Image credits: carwow
carwow, a London-based platform that helps you buy a new car, has acquired the used car buying platform Wizzle. However, Carwow didn’t disclose the exact figures.
Post the acquisition, carwow plans to integrate Wizzle’s used car selling service into its new car buying experience. With this move, carwow’s users will now be able to find their new car and sell their old car, all in one place.
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Wizzle: All you need to know
Founded by Sébastien Duval, Wizzle is an online platform where consumers can list their car, compare offers from dealers who wish to buy it, and sell directly to their chosen dealer.
Sébastien Duval founded Wizzle to help car dealers appraise and value used cars that have been driven onto used car forecourts.
Wizzle: How it works?
Regarding the procedure, Wizzle’s customers need to answer a few questions about their car’s general condition and upload a bunch of photos that dealer partners around the UK can take a look at before making a call.
As per the company’s claims, more than 2000 dealers are using its platform, and over 1,500 cars per month are being sold via consumers and bought via dealers.
Sébastien Duval, CEO of Wizzle says: “With Carwow’s reach, scale and the expertise of its 245 person team, we’re in pole position to build the biggest used car aggregator in the market, providing dealers with easier access to more in-brand, local and quality cars.”
He adds, “I can’t wait to combine our class-leading technology with the immense reach that carwow have in the UK and in Germany and Spain. Our companies are two sides of the same coin, with the shared vision to deliver trust, transparency, and high-quality services that give dealers an advantage in the digital world.”
carwow: All you need to know
Founded by Alexandra Margolis, David Santoro, and James Hind in 2016, Carwow aims to make the car buying process easier for consumers with its car buying comparison platform.
The UK company connects online car buyers with dealers and OEMs who want to research, configure and find their perfect new car online. Carwow says around 12M users use their platform before deciding to buy a new car.
Last year alone, £2.5B (approx €2.9B) of new cars were sold on the Carwow platform and almost 80 per cent of buyers then had a car to sell.
Even though carwow had a ‘Sell Your Car’ feature live for several years, it has only been able to provide a single offer from a single provider. With Wizzle’s technology, carwow will be able to provide multiple offers to customers and prioritise offering cars to dealer partners directly.
James Hind, carwow CEO says: “Our partners have told us that they want better direct access to high quality used car inventory and this acquisition will allow us to do just that quickly. Wizzle is already powering over 1,500 vehicle sales per month, which we’re aiming to grow exponentially by integrating the service into the main carwow platform. We’re super excited about the Wizzle team joining the carwow family and look forward to rolling the service out in the UK and then Germany and Spain.”
Pricing model
On the other hand, Carwow has developed a pricing model that means dealers that are buying from and selling to the same customer will only pay for a new car enquiry. Fixed fees for the purchase of a used car on the platform will start from £99.
James Hind continues: “We simplified our new car pricing model back in October last year, and our partners now only pay for the first enquiry they receive from a carwow user. As well as driving new car sales, our partners have also benefited from taking in part exchanges at the same time and we don’t want to remove this benefit. So if a dealer receives a new car enquiry that leads to a confirmed sale and they also bid on the same customer’s current car that they decide to purchase, they’ll only pay for the new car enquiry, which is just £38.”
“Our partners now have the best of both worlds; if they’re buying and selling to the same customer, they pay the same enquiry fee they’ve always paid. But, if they want access to more used cars from a much larger pool of customers, they can log in and make an offer in real-time.”
Raised €72M
To date, Carwow has raised £62M (approx €72M) from various investors including Vitruvian Partners, Balderton Capital, Accel, Episode 1, and Daimler. The UK company employs 245 people currently. Further, the company also owns a car channel on YouTube with 5.7M subscribers and 130 million views per month.
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