Cazoo, a UK-based online marketplace for used vehicles, received £25m ($31.3m) in funding yesterday from investors including DMG Ventures, the corporate venturing unit for media group Daily Mail and General Trust.
Draper Esprit led the round, which included fellow venture capital firm General Catalyst. The deal valued Cazoo at more than $1bn, making it the fastest British business to ever reach unicorn status, the company claimed.
Founded in 2018, Cazoo runs an online dealership that enables customers to purchase used vehicles and have them delivered within three days. Users can access financing through the website and calculate the value of a part exchange for their current car.
The cars come with a 90-day warranty, roadside assistance and a seven-day money-back guarantee. Cazoo did not confirm how it intended to invest the financing, though it follows news it is sponsoring Premier League football club Everton from next season.
Cazoo has now secured nearly $250m in funding to date. DMG Ventures led a $117m round in March 2020, with participation from Eight Roads Ventures, a subsidiary of investment and financial services group Fidelity, and CNP, a division of financial holding company Groupe Frère-Bourgeois.
The Abu Dhabi government-owned Mubadala Capital, General Catalyst, Octopus Ventures and Stride.VC also took part in the round, Mubadala and General Catalyst having joined undisclosed investors to supply $32.2m in funding for the company three months earlier.
DMG Ventures, Stride.VC, Entrée Capital and Octopus Ventures had injected $30.4m in funding in September 2019, the same consortium having provided $38.3m in seed capital for Cazoo in late 2018.
