Uniqa Ventures backs up Greek automotive platform Spotawheel
With a digital marketplace for second-hand cars, the Greek startup Spotawheel has been convincing since its foundation in 2015. The Athens-based startup raised $110 million in a Series B financing round. Uniqa Ventures is also involved in the round. This is one of the largest financing rounds that has ever taken place in the Greek market. With the fresh capital, Spotawheel, which is already active in Greece, Germany, and Poland, wants to expand into Romania.
Uniqa Ventures focuses on Central and Eastern Europe
The Greek investment firm VentureFriends is leading the round, along with Adevinta Ventures, Uniqa Ventures, Rockaway Ventures, Velocity Partners, FJ Labs, Collective Spark, and a mix of European credit and banking institutions. The investment in Spotawheel is very suitable for Uniqa Ventures. The venture capital subsidiary of the insurance company UNIQA has focused, among other things, on the Central and Eastern European region and is always looking for potential unicorns there. In addition to the “traditional” verticals such as fintech, insurtech, and digital health, the investment company also invests in mobility.
Spotawheel is the fastest growing used car platform in Europe, using efficient and customer-centric proprietary technology to empower people to buy a reliable car. Thanks to its algorithms, the Greek startup promises to be immune to the current global supply bottlenecks. The startup is aiming for a five-fold increase in the range of vehicles on its platforms this year by expanding its in-house processing capacity to 50,000 vehicles per year.
The funding is also intended to drive the growth of the team, which is set to increase by more than 700 employees over the next twelve months. The company is currently building teams across Western Europe. At the same time, the young company will be working on new online customer offers in the coming quarters.
Spotawheel promises maximum transparency
The young company wants to offer its customers maximum transparency. There are written technical inspections for the second-hand cars, a free test drive, a guarantee of up to five years, a right of return for seven or 14 days, and contact-free purchases. Spotawheel is said to be able to predict demand, supply, market trends, and reasonable valuations with high precision thanks to its algorithms. According to the startup, more than 60% of Spotawheel customers use the contactless online shopping function.
