Motorway, the UK’s fastest growing used car marketplace, said it has achieved ‘unicorn’ status with a valuation of over US$1bn following a new funding round of US$190mln (£142mln).
It also announced the appointment of James Wilson, former Director of Marketplace Fulfillment at Amazon UK, as its chief operating officer.
The company said it expects to use the latest funding to grow its team from 250 to more than 350 over the next 12 months and to improve customer experience.
Motorway, which raised US$67.7mln in June, has now raised US$273mln in total since it was founded in 2017 by entrepreneurs Tom Leathes, Harry Jones and Alex Buttle.
The latest Series C funding was co-led by Index Ventures and ICONIQ Growth, with existing investors Latitude, Unbound and BMW i Ventures also participating.
Motorway recorded a 300% jump in third-quarter sales to US$411mln. It said the recent surge in sales has put the company on track to deliver more than US$2bn in completed sales over the next year, making it one of the world’s fastest growing online used car marketplaces.
“We’re now completing over 8,000 car sales a month,” said chief executive Leathes. “That’s a big number, but still less than one percent of UK used car sales – so there’s massive opportunity ahead.”