Carwow acquires Gridserve Car Leasing

Carwow is continuing on the acquisition trail after acquiring Gridserve Car Leasing for an undisclosed sum.

Gridserve is a public network rapid charging company that also had a leasing division, but took the decision to sell this to Carwow in order to focus on its core business.

Carwow raised £37.8 million in July as part of its latest funding round to fuel its future growth ambitions.

This latest acquisition is Carwow Group’s second in 2024; in February it bought Autovia, the automotive content and commerce media company, which saw established print and digital titles including Auto Express, evo, DrivingElectric and Carbuyer becoming part of its portfolio.

The newly acquired leasing operation will run as an independent business unit, led by Gridserve leasing director, Rob Buckland.

While Gridserve has historically focused only on leasing electric vehicle models, Carwow intends to expand the proposition to include plug-in hybrid, as well as diesel and petrol cars once the brand is relaunched later in Q4 with a new name and visual identity.

Carwow said the new business will allow it to further enhance its car leasing comparison engine, which provides consumers with access to a range of cars from brokers across the UK.

Carwow will list its leasing offers alongside those from its existing partners to provide an even greater level of choice.

John Veichmanis, Carwow Group chief executive, (pictured) said: “Bringing Gridserve Car Leasing into the fold will enable us to develop a range of exciting new product experiences for those looking to lease their new car.

"We plan to substantially increase our overall investment into the leasing category and quickly expand our reach.

"We want to serve more customers looking to lease a car, while also providing our existing broker partners with more enquiries on our pay-on-results model.

“I am really excited to welcome Rob and his team to Carwow. They’ve a huge amount of collective experience and energy and we can’t wait for them to get started.”