Online used-car marketplace Instamotor said Tuesday that financing is now available through its platform.

Instamotor is working with direct-to-consumer auto finance companies to secure the financing for its customers, who now will be able to buy a vehicle and apply for/receive financing for the purchase through the same platform, the company said.

“We want to provide that end-to-end experience for consumers, end-to-end experience for dealers to make the whole process much easier, and that includes financing,” Instamotor co-founder and chief operating officer Val Gui said during a presentation at last month’s Used Car Week conference, where the financing option was first announced.  

“Because consumers need financing, and traditionally, it’s been really hard to do online.”

The company is aiming to help change that for dealers and consumers, including those with lower credit scores.

Financing on Instamotor purchase will be an option for consumers with FICO scores as low as 500, the company said.  

In addition to this being a benefit to shoppers who may otherwise struggle to find financing, the company said this can also benefit independent dealers who list their cars on the site.

“We work with a lot of dealers who don’t offer any type of financing or would have trouble getting approvals for low FICO score customers, so in these situations it’s beneficial to both them and their shoppers,” Gui said in a news release.

“Using Instamotor, these dealers get access to pre-qualified, serious buyers. Not to mention, it’s completely free for them to list with us,” he said.

Previously focusing solely on the peer-to-peer space, Instamotor announced in September it would begin letting dealers list cars on the platform.

Gui is a former dealer himself, having worked for Victory Automotive Group before co-launching Instamotor with its chief executive Sy Bohy in 2014.

His presentation at Used Car Week touched on online financing for used-car dealers and what makes the Instamotor platform stand out.

Available in California and Texas, the app has been downloaded more than 500,000 times via iOS and Android devices.  

While that might be “relatively small” compared to the traffic by some of the giants in the online car shopping space, “what we do know about these users is that they’re much more likely to make a purchase,” Gui said.

The users are more engaged than a casual shopper who might just be browsing before deciding what to buy, he said. “They’re much lower down the purchase funnel. And we have that superior mobile experience.

“That’s really how we see ourselves as being differentiated when it comes to attracting users and attracting those millennials,” Gui said. “Because we can provide that fully integrated process of doing your research, finding the car, applying for (financing) and eventually going to the dealer and getting out of there in 30 minutes or an hour.”