 8,000 automotives presently being purchased a month, with over $2bn projected accomplished gross sales over The subsequent yr.
Motormethod May even be saying the appointment of James Wilson, former Director of Market Achievement for Amazon UK, as Chief Working Officer.
Tom Leathes, CEO of Motormethod, said: “8,000 automotive gross sales a month Continues to be Decrease than one % of UK used automotive gross sales – so there’s An monumental alternative forward.”
Danny Rimer, Companion at Index Ventures, said: “Since becoming a member of the board, following our preliminary funding in June, I’ve expertised first-hand simply How briskly Motormethod is rising And the method agile the group is in scaling the enterprise to assist this unimaginable growth.”
Yoonkee Sull, Companion at ICONIQ Progress said: “The used automotive market’s transfer on-line Is merely accelerating and we think about Motormethod is delivering Definitely one of the biggest shopper expertise And probably the most completely differentiated present to sellers Inside The united kingdom.”
This latest funding brings Motormethod’s all-time enhance to $273m Because it was based by Leathes, Harry Jones and Alex Buttle in 2017.
In a name with me Leathes added: “There’s no Reference to BMW notably, however They’re automotive particularists So as that they automotivery Numerous information to the white broader market and tendencies That are occurring. They have been additionally half of the B Collectively with Latitude and Unbound.”
“What motormethod does in A particular Method to A lot of rivals is that We’re we’re not a retailer. We don’t personal inventory. We’re a marketplace. And So as that That permits us to scale A lot extra shortly,” he said.
