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Fantastic to read of Alex Chesterman's and Team Cazoo's success in closing a £240M funding round that values the used car buying platform at £2B.
News like this underlines the massive dislocation of the market that is underway. Whilst most sectors of the European economy are deep in the C19 doldrums, the tech sector continues to grow rapidly. Lookers plc and Pendragon plc, two of the UKs leading car dealerships, both have revenues c. £5B PA and are each worth c. £100M.
Whilst the valuation of Cazoo is eye-catching, it is the latest in a line of successes for Alex Chesterman who has established himself as one of the UKs leading entrepreneurs, with Zoopla and Screen Select/Lovefilm under his belt already. A prolific Angel investor, he is exactly the sort of person the UK needs to retain if we are to have any hope of creating a globally significant technology company.
In the UK, we should all be watching Cazoo's progress with interest.
Cazoo, which provides an app-based way to browse and buy used cars (it’s modeled on the likes of Vroom in the US), has picked up £240 million ($311 million). The funding comes only six months after the company raised $116 million. A Cazoo spokesperson has confirmed that the company is now valued at over £2 billion (or over $2.5 billion), double its previous valuation. (For some context, the company confirmed a $1 billion valuation this summer and others had estimated it at a much lower amount.) This latest funding is being led by General Catalyst, D1 Capital Partners and funds managed by Fidelity Management & Research Company and Blackrock, with other new and existing investors participating.
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