INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
There have been a lot of bumps in the road for startups building used-car marketplaces, but now one of the longer-standing of them has
Vroom has raised $254 million, a Series H that it plans to use to keep scaling the business, and specifically also to expand a product and
engineering hub based out of Detroit.Vroom is based out of New York but operates across the U.S., and its platform has to date been used by
more than 250,000 buyers and sellers, according to the company
confirmed it is an up round
For some context, Vroom last raised money almost exactly one year ago, $146 million, which came in at a post-money valuation of $796
million, according to PitchBook
latest round of funding is being led by Durable Capital Partners LP, with participation also from funds advised by T
Rowe Price Associates, L Catterton and others that are not being named.Vroom has now raised a total of $721 million since it launched in
Previous investors have included General Catalyst, Altimeter Capital and Allen - Co.Vroom is led by former Priceline.com CEO Paul Hennessy,
and the plan is to use the injection of capital to hire more employees, particularly for product and engineering jobs
Back in 2018, Vroom laid off about 30% of its staff after a failed attempt at building brick-and-mortar car dealerships, amid a time when we
were seeing several other problems hit its competitors.Hennessy noted that using a try-anything and staying flexible approach has been a
approach to scaling our business
Where it makes sense for us to fully own part of our operation, like the development of our e-commerce platform, we do that
If it makes sense for us to work with others to scale our operations efficiently, like through partnerships for third-party reconditioning,
Vroom has added several executives in recent months, including Dave Jones, who spent more than a decade at Penske Automotive Group and
recently joined as its chief financial officer.The lead investor in this Series H is notable
Durable Capital Partners is the new fund led by former star T
Rowe Price portfolio manager Henry Ellenbogen, and the firm has now started investing in earnest.This is the second investment it has made
in the wider transportation category, after taking part in a $400 million round for Convoy
It also invested in a fintech startup Rapyd, which is moving into logistics now
All three of these investments have been announced in the space of a month.Ellenbogen first became familiar with the company because T
Several of these companies have shuttered, while others such as Shift and Carvana have survived and even scaled.Carvana became a public
company in 2017 and its market cap is currently around $13 billion
sell or trade in their vehicles real-time appraisals, loan payoffs and at-home vehicle pickup
The company reconditions the vehicles it takes possession of and then includes them on its online catalog.Buyers can get financing through a
number of lending partners that Vroom has partnered with, including Capital One, Ally and, more recently, Chase
