Motorway raises £48m as sales triple, reinventing how consumers sell used cars

• Motorway’s four-year old online marketplace connects consumers selling their car with professional car dealers acquiring stock
• 65,000 used cars have been sold on Motorway, with currently a new sale agreed every 10 minutes
• More than 5,000 dealers across the UK compete to offer the best price, and the car is collected in as little as 24 hours
• Sales in the last 12 months have tripled, with 300% growth expected in 2021
• Index Ventures leads Motorway’s Series B financing, joined by BMW i Ventures, Unbound and others

Motorway, the UK’s fastest-growing way to sell your car, has raised £48m in venture capital investment.

The Series B round is led by Index Ventures (backers of Deliveroo, Etsy and Dropbox) and also includes additional new investors BMW i Ventures and Unbound. Existing investors Latitude and Marchmont Ventures also participated in the funding round. Danny Rimer, partner at Index Ventures will now join Motorway’s board. 

Motorway’s growth to date

Motorway has completed over 65,000 car sales through its website since it started in 2017 and has seen sales rapidly increase over the last year to more than £50m in May 2021 alone. Currently a sale is agreed on Motorway every ten minutes. The company is completing over £2.5m of transactions a day and more than 4,000 completed car sales a month. With over 10,000 5-star reviews on TrustPilot, Motorway is projecting to hit over £650m in sales in 2021, more than triple its performance in 2020.

The way to sell your car

Motorway helps consumers to sell their car for up to £1,000 more from the comfort of home. It’s simple, fast and free – a car can be profiled and uploaded onto the Motorway website using only a smartphone. Over 5,000 professional car dealers can then bid for the vehicle in a daily online auction, with the highest offer winning the car. Their car is then collected for free by the winning dealer in as little as 24 hours. 

Cutting out the middlemen and moving the whole process online, Motorway removes the hassle and the haggle, helping car sellers and car dealers get a better deal fast, and all entirely remotely.

The used car market is accelerating online

Consumers and car dealers are embracing the internet to replace traditional offline and in-person car selling transactions. Motorway estimates that by the end of 2020, 5% of all vehicles were sold online – up from 1% at the start of the year. Motorway believes this will reach 20%+ as the car industry catches up with others that have already made the online transition.

While new car sales have seen a five year slump in the past year, the used car market has consistently been on the rise, with demand for used cars increasing month on month. On average, used car prices on Motorway have risen +8.2% in May versus six months ago in November. And with new car supply expected to be constrained ongoing, the buoyant used car market will continue to boom.

Investment into UK tech talent

This £48m investment will enable Motorway to significantly expand its product and engineering teams to introduce more products that improve the experience of online car sales, as well as investing in marketing to drive even greater awareness. The current 160-strong team will grow to over 200 by the end of the year, providing further jobs for the best UK talent in the months ahead.

Tom Leathes, CEO of Motorway, says:

“For half a century, inefficient offline processes have led to bad deals and a bad experience for both car sellers and car dealers. Motorway has fundamentally changed a broken experience where everyone ends up dissatisfied – and we’ve transformed it with a superior online experience where everybody wins. Cutting out the middlemen leaves both the consumer and car dealer with a better deal, all from home and without the stress. Our incredible growth so far is testament to our focus on delivering more value through technology – and this investment will provide us with the fuel to take Motorway to the next level.  

“We’re thrilled to be working with Index and the other investors in this round, and Danny Rimer’s huge technology experience and passion for our journey ahead makes him a great addition to the team.”

Danny Rimer, Partner at Index Ventures, says:

“We’re always looking to invest in companies that are truly disrupting an industry and meeting a real customer need. We have found that in Motorway. The team has built an incredibly powerful platform, underpinned by great technology and a deep understanding of the challenges both consumers and car dealers face. Motorway has quickly become the first port of call for tens of thousands of people selling their car.” 

Motorway has previously raised £14m in venture funding since it was founded by serial entrepreneurs Tom Leathes, Harry Jones and Alex Buttle in 2017. The team has since grown to 160 people across its offices in London, Brighton and remotely around the world. 

For more information, please contact press@motorway.co.uk.