The motorway is a UK startup that lets expert vehicle sellers bid in a public sale for privately-owned motors for sale. The startup has had fast achievement via way of means of getting rid of a number of friction withinside the process. It’s now raised £48m / $67.7m in a Series B spherical led via way of means of Index Ventures, in conjunction with new buyers BMW I Ventures and Unbound. Existing buyers Latitude and Marchmont Ventures additionally participated. The investment could be used to increase its platform and develop the contemporary 160-sturdy group.

The startup lets clients promote their vehicle for up to £1,000, via way of means of importing its information thru a smartphone. Over 3,000 expert vehicle sellers then bid for the automobile in an everyday online public sale. The maximum provide wins the vehicle, which’s then amassed without spending a dime via way of means of the prevailing provider interior 24 hours.

Motorway says it has offered 65,000 motors because of its release in 2017 and visible income hit £50m in May 2021 alone, £2.5m of transactions a day, and an extra than 4,000 finished vehicle income a month. With the best 5% of all automobiles withinside the UK offered online proper now, there’s lots of headroom for this marketplace to develop.

Tom Leathes, CEO of Motorway, said: “For 1/2 of a century, inefficient offline methods have brought about terrible offers and a terrible enjoy for each vehicle dealer and vehicle sellers. The motorway has essentially modified a damaged enjoy wherein absolutely each person finally ends up dissatisfied – and we’ve converted it with an advanced online enjoy wherein all and sundry wins. Cutting out the middlemen leaves each customer and vehicle provider with a higher deal, all from domestic and without the stress. Our tremendous boom thus far is testimony to our consciousness on handing over extra fee thru generation – and this funding will offer us with the gasoline to take Motorway to the following level.”

Danny Rimer, Partner at Index Ventures, said: “We’re usually seeking to spend money on groups which might be surely disrupting an enterprise and assembly an actual patron need. We have discovered that during Motorway. The group has constructed an extremely effective platform, underpinned via way of means of the first-rate generation and deep know-how of the demanding situations each client and vehicle sellers face. The motorway has speedy grow to be the primary port of name for tens of lots of human beings promoting their vehicle.”

Motorway formerly raised £14m in mission investment because it became based via way of means of Tom Leathes, Harry Jones, and Alex Buttle in 2017.

Speaking to me over interview Leathes added: “COVID has been an actual accelerator of something that became already happening. The vehicle enterprise is shifting online and that’s partially approximately human beings shopping for their subsequent vehicle online, however, it’s additionally approximately sellers converting their behavior, how they do commercial enterprise, wherein they purchase their motors. It pressured that alternate which they resisted for an extended time, and now they’re embracing it, so it’s an essential shift withinside the enterprise. And that is why we see this type of huge possibility to offer the rails to assist each facet of the market to transport online.”

Rimer added: “It’s uncommon which you have founders who’ve labored collectively throughout more than one a hit and much less a hit startups who have that scar tissue and achievement and are actually going for a far larger possibility. The commercial enterprise version is honestly a critical one for us due to the fact rather than proudly owning stock after which having to remove your stock, kind of just like the distinction between Nat-a-Porter and Farfetch. Motorway’s market is much like Farfetch – they don’t have any stock, because of this that that simply via way of means of simply making that platform occur for consumers and dealers, they win. So there’s lots much less threat related to what the cash goes for use for whilst constructing the commercial enterprise.”