A used car search platform backed by private equity has acquired the Cazoo brand.
Founded in 2018 by serial tech entrepreneur Alex Chesterman, Cazoo burst onto the scene with a mission to make buying a car as simple as buying any other product online.
The startup quickly became Europe’s leading online car retailer with around 5,000 staff and achieved unicorn status in record time in 2020, while an aggressive marketing campaign saw it sponsor everything from Premier League football clubs Aston Villa and Everton to darts, horse racing, snooker and fishing.
The company listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021 and grew revenues to £1.2 billion in 2022 as COVID produced a new army of online shoppers. However, as they returned to car showrooms, it then all went spectacularly wrong, leading to eventual administration.
Now Motors, owned since 2021 by New York PE house O3 Industries and Novum Capital, based in Frankfurt, has acquired the brand.
Motors provides dealers with access to multisite advertising across UK destinations for used cars, led by its specialist automotive site Motors.co.uk and also through ongoing partnerships with eBay and Gumtree.
Over the coming weeks Motors will launch a new Cazoo app – followed by a new website – with over 250,000 used car listings. The business aims for Cazoo to provide consumers with a fresh approach to searching for cars. Motors.co.uk will continue to operate as normal.
“Despite its challenges as a business, Cazoo has undoubtedly become a household name with car buyers. We have the expertise and inventory to immediately establish the new Cazoo site as a modern marketplace for used cars,” said Barry Judge, Motors CEO.
“We will build on the excitement and engagement that the Cazoo brand has already created with consumers to deliver more sales enquiries for our dealer partners.
“This acquisition offers an exciting opportunity for dealers to tap into Cazoo’s awareness and traffic as part of the MOTORS network. All dealer partners live on our MOTORS MultiSite packages will automatically benefit from exposure on Cazoo, free of charge.”
Daniel Ozen, president at O3 Industries, said: “We know that today’s car buyer visits on average 4.2 websites during their search journey. With just one invoice dealers can advertise to millions of in-market car buyers on MOTORS, eBay, Gumtree and now Cazoo, scaling their online visibility and lead generation muscle.
“This acquisition underlines our ambition to be a key partner to dealers, providing exposure to car buyers across the internet.”