Zoopla Founder’s Used-Car Venture Cazoo Passes $2 Billion Valuation
Zoopla Founder’s Used-Car Venture Cazoo Passes $2 Billion Valuation
(Bloomberg) -- A car sales platform founded by serial online entrepreneur Alex Chesterman raised 240 million pounds ($310 million), more than doubling the British company’s previous valuation to over $2 billion.
Cazoo’s cash infusion brings the total raised to 450 million pounds and will help fund marketing, new staff and infrastructure, the company said Thursday in a statement.
Cazoo buys and reconditions the cars, which are stored in the U.K., before selling them through its website, a similar business model to fast-growing U.S. platform Carvana. The new fund raise comes afer Cazoo raised 100 million pounds in March.
Chesterman previously started real estate website Zoopla and early streaming video and mail-order DVD rental service LoveFilm.
Cazoo has capitalized on the accelerating shift to online sales during virus lockdowns. A spokesman said it’s selling thousands of cars each month and made revenue of about 100 million pounds in the first ten months of operations, declining to comment further.
Investors in the round included General Catalyst, D1 Capital Partners, Fidelity Management, Blackrock Inc., L Catterton, Mubadala Capital, DMG Ventures and others. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Numis Corp. acted as joint placement agents.
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