Trouble selling grandma's cars sowed seed for $1 billion startup - Automotive News
Spurred by Bertermann’s inability to find a dealership to both value and sell the vehicles, the men created an online business to fill the gap. The venture, now called Auto1 Group, was valued at more than $1 billion in a financing round earlier this year that raised $100 million. Koc declined to comment on how the new round of funding might value the company, pointing instead to the fact that monthly revenues have tripled to $70 million since the last valuation. The company’s annualized revenue run rate is about $850 million, he said. “It’s a very simple business,” Bertermann said of the venture, which counts U. S. -based CarMax Inc. “We’re building a stock exchange for used cars, using technology to connect buyers with sellers. Auto1, based in Berlin, values and buys used cars from individual sellers based on its own inventory and that of dealerships and manufacturers that use its platform. Where Auto1 differs from most online marketplaces, Koc said, is that the company uses its own cash to buy the cars and store them until they are sold to dealers, speeding up the process for sellers from an average of 90 days in Europe to about 10... The international market for used-car sales may be worth about $1 trillion, they said. Source: www.autonews.com
