
Balderton leads £1.3m round for carwow
Balderton Capital has led a £1.3m seed funding round for carwow, an online service provider for the purchase of new cars, in conjunction with the company’s commercial launch.
Investing alongside Balderton was Episode I Ventures, Samos Investments and angel investors Simon Murdoch, Doug Monro and Zoopla founder Alex Chesterman.
The capital will be used by carwow to establish the new company's position in the UK car-buying market, as well as invest in its internationalisation plans.
Since the start of the year, Balderton has led a $14m series-B round for London-based fashion e-commerce site Lyst and a $7m series-B for GoCardless, a London-based B2B online direct debit platform.
Episode I was founded by Damien Lane, formerly with the ventures team at Octopus Investments. The London-based firm recently launched its £37.5m Enterprise Capital Fund to invest between £250,000-2m in 20-30 early-stage, technology-focused start-ups.
Company
London-based carwow launched in beta in May last year and currently employs a staff of six. The company provides services regarding the purchase of new cars, offering an online car comparison service and contact options for dealers.
The platform allows users to compare offers by price and location of dealerships, as well as look at past reviews of dealers and see what certain dealerships have in stock. The company claims that £30m of new cars have already been bought through its site during its beta phase.
People
James Hind is the founder of carwow. Balderton's Rob Moffat led the deal and is joining the company's board of directors.
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