Online car-buying start-up Gettacar announced $25 million round of funding, saying that it will use the capital to continue investing in the customer experience, expanding into new markets and developing products.
3L and Luxor Capital led the round of funding, with additional participation from Torch Capital.
The latest round brought the total funding for Gettacar to $48 million.
Gettacar founder and chief executive officer Yossi Levi said the company’s consumer offerings include 48-hour deliveries, at-home test driving, and a 365-day bumper-to-bumper protection and maintenance package included with every car.
Currently available in seven U.S. markets, including New York and Washington, D.C., Gettacar operates offices in the Greater Philadelphia area and Tel Aviv, Israel.
The company last year saw a 186% year-over-year increase in sales growth, with a 210% year-over-year sales growth projected for this year. Gettacar plans to launch in additional U.S. markets this year.
The company launched in 2018, with a focus on building proprietary technologies and consumer-first guarantees. Car buyers can buy online in as little as 12 minutes with real-time online financing options. Buyers get seven days to decide whether they’d like to keep the car. Every Gettacar vehicle comes with the Gettacar Guarantee, the 365-day bumper-to-bumper protection and maintenance package.
“Consumers now expect a fully digital and seamless car buying experience,” 3L co-founder Shawn Colo said in a news release. “Gettacar delivers tremendous value for its customers by controlling every aspect of retailing in house, and we are thrilled to continue partnering with Yossi and team.”
Levi of Gettacar said buying a car is a huge decision for nearly every person going through the process.
But that’s just the first step, Levi said.
“Then there’s the stress of car upkeep and maintenance, which is why we built Gettacar around a simple philosophy: Create the best car buying and ownership experience.”
Levi also said, “Gettacar is a unique online car buying platform that is entirely focused on the customer experience from day one and represents the future of car buying.”
Gettacar said that with its vertically integrated business model, it can quality-control its inventory by keeping inventory acquisition, logistics, reconditioning and merchandising in-house.
"Yossi and the Gettacar team have done an incredible job combining their deep understanding of the traditional used car space, their obsession with user satisfaction and impressive tech acumen to create a seamless, world-class consumer experience and change the way people buy cars for many years ahead," Torch Capital founder and managing partner Jon Keidan said.
Automated imaging company Black Widow said this week that it has recently secured an infusion of cash through a third round of private equity financing totaling $1.5 million.
That funding adds to the $3.5 million it raised a little less than a year ago from private investors and family offices.
Black Widow said in a news release that the money will help the company upgrade its imaging technology to its new 4K system, expand its workforce and meet inventory demands. Since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company indicated demand for digital imaging services “has soared.”
To recap, Black Widow offers auto auctions and dealers a drive-through camera system that can capture images and 360-degree virtual tours within seconds.
The company said the clarity of images is often the centerpiece of assurance and trust when transacting online and is a critical component of condition reports.
Black Widow chief executive officer Jason Hauk described how important the funding help will be to the company.
“This funding supports another chapter in the growth and innovation of Black Widow. Auctions and dealers are increasingly buying remotely and online. Clear, consistent and reliable imaging of the inventory they are purchasing is critical for auctions and dealers to feel assured of what they are buying,” Hauk said.
Black Widow provides an imaging system capable of capturing high-quality images in seconds. Images are uploaded to an auction or dealer’s software allowing them to market faster and transact with their customers with a higher level of assurance.
The company said current image capturing mostly involves a paid photographer using a smartphone that can often produce “inconsistent, poorly lit, weather impacting lower quality images.”
Black Widow said its images are “high quality” because they are captured with consistent angles, lighting and clarity.
“Black Widow’s speed in capturing and uploading images is also more efficient than the labor-intensive processes that is inherent with using a smartphone,” the company said.
The funding arrived not long after Black Widow recruited former ADESA technology leader Chris Dillow to be its chief technology officer.
The company said Dillow is ensuring that Black Widow’s information systems continue to scale with its rapid growth in the remarketing space.
“Through high-end image technology, the company is focused on helping auctions and dealers become increasingly more efficient while enhancing the quality, consistency and timeliness of the online experience,” Black Widow said.
Cover Genius announced a major injection of funds on Thursday.
The global insurtech firm whose insurance distribution platform provides protection for the customers of some of the world’s largest online companies has raised $10 million in a Series B funding round.
Cover Genius said the funds will support the company’s investment in talent and its continued global growth across the U.S., the U.K. and into Asia.
The round was led by King River Capital, the Sydney and California-based venture capital firm and includes participation by the New York-based Belfer Family, London-based Jasper Tans, the Australian-based pre-IPO fund, Regal Funds Management and Marinya Capital.
Executives recapped that the company’s insurance distribution technology provides regulated insurance policies that can integrate into online point of sale and signup paths in more than 60 countries and 50 U.S. states. Cover Genius can pay approved claims via its instant payments platform in more than 90 currencies.
Since 2014, the company founded by Angus McDonald and Chris Bayley has enabled millions of customers worldwide to purchase insurance from their favorite online brands.
Speaking on the announcement, McDonald said in a news release, “The insurance industry has been held back by legacy systems and a lack of global coordination and customer-centricity for decades. We sought to change that and create simple, yet useful, policies, streamline the claims process and enable the world’s largest online companies to protect their global customers.”
“Customer needs have evolved and today they want protection for a variety of items like sports equipment, pets, electronics, contracting work, jewelry, flight tickets and cars. We are evolving the insurance experience to cover all of the things they care about and purchase online,” he continued.
Chris Barter, Partner at King River Capital, said that Cover Genius had tapped into the growing need for more customer-centric insurance solutions on a global scale.
“Their extraordinary growth over the past few years is no surprise when you look at the many friction points for customers that they have resolved and the opportunities they provide for partners to offer protection to all their worldwide customers and increase customer loyalty,” Barter said.
“We are pleased to support their ongoing growth and continued international expansion,” Barter added.
This latest funding round follows small Seed and Series A funding rounds. The business has largely been bootstrapped and profitable since its founding in 2014.
“Early on we bootstrapped the company and since then have built a highly profitable global insurtech business in just over five years,” McDonald said.
“This latest round of funding will help us build out our bi-coastal U.S. presence, European and Asian operations and expand in half a dozen new countries in line with the needs of our global partners and customers,” he went on to say.
