Motorway’s public sale platform for second-hand automobiles raises $67.7M Sequence B led by Index Ventures – TechCrunch

Motorway, is a UK startup that permits skilled automotive sellers to bid in an public sale for privately-owned automobiles on the market. The startup has had fast success by eradicating a variety of friction within the course of. It’s now raised £48m / $67.7m in a Sequence B spherical led by Index Ventures, together with new buyers BMW i Ventures and Unbound. Present buyers Latitude and Marchmont Ventures additionally participated. The funding will likely be used to increase its platform and develop the present 160-strong staff.

The startup claims it permits shoppers to promote their automotive for as much as £1,000 greater than they might do through different means, by importing its particulars through a smartphone app that additionally makes use of pc imaginative and prescient to evaluate the state of the automotive. Over 3,000 skilled automotive sellers then bid for the automobile in a each day on-line public sale. The very best provide wins the automotive, which is then collected without spending a dime by the successful seller inside 24 hours. 

Motorway says it has offered 65,000 automobiles since its launch in 2017 and seen gross sales hit £50m in Could 2021 alone, £2.5m of transactions a day, and greater than 4,000 accomplished automotive gross sales a month. With solely 5{69439eabc38bbe67fb47fc503d1b0f790fcef507f9cafca8a4ef4fbfe163a7c5} of all autos within the UK offered on-line proper now, there’s loads of headroom for this market to develop.
 
Tom Leathes, CEO of Motorway, mentioned: “For half a century, inefficient offline processes have led to dangerous offers and a nasty expertise for each automotive sellers and automotive sellers. Motorway has basically modified a damaged expertise the place everybody finally ends up dissatisfied – and we’ve reworked it with a superior on-line expertise the place everyone wins. Slicing out the middlemen leaves each the patron and automotive seller with a greater deal, all from residence and with out the stress. Our unbelievable progress thus far is testomony to our deal with delivering extra worth by expertise – and this funding will present us with the gasoline to take Motorway to the following degree.”
 
Danny Rimer, Accomplice at Index Ventures, mentioned: “We’re at all times trying to spend money on firms which might be really disrupting an business and assembly an actual buyer want. We’ve discovered that in Motorway. The staff has constructed an extremely highly effective platform, underpinned by nice expertise and a deep understanding of the challenges each shoppers and automotive sellers face. Motorway has rapidly turn out to be the primary port of name for tens of hundreds of individuals promoting their automotive.” 
 
Motorway beforehand raised £14m in enterprise funding because it was based by Tom Leathes, Harry Jones and Alex Buttle in 2017.

Chatting with me over interview Leathes added: “COVID has been an actual accelerator of one thing that was already taking place. The automotive business is shifting on-line and that’s partly about individuals shopping for their subsequent automotive on-line, however it’s additionally about sellers altering their conduct, how they do enterprise, the place they purchase their automobiles. It compelled that change which they resisted for a very long time, and now they’re embracing it, so it’s a elementary shift within the business. And this is the reason we see such an enormous alternative to offer the rails to assist either side of {the marketplace} to maneuver on-line.”

Rimer added: “It’s uncommon that you’ve got founders who’ve labored collectively throughout a number of profitable and fewer profitable startups who’ve that scar tissue and success, and are actually going for a a lot greater alternative. The enterprise mannequin is admittedly an vital one for us as a result of as a substitute of proudly owning stock after which having to do away with your stock, kind of just like the distinction between Nat-a-Porter and Farfetch. Motorway’s market is rather like Farfetch – they don’t have any stock, which implies that simply by merely making that platform occur for consumers and sellers, they win. So there’s quite a bit much less threat related to what the cash goes for use for when constructing the enterprise.”