Cazoo has followed its New York Stock Exchange public listing with a £25 million acquisition of data insights platform Cazana.
Cazana’s subsidiary Car & Classic did not form part of the deal and chief executive Tom Wood and chief operating officer Chris Varin will remain with that business.
However, Wood and Varin will be supporting the integration of the Cazana business with Cazoo “in the coming months”.
Founded in 2012, Cazana has grown to a team of more than 50 staff including data scientists and engineers headquartered in London.
The company’s products include real-time vehicle valuation, pricing and stock management tools.
Alex Chesterman OBE, founder and chief executive of Cazoo, said: “Cazana has built one of the leading data insights platforms, providing tools which are used by manufacturers, lenders, fleet owners and insurers in the automotive space.
“This acquisition will enhance our data team and capabilities and enable us to further optimise our buying and pricing of vehicles across the UK and Europe.”
Since launch, Cazana has built a dataset of over 500 million historic vehicle transactions from over 40 countries including the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy and its tools are used by car manufacturers, lenders, fleet owners and insurers.
Wood said: “I am very proud of what we have built and what the Cazana team has achieved over the past few years.
“Cazoo has a clear vision and strategy to provide the best full stack car buying and selling experience across Europe and by joining forces, the Cazana team, data and products will continue to play a key part in accelerating the digital transformation of the industry. Chris and I are excited to be continuing our journey leading Car & Classic whilst supporting the integration of the Cazana business with Cazoo over the coming months.”
Cazoo reported an £8m gross profit in Q2 after its online used car retail volumes surged by 429% a year on from the first COVID-19 lockdown period.