Motorway raises £11m in Series A funding from Marchmont Ventures & Local Globe

• Motorway is a used car marketplace, connecting consumer sellers to professional car buyers through its price comparison website
• Launched in July 2017 – the platform has delivered over £130m in completed car sales and grown to a team of 40
• Today it’s announcing £11m in Series A funding from Marchmont Ventures and LocalGlobe

Motorway has announced today that it has secured £11 million in Series A funding to further expand its next-generation used car marketplace.

The funding round was led by Marchmont Ventures, which is managed by Hugo Burge and Alan Martin (the former CEO and CFO of Momondo Group), along with participation from existing backer LocalGlobe.

Launched in 2017, Motorway’s website enables consumer car sellers to instantly see live offers from multiple car buying services and specialist dealerships. They can compare headline offers, read buyer reviews, fees and collection options to find their best deal. By comparing offers, consumers can get up to £1,000 more than going direct to one buyer.

As a two-sided marketplace, Motorway’s buyer platform provides a fast, efficient way for car buying firms to buy the best used car stock, direct from consumers – cutting out middlemen, and helping everyone get a better deal.

A year ago, Motorway raised £2.75m in Seed funding from Marchmont Ventures and LocalGlobe. It has since grown rapidly – the platform now has over 100,000 monthly customer sales enquiries, and has achieved over £130m worth of completed car sales through its buyers in just 18 months.

This new investment will facilitate further development of its team (currently 40), software platform, expansion of its network of car buyers and marketing of the service throughout the UK.

Motorway was founded by Tom Leathes, Alex Buttle and Harry Jones, an entrepreneurial team with three successful internet startups behind them. As part of the round, Hugo Burge is appointed to the role of non-executive Chairman.

Tom Leathes, CEO & Co-Founder of Motorway said:

“We started Motorway with the vision to bring speed, choice and transparency to the process of selling a car – an experience that’s gone mostly unchanged for decades.  

This is a complex industry that frequently delivers a bad experience for sellers and buyers alike. We simplify the process – bringing instant price comparison into the hands of sellers, and powerful technology tools for car buying firms. That’s helped us grow rapidly in a short space of time, but we’ve really only just got started.

With this new funding, we will now be doubling down on building the best possible car sales platform for consumers, and enabling car buyers to improve their stock acquisition processes at scale. We’re thrilled to have the continued support of Marchmont Ventures and LocalGlobe in this round, and it’s amazing to have Hugo’s deeper involvement in the role of Chairman going forward.”

Director of Marchmont Ventures, Hugo Burge says:

“It’s an honour to be part of this exciting journey. I’m delighted to be taking on the role of Chairman to work more closely with the team at Motorway. They are bringing energy, transparency and exceptional technology into a complex and inefficient market, and the momentum is already quite breath-taking.

“However, a far bigger opportunity lies ahead – to build the true consumer champion in an industry going through unprecedented change. Motorway is setting new levels of customer experience and transparency in the UK used car market and I am confident that the team can capitalise on this opportunity.”

Notes to Editors:

For further information contact:

For more information please contact:

Jonny Stevens, Rhizome PR on 07977 119 579

Tom Leathes, CEO at Motorway, Email: press@motorway.co.uk

About Motorway

Motorway (motorway.co.uk) is a next-generation used car marketplace, connecting consumer sellers to professional car buyers through its price comparison website and apps for car dealers. Motorway was founded by Tom Leathes, Alex Buttle and Harry Jones in 2017 and has grown to a team of 40 based in London and Brighton.

About LocalGlobe

LocalGlobe (localglobe.vc) are a Kings Cross based venture capital firm that focuses on seed and impact investments. Over the last 16 years, LocalGlobe has invested in early stage technology companies including the likes of Zoopla, LoveFilm, Improbable, TransferWise, Citymapper, Graze and Moo.

About Marchmont Ventures

Marchmont Ventures (marchmontventures.com) is focused on investing in scale-up opportunities. Its purpose is to build sustainable creativity. In all their projects the team are willing to take a long-term view to build value and work closely with founders to share their experience and passion for developing high-growth, disruptive enterprises.