Cazoo

Cazoo, founded by Alex Chesterman in 2018, sold used cars entirely online with home delivery, raising £180m from investors including DMG Ventures, General Catalyst and Mubadala before launch and within its first 18 months, then listing on the New York Stock Exchange in August 2021 through a SPAC merger at a valuation of around $8bn. It spent heavily on marketing, sports sponsorship, logistics and European expansion while losses rose from £103m in 2020 to £329m in 2021; rising interest rates and 2022 stock shortages squeezed margins. A $630m debt-for-equity swap in late 2023 handed control to bondholders, and in early 2024 the company cut about 700 jobs and pivoted to a marketplace model. On 21 May 2024 Cazoo Holdings Limited, Cazoo Ltd and Cazoo Properties Limited entered administration with David Soden and Matthew Mawhinney of Teneo. Motors.co.uk bought the Cazoo brand and website in June 2024.

Motors.co.uk acquired the Cazoo brand, website and technology (administrators booked £2.63m plus £2.4m deferred) and relaunched cazoo.co.uk as a marketplace in April 2025; the wholesale arm went to G3 and some assets to Constellation Automotive. Teneo's report listed £259m owed to 10,107 creditors; Cazoo Ltd was renamed CL 1 Realisations Ltd and the administration was extended by the High Court to May 2028.

Cheap capital let Cazoo buy growth through marketing, sponsorship and inventory before unit economics worked, and the administrators concluded costs outpaced revenue throughout. When interest rates rose, used-car demand and the company's ability to refinance fell together. The pivot to an asset-light marketplace came too late to be funded.