The biggest car buying service in Nigeria, Cars45, has successfully raised $45 million in Series A funding. This money will be used to scale up and improve the company’s online services; enhancing the buying and selling experience of its customers.
Cars45 was launched last year, with one mantra in mind; help Nigerians sell their cars under just 45 minutes. And do it in the safest, fastest, and smartest way possible. Customers can visit the site and enter their vehicle’s information and get a quick and free valuation. If the customer finds the price given satisfactory, he or she can then proceed to make an appointment with one of the Car45 inspection centers to have the physical inspection of the vehicle done.
Should the car pass Car45’s multi-point physical evaluation; which takes a thorough look at the engine, tires, brakes, and road tests. An offer will be made leading up to an agreement, at which point money will be wired to the seller within 45 minutes.
After that, the vehicle will be put up on the startup’s online platform with the pricing and a digital service history. Buyers looking to purchase cars can then come to the site and review the cars, and if they are comfortable with the price, the can initiate the purchase process.
How Cars45 monetize its service
The startup has not made public just exactly how much is their sales volume or their revenue, but they say they have been actively buying and selling cars from their launch date. They also disclosed that currently, they make most of the money from the fees charged to buyers. They also say they are planning to introduce additional streams of revenue in the future.
The funds raised from this Series A round of funding came from a list of investors, which includes Frontier Car Group, a company that builds and manages marketplaces targeting emerging markets in the auto industry.
“The used-car market in Nigeria is generally a big hassle. There’s so much mistrust, no vehicle history, and not much of a structured dealer network. We’ve created something that changes all that, offering transparency, speed, convenience, and safety in a highly frictional and opaque market,” said Etop Ikpe, the CEO of Cars45.
