UK car finance FinTech Carmoola has raised £8.5m in its Series A round, alongside a new £95m debt facility.
The round was led by US-based FinTech specialists QED Investors. Participation also came from existing investors VentureFriends and InMotion Ventures, the investment arm of Jaguar Land Rover. NatWest supplied the debt facility.
With the capital, Carmoola plans to grow its team to 20 people to help meet the market demand. Funds will also be used to scale the company and support its rapid customer adoption.
The company’s mission is to revolutionise how people pay for cars. Carmoola launched ten months ago with a “neo car finance” product that removes complexity of car purchases.
Its technology offers a streamlined process that provides buyers with a budget, generates a free history check on the car and allows a payment to be made instantly online and at the showroom within 60 seconds through the Carmoola virtual card.
Carmoola is set to launch green discounts in the coming months which will incentivise consumers to buy greener cars.
Carmoola CEO Aidan Rushby said, “Used-car finance couldn’t be more ready for a fintech revolution. Consumers want the freedom to go shopping anywhere, knowing what they can spend, without sending off reams of forms and payslips.
“Frustrated consumers are being put in a corner with excessive rates, manipulated commission, and poor customer service, but it’s the very process of getting finance that is at the heart of the problem. It’s full of paperwork, lengthy processes, and lack of certainty, but most importantly, car finance is obtained after the consumer has fallen in love with the car they want, which wholly puts them on the back foot. Until now, that is.”
The FinTech company previously raised £27m in its seed funding round in April 2022. The investment was led by Jaguar Land Rover’s investment fund, InMotion Ventures, VentureFriends, BCI, Truesight Ventures and California-based Clocktower Ventures.
In time for Valentine’s Day, Carmoola released a Kama Sutra-inspired Valentine’s Day card game. Titled “Car-ma Sutra”, it offers players different ways to have sex in, or around, their car, with car-related names such as “The Undercover Mechanic”.
For Valentine’s Day FinTech Global highlighted some of the key FinTech partnerships to happen in 2023, so far.
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