Cazoo, the used-car sales platform, reached ‘unicorn’ status after raising a little over $31 million (£25 million) at a $1 billion+ valuation just three months ago. Today, the UK-based company is announcing that it has raised a further £240 million (€265 million) of funding at more than double the last valuation.
The latest round takes the total funding since Cazoo was founded to a whopping £450 million. It was led by General Catalyst, D1 Capital Partners and funds managed by Fidelity and Blackrock alongside other new and existing investors including L Catterton, Durable Capital Partners, The Spruce House Partnership, Novator, Mubadala Capital and dmg ventures, amongst others.
The fresh cash will enable the company, which also recently acquired Imperial Car Supermarkets, one of the largest independent used car retailers in the UK, to grow even faster in the wake of the global coronavirus pandemic.
Cazoo is trying to make buying a car online as easy as, say, a smartphone, helping buyers get their vehicles in front of their doors in as little as 72 hours. The startup says it now delivers thousands of cars a month all across the UK.
The startup has already hit £100 million in revenues after it was founded last year by Alex Chesterman, who previously founded both Zoopla and LoveFilm.
"Over the past few months we have seen an acceleration in the shift from offline to online car buying as UK consumers have continued to embrace our unique and market-leading proposition. This latest funding demonstrates the conviction of some of the world’s best investors in both our business model and team as well as the UK market and gives Cazoo the firepower to deliver on our plans to provide the best possible car buying experience for UK consumers," Chesterman said.
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