Online used car retailer formerly based in Euston, London
Not to be confused with
Kazoo
.
Cazoo
![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8f/Cazoo.svg/175px-Cazoo.svg.png) |
Company type
| Public
|
---|
| NYSE
:
CZOO
|
---|
Industry
| |
---|
Founded
| 2018
; 6 years ago
(
2018
)
|
---|
Founders
| Alex Chesterman
|
---|
Headquarters
| ,
United Kingdom
|
---|
Key people
| - Alex Chesterman
(
Chairman
)
- Paul Whitehead
(
CEO
)
- Geert Engels
(
CTO
)
- Paul Wolff
(
CFO
)
- Jonathan Dunkley
(
COO
)
|
---|
Number of employees
| 1,000
|
---|
Website
| cazoo
.co
.uk
|
---|
Cazoo
was a British online car retailer based in
London
,
England
. Founded in 2018 by
Alex Chesterman
, the company went into
administration
in May 2024. Cazoo was bought out by Constellation Automotive Group
History
[
edit
]
Cazoo was founded in 2018 by British internet entrepreneur
Alex Chesterman
. It launched an online marketplace for used cars in December 2019, which became its primary business.
[1]
It is based in the UK but listed on the
New York Stock Exchange
following a merger with a
special-purpose acquisition company
, led by
hedge fund
manager Dan Och in August 2021. As of its listing the company had a valuation of US$8 billion. It subsequently lost over 97% of its market value, causing Alex Chesterman to step down as CEO in January 2023.
[2]
In 2021 Cazoo had expanded internationally, launching used car marketplaces in Germany and France, and in early 2022 expanded briefly into Italy and Spain.
[3]
After announcing redundancies in the UK in June 2022, in September 2022, Cazoo announced it would abandon its business in the European Union, closing its operations in France, Germany, Italy and Spain and making all 750 of its EU employees redundant, leaving only its UK operation in business.
[4]
UK redundancies were announced in March 2023 when 15 out of 22 showrooms were closed.
[5]
A year later, in March 2024, the company stopped buying and selling cars and closed its remaining showrooms, aiming to become purely an online market place; the move meant 728 redundancies. On 21 May 2024, Cazoo went into
administration
putting 208 remaining jobs at risk of redundancy.
[6]
Cazoo's wholesale business was bought by G3;
Constellation Automotive Group
also acquired some Cazoo assets; and used-car platform Motors.co.uk was reported in June 2024 to be buying Cazoo's brand and marketplace business.
[7]
Cazoo sponsored the
Welsh Rugby Union
,
[8]
a number of annual horse races in Epsom and Doncaster,
[9]
cricket tournament
The Hundred
,
[10]
various events managed by the
World Snooker Tour
,
[11]
and the
PGA European Tour
.
[12]
Consequent on the company's announced retrenchment to the UK market in September 2022, Cazoo's sponsorships of European football clubs for the 2022?23 season, including
Aston Villa
,
Olympique de Marseille
,
SC Freiburg
,
Valencia CF
,
Lille OSC
,
Bologna FC
and
Real Sociedad
were being wound down.
[13]
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]