Serial entrepreneur and Zoopla founder Alex Chesterman has raised over £30m in seed funding for his latest venture, aimed at shaking up the used car market in the UK.
Chesterman, who stepped down from the day to day running of ZPG in September, has proved he is hardly the retiring type, revealing that as CEO he will be at the wheel of his new enterprise, Cazoo.
One of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs, Chesterman is still only 48.
In 2003, he disrupted the DVD rental market with the launch of ScreenSelect (subsequently Lovefilm) which was later sold to Amazon for £200m.
In 2008 he founded Zoopla, which floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2014 before being sold for over £2.2bn earlier this year.
Chesterman has now set his sights on the secondhand car market, worth over £50bn per annum with 8m used cars sold annually in the UK.
Cazoo will allow buyers to buy, finance or rent a used car entirely online and have it delivered to their door within 48 hours. The vehicle will arrive refurbished and with a seven-day free return policy.
The seed funding for the new venture has been provided by some familiar names, including the publishers of the Daily Mail. Backers include dmg ventures (the venture capital arm of DMGT), Stride Capital, Octopus Ventures and Entrée Capital amongst others.
DMGT was the majority shareholder in ZPG until its sale, while Octopus supported Zoopla from the early days.
The funds will be used to expand the Cazoo team, platform and brand as well as its operations.
The business is set to be launched next summer.
Chesterman said: “I’m delighted to announce this investment in my latest venture, Cazoo, and am very excited by the opportunity to transform the used car buying experience, which suffers from poor satisfaction and convenience and is failing to meet the needs of consumers.
“Buying a car should be no different to buying any other product online today.”
Paul Zwillenberg, CEO of DMGT, said: “We are delighted to back Alex again in his new venture.
“He has an unparalleled track record of identifying and capitalising on opportunities for technology to disrupt whole industries, delivering tremendous value for consumers and shareholders alike.”
Comments (5)
If he is that confident this has legs he’d use his own money.
With all the “Disrupters” out there these days, at least Alex not only knows what he is doing, but has a proven track record of achieving something great. All the best Alex
“Refurbished”?
Wash!
All the very best to Alex and his team for this new venture.