Shift
Technologies, an online marketplace for used cars, has closed a Series D
financing round of more than $140 million in equity and debt.
The round,
which consists of about $70 million in debt and $71 million in equity, was led
by automotive retailer Lithia Motors. Bryan DeBoer, CEO and president of
Lithia, will join Shift’s board of directors.
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investors Alliance Ventures, BMW iVentures, DCM, DFJ, G2VP, Goldman Sachs
Investment Partners and Highland Capital also participated. This new capital
brings Shift’s total financing of equity and debt to $265 million.
Shift, which
is based in San Francisco, serves car buyers and sellers. The company, founded
in 2013, has built a software platform that lets customers shop for cars, get
financing and schedule test drives. Car owners can use the platform to sell
their vehicle, as well. Shift says any car it buys must pass a “rigorous” 150+
point inspection.
The company
plans to invest in its technology platform and scale its engineering staff from
35 to more than 80 people by the end of 2019, CEO George Arison told TechCrunch
in an email. Shift employs 380 people.
The company’s platform has focused on scaling in California; it covers about 80
percent of that market. But the company has long had its sights set on expanding
beyond the Golden State.
Shift is
focused on, and is heavily investing in, its peer-to-peer business, in which
the company acquires cars from individuals and then sells them. Buying,
refurbishing and then selling cars online is a logistics-heavy business
pursuit, and one that has seen a number of competitors come and go in the past
several years. But Arison says the company has not just survived; it has grown.
Shift didn’t
provide revenue numbers. But Arison cited the company’s more than 70 percent
revenue growth in the past six months as an example of the company’s success.
The company
did have a partnership with rental giant Hertz, but that has since ended. At
the time, Shift was going to feature vehicles from Hertz’s fleet inventory. It
was meant to be a win-win: Hertz gets access to a new retail sales channel and
Shift benefits from the rental car company’s ready supply of lightly used cars.
The
partnership ended after Hertz opened its own retail stores that competed
against Shift.
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