VC-backed Auto1 completes IPO

The company placed 26,315,790 newly issued bearer shares with no par value, allocated at a price of €38 per share, and has generated gross proceeds of approximately €1.8bn.

Auto1 also allocated an additional 15,625,000 existing shares and 6,291,118 overallotment shares from pre-IPO shareholders, the company said in a statement.

Shares began trading on 4 February at €55 apiece, marking a 45% increase on the €38 pricing announced on 3 February.

Based on its offer price, the company is valued at €7.9bn, compared with its valuation of €2.9bn at the time of its last equity funding round in 2018. 

Auto1 was valued at €17m pre-money at the time of its first funding round in 2013, a source close to the situation told Unquote.

The same source said that, based on the current valuation, the IPO will return proceeds of more than 3x to investors in early Auto1 backer DN Capital's Global Venture Capital III vehicle, which held a final close in September 2014 on €144m.

Sequoia Capital and Lone Pine Capital each invested €150m in the company as part of its IPO in January 2021.

Comparable publicly listed companies for Auto1's business model and growth plans include US-based Carvana, which had a market cap of more than $49bn as of February 2021, the same source close to the situation told Unquote.

Unquote sister publication Mergermarket reported that Auto1 invited banks to pitch for roles in its IPO in August 2020.

BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank are acting as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners, while Barclays, HSBC, Numis Securities and RBC Capital Markets are also acting as joint bookrunners, Auto1 said in the same statement, as reported.

Crédit Agricole, Commerzbank, Mizuho Securities and Wells Fargo Securities are acting as co-lead managers.

According to Unquote Data, Auto1's IPO is the first by a sponsor-backed company in the DACH market on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since Permira-backed TeamViewer first listed in September 2019, valuing the company at €5.25bn.

Previous funding
In January 2013, Mutschler Ventures led a seed round for Auto1, joined by Panorama Point Partners, Saarbruecker 21, DN Capital and Cherry Ventures.

In June 2013, Auto1 raised its series-A round, led by DN Capital, with participation from Piton Capital and Mutschler Ventures. At the time, DN Capital was deploying equity via its Global Venture Capital III vehicle.

Piton and DN Capital led Auto1's series-B round in March 2014. In October that year, Piton and DST Global led a series-C for the company.

Piton also led a $118m series-D round for Auto1 in April 2015, which also saw participation from DN Capital.

In May 2017, Princeville, Baillie Gifford and Target Global led a €360m series-E financing round for Auto1. JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Barclays, Citi, BNP Paribas and BHF Bank also took part in the round, which incorporated a mix of debt and equity.

Softbank led a €460m round for Auto1 in January 2018, investing via its first Vision Fund and acquiring a 20% stake in the company. The round valued Auto1 at €2.9bn, compared with €2.5bn at the time of its series-E in 2017.

In July 2020, Auto1 raised €255m in convertible note funding, backed by Farallon Capital Management and the Baupost Group, as well as existing investors. The funding was intended to support the development of its retail brand, Autohero.

Company
Founded in 2012 and originally known as WirKaufenDeinAuto, Auto1 is a used car trading platform for dealers. The company also operates a retail platform, Autohero. The Berlin-headquartered company uses an algorithm to generate real-time pricing for the cars on its platform. Auto1 generated 2019 revenues of €3.5bn, marking a 21% increase on its 2018 turnover, the company said in a statement. The business employs more than 4,200 people.

People
Auto1 – Christian Bertermann (co-founder, CEO); Markus Boser (CFO); Hakan Koç (co-founder, managing partner).
DN Capital – Steve Schlenker (managing partner).
Softbank – Akshay Naheta (partner).
Target Global – Shmuel Chafets (general partner).
Cherry Ventures – Filip Dames (co-founder).

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