Carwow secures new £41m to accelerate UK growth, scale European operations

The Carwow Group – which includes the Carwow online marketplace, Auto Express, evo, Driving Electric and Carbuyer – has raised £41 million in new funding to accelerate its growth across the UK, Germany and Spain.

The funding round was led by global venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners which counts LinkedIn and Shopify within its investment portfolio, and has been joined in this latest investment round by a number of Carwow’s existing investors including Accel, Balderton, Episode 1 and Vitruvian.

Over 10 million customers have used Carwow to help them buy and sell cars since the business’s inception, and last year nearly £3bn worth of cars were bought through the platform while £1.8bn of cars were listed for sale through its Sell My Car (SMC) service. 

This latest investment includes further scaling and expanding the SMC service in the UK to attract more customers and source more cars for its dealer partners.

Specific focus will be given to enhancing payment processes and further development of its transport offering. Carwow will also look to launch the SMC service to its German operation in 2025. 

The business said it saw first-half revenue increasing by 56% as more consumers move online to change their cars and it will be significantly expanding its product and engineering teams over the next few months to deliver this next phase of growth.

“This is yet another milestone moment for Carwow,”said John Veichmanis, CEO of the Carwow Group. “Over the course of the last three years, we’ve worked tirelessly to develop our car-changing proposition in the UK, giving consumers access to thousands of partners that can help them buy a new car and sell their old one.

“Given the phenomenal reaction to our strategic blueprint in the UK, we’re excited to use this new funding to take our proposition to our existing businesses in Germany and Spain. We’ll also continue to invest in new technologies to help our partners seamlessly appraise, buy and collect cars directly from the millions that use Carwow every month.”

Alex Ferrara, partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, added: “With over nine million car changes a year alone in the UK, we’re looking forward to supporting the management team in growing the business and delivering on its true potential. Carwow’s focus on using its content expertise and footprint to drive its commerce services through dealer partnerships makes it unique and compelling in the category.”