Motorway, the UK-headquartered operator of an online marketplace for used vehicles, secured $190m in series C funding today from investors including automotive manufacturer BMW’s corporate venturing unit, BMW i Ventures.
Venture capital firm Index Ventures co-led the round with Iconiq Growth, a growth equity affiliate of multi-family office Iconiq Capital, while VC fund Latitude and VC firm Unbound also took part, at a valuation exceeding $1bn.
Founded in 2017, Motorway runs an e-commerce platform enabling users to sell their vehicles to buyers made up of a network of some 4,000 used car dealers. It was responsible for $411m of sales in third quarter of this year.
The series C proceeds will fund a recruitment drive expected to increase the company’s headcount from about 250 to 350 by the end of 2022.
Tom Leathes, CEO of Motorway, said: “We are now completing over 8,000 car sales a month. That is a big number, but still less than 1% of UK used car sales – so there is massive opportunity ahead.
“We are thrilled to be working with the teams at Index, Iconiq and the other investors in this new funding round. It will help us scale even faster, as we strive to build the best technology team in Europe and change the used car selling experience for the better.”
The funding came five months after Index Ventures led Motorway’s $67.7m series B round, investing together with BMW i Ventures, Unbound, Latitude and existing backer Marchmont Ventures to take its overall funding to over $86m. Latitude owner LocalGlobe was also an earlier investor.
