Carwow Group secures new $52m investment to accelerate UK growth and scale European operations

The Carwow Group has raised $52m (£41m) in a new funding round to accelerate its growth across the UK, Germany and Spain.

• Investment led by Bessemer Venture Partners as well as existing Carwow investors including Accel, Balderton, Episode 1 & Vitruvian
• Partners to accelerate its vision to become the online car-changing marketplace
• Carwow Group revenues grew by 56% in H1
• Carwow was cited as one of the UK’s fastest-growing tech companies in 2023; over 10m people have now used Carwow to help find or sell a car

London, 14 July 2024: The Carwow Group, which includes the Carwow online marketplace Auto Express, evo, Driving Electric and Carbuyer – has raised $52m (£41m) in a new funding round to accelerate its growth across the UK, Germany and Spain.

The funding round was led by global venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners. Bessemer has a diverse range of companies in its investment portfolio, including tech powerhouses, LinkedIn and Shopify, 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 10m 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 whilst £1.8bn of cars were listed for sale through its Sell My Car (SMC) service.

This latest investment, advised by Arma Partners, will be used to supercharge Carwow’s strategic growth plans including 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 introduce the SMC service to its German operation in 2025.

The business saw stellar growth in H1 with 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,” comments 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. Our customers love the breadth of choice and convenience of managing every step of their car changing journey online and partners rely on us to help drive sales of new cars and source stock. 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, commented: “I’ve been a fan of Carwow’s videos and content for years and like millions of others, I love their information-rich, impartial car reviews and drag races that make for fun and irreverent entertainment. Carwow’s consumer proposition is just as exciting, which is helping make car changing simpler for consumers across Europe – and with over 9 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.”

In April 2023, Carwow was recognised as one of the UK’s fastest-growing tech companies through its inclusion in the E2E Tech 100, a list which celebrates technology companies of note based on their revenues over the previous two years.