Carmoola raises further £15.5m in venture capital

Carmoola, the online car finance start-up created by a team of British and Ukrainian former Movebubble and Zoopla executives, has secured a further £15.5 million in venture capital funding.

The UK-based fintech which specialises in direct-to-consumer car finance, secured an £8.5 million Series A round and a £95 million debt facility in February 2023.

The funding will enable Carmoola to make further inroads into the UK’s £100 billion used car finance market which is forecast to grow to £190 billion by 2027. Coupled with a disciplined approach to capital allocation, Carmoola said this investment will accelerate its journey to profitability.

Investment came from US-based fintech specialists QED Investors; VentureFriends; InMotion Ventures, the investment arm of JLR; New York-based investors AlleyCorp; and Kyiv-based u.ventures.

Carmoola, which launched its app in March 2022, has now secured total funding to date to £146 million including a £95 million debt facility. 

Aidan Rushby, co-founder and CEO of Carmoola, said: ““Carmoola came about because we could see that the used car finance market was broken, but the status quo suited traditional lenders just fine, so nobody was doing anything about it. We saw the opportunity to do better and rebalance the situation in favour of the consumer, and our financial backers shared this vision. Now that we have proven our concept we are ready to bring our product to even more people. 

“Our goal is to make car financing as user-friendly and hassle-free as possible, and this unrelenting focus has already seen us support the purchase of over £46 million worth of cars. With this new funding, and the support of our investors, we are poised to help even more people buy the car of their dreams.” 

Yusuf Özdalga, partner and head of Europe at QED Investors, the backer of finance unicorns Remitly and NuBank, said: “Carmoola is shaking up an industry that had grown and remains complacent, and is addressing the poor customer outcomes and unnecessary hurdles that the incumbents have allowed to take hold.”