Car buying website Gettacar reported it won a new $25 million round of funding.
The industry sprint to give consumers more digital choices won a big financial tailwind with a multi-million dollar infusion of cash for online car buying site Gettacar. The startup that began operations in 2018 announced Monday $25 million in funding bringing its fundraising total to $48 million through three rounds over approximately two years.
This latest round was led by 3L and Luxor Capital, Gettacar said in a statement. Torch Capital also participated. The company said the new funding would be used to invest in “customer experience, expand into additional markets and product development.”
Based in Philadelphia, Gettacar counts as differentiators the ability for customers to complete the purchase of a vehicle online in as little as 12 minutes, receive real-time finance options, 365 day warranty, at-home test drives and the option of returning the vehicle in seven days if they’re dissatisfied with it.
Vehicles for sale on Gettacar are generally three to four years old with 30,000-40,000 miles on their odometers, according to founder and CEO Yossi Levi.
He contends unlike some other online vehicle sales sites his company is as focused on the post-sale ownership experience as well as closing deals through a more locally-focused business model.
Yossi Levy, founder and CEO of car buying website Gettacar.
“We’ve taken a very calculated hyper local approach to growth, less concerned with breadth, more concerned with depth,” explained Levi in an interview with Forbes.com. “We enter a market, building out a very local presence where we can service the customer better. We’re not shipping cars to California or Canada because that's not in the best interest of our customer experience.”
Jon Keidan, Founder and Managing Partner, Torch Capital was already familiar with Levi’s experience in the used car field and was impressed by how he used it to set Gettacar apart from competitors such as Carvana, Vroom or Shift.
Jon Keidan, Founder and Managing Partner, Torch Capital.
“What attracted us is his market, his approach, the DNA of him as a founder and his ability to be so razor focused on the customer experience and how it’s changing and how he’s going to be able to change that for the customer,” said Keidan in an interview. “This is the beginning, not the end of the financing relationship with us.”
That sentiment was echoed by Shawn Colo, Co-Founder of 3L who said, in a statement, “Gettacar delivers tremendous value for its customers by controlling every aspect of retailing in house.”
No doubt Gettacar’s financial performance provided added confidence in the investment. In its announcement regarding this latest round of fundraising Gettacar said it saw a 186% year-over-year increase in sales growth in 2020 and projected a 210% growth this year.
Levi acknowledges part of that growth may be due to the Covid-19 pandemic surmising, “There's no doubt it accelerated the trend in the industry.”
Currently available in seven U.S. markets that include New York City and Washington, D.C. the company said it plans to launch in an unspecified number of additional markets in 2021.
Gettacar’s Yossi Levi says further rounds of fundraising may yet be in the offing as the company seeks to broaden its service areas.
“We have our foot on the gas pedal,” said Levi. “We're moving as quickly and efficiently as possible in order to scale, but do so, while delivering the best experience and we've made that a pillar of our business otherwise we'd be delivering all over the country. We definitely have full intentions of continue growing and growing even faster.”
