British company Cazoo, based in London and listed on the US stock exchange, has acquired 100% of the car rental platform Swipcar, founded in Barcelona in 2018, for 30 million euros. The process, signed yesterday, was forged through a combination of cash and equity of the buying company. Swipcar’s three founding partners, Julio Ribes, Pablo Pascual and Blas Gil, continue to work with the company with the goal of continuing to drive growth. “We are very happy, but now we have to keep going because the potential for growth is huge,” says Rips, CEO.
Cazoo defines itself as one of the fastest growing companies in Europe, and a pioneer in the shift to buying and selling cars online. Founded by businessman Alex Chesterman, in just two years it has sold more than 40 thousand cars on the Internet. For its part, Swipcar went through a similar process. In just three years, it has become one of the leaders in the sector and has also brought the group its presence in Italy and Portugal.
Supplementary expansion
Cazoo is strong in the UK, Germany and France, while Swipcar contributes business from Spain, Italy and Portugal
Geographical integration is comprehensive, with Cazoo firmly applied in the UK, Germany and France, while Swipcar, which left the latter after not achieving its goals, contributes to its presence in the aforementioned Southern European countries. Cazoo is dedicated to the rental and sale of used cars as well, a line of business that can now be expected in Spain through Swipcar.
The Catalan company does not provide sales figures, but it expected in 2020 to have invoiced 2 million euros, despite the pandemic, and earlier this year it said it has 500 subscribers per month for cars – in the way it calls rental customers -, and for this The reason is that the number of rented cars will reach 6000 units by the end of this year.
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