Motors shifts gears to turbocharge Cazoo for market expansion

Motors has snapped up the Cazoo brand to transform it into a cutting-edge, mobile-first digital marketplace.

The business, which had been linked to the sale for some time, said it now plans to roll out an all-new Cazoo app followed by a new website featuring over 250,000 used car listings which will give car buyers a different way to find their next vehicle.

Motors will also invest heavily in the Cazoo brand to draw more car buyers to its platforms which includes partners like eBay and Gumtree.

The rapid demise of a company which once ranked among Britain's hottest technology start-ups, fulfilled the dealership community's expetations that Cazoo would find it harder than expected to disrupt the UK's dealer marketplace.

Before it went out of business, however, Cazoo had invested tens of millions of pounds in sports sponsorship deals in a bid to capture market share. Barry Judge, CEO of Motors, said the brand value of Cazoo had been an important factor in the acquisition.

“Despite its challenges, Cazoo has become a household name among car buyers. With our expertise and inventory, we’ll quickly establish the new Cazoo site as a premier marketplace for used cars.”

“This acquisition is a golden opportunity for dealers to leverage Cazoo’s brand awareness and traffic within the Motors network. Dealers on our Motors multisite packages will automatically gain exposure on Cazoo at no extra cost.”

Daniel Ozen, president at Motors owner O3 Industries, added: “Today's car buyers visit an average of 4.2 websites during their search. With a single invoice, dealers can now reach millions of car buyers across Motors, eBay, Gumtree, and Cazoo, boosting their online visibility and lead generation.”

Cazoo entered administration in May after struggling to establish a sustainable business model despite a debt restructuring last year.

The appointment of administrators closed a chapter in Cazoo's brief history, as the indebted group abandoned its business model of selling its own used cars online to become an advertising marketplace for car dealers and consumers to sell and buy their cars.

Teneo Financial Advisory, the firm managing the administration, went on to sell several of Cazoo's operations, leading to hundreds of job losses.

Reports had previously suggested Cazoo's last-minute shift to a platform model had resulted in its inventory rising to more than 15,000 cars.

In late May, Teneo said the Cazoo marketplace business was revenue generating and performing ahead of expectations with interest from almost 100 car dealers including many well-known names.

The administrators said they hoped that many of the 124 staff employed by the marketplace would transfer to a new employer.

The company's wholesale arm was acquired by G3 Vehicle Auctions while Constellation Automotive, owner of Cazoo rival Cinch, purchased several assets from the distressed company.

Founded by entrepreneur Alex Chesterman, known for creating the property portal Zoopla, Cazoo raised multiple rounds of funding at increasingly higher valuations before making its stock market debut in 2021, at which point investors valued the company at $8 billion.