Used-car digital platforms have sprung up all over the world for a variety of reasons, the most of them are tied to our current pandemic.
The fast digitization of the used automobile sector is one of these factors, as entrepreneurs have saturated the market with easier-to-use platforms that older e-commerce-style platforms lacked.
The other is that, with the pandemic putting a pressure on supply chains for microchips, which are required in new automobiles, the price of old cars has surged, even as new car supply has been constrained.
Autohero, a platform that has leaped into the used automobile industry in the last couple of years, is one of the platforms that has emerged in the previous couple of years.
With the announcement that Spotawheel, the CEE-focused used-car platform, had raised €100 million in equity and asset-backed debt.
He said: “Athens-based Venture Friends led the equity round, with participation from Adevinta Ventures, UNIQA Ventures, Rockaway Ventures, Velocity Partners, FJ Labs, Collective Spark, Endeavour Catalyst, and others.”
An unknown UK-based credit fund and some equally unnamed institutional investors headed the debt side of the deal.
The credit fund also participated in the equity round.
Spotawheel says that the used automobile industry in Central and Eastern Europe is worth €100 billion, and it claims to have taken market leadership positions in Poland and Greece, as well as Romania.
By the end of the year, the company claims to have reached a revenue run rate of €200 million.
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