Australian scaleup AutoGrab has raised £40 million, co-led by UK investor Octopus Ventures, to expand into the UK and across Europe.
The Melbourne-founded automotive data intelligence platform said the Series B capital raise values the company at around £116m and follows co-founder Chris Gardner’s relocation to London.
The funding will accelerate AutoGrab’s expansion across the UK and Europe while deepening its position in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region.
The raise was led by Octopus and Movac (New Zealand) and includes Premier Capital Partners and existing investors EVP and Ten13. AutoGrab was advised by Barrenjoey, Danaher Moulton and Baker McKenzie.
AutoGrab provides vehicle valuations, sourcing and analytics for dealerships, insurers, fleet managers and financial institutions via data, AI-powered analytics and market intelligence.
The platform says it answers the three questions that underpin every transaction in the automotive ecosystem: What exactly is this vehicle? What is it worth right now? And where is that value heading?
The platform serves more than 1,000 dealerships – representing nearly a quarter of the national market. More than 90% of Australian motor insurers rely on AutoGrab data for total loss settlements.
International revenue now represents a significant portion of the business, driven by co-founder Chris Gardner’s relocation to London to lead the European expansion. The Australian operations will be led by co-founder Daniel Werzberger.
AutoGrab’s global expansion includes an exclusive strategic partnership with JATO Dynamics, the world’s leading provider of automotive data and intelligence.
Gardner said the UK insurance sector is particularly well-suited to AutoGrab’s data capabilities.
“The industry is experiencing its greatest transformation in decades. Rising costs, new entrants, and an explosion of vehicle configurations have made historical data unreliable. Granularity, accuracy and vehicle level intelligence are the new competitive advantage,” he said.
“The UK insurance market is highly sophisticated, but it still faces a fundamental challenge accurately identifying a vehicle.
“AutoGrab has built a unique data capability that allows insurers to correctly identify a car down to the exact variant, specification and market context, in seconds.”
Gardner said poor vehicle identification has historically driven inefficiency and cost across the insurance sector.
“For years, insurers have relied on partial data, manual processes and assumptions,” he said.
“Our platform removes that ambiguity by clearly defining what a car actually is, and therefore what it is truly worth before an accident occurs.”
“As we scale across the UK and Europe, the strength and accuracy of our data continue to be a defining advantage.”
Adam Said, principal investor at Octopus Ventures, added: “AutoGrab’s momentum in the UK over the past year was a standout factor in our decision to co-lead this round.
“The team has secured strong traction with strategic partners, built a growing early base of committed customers, and shown that the UK market shares the same dynamics that enabled their rapid scale in Australia.
“Combined with Daniel and Chris’s strengths as highly commercial, customer-focused founders, we’re excited to back AutoGrab alongside Movac, EVP and others, as the business enters this next phase of growth and expansion.”