Cazoo

Cazoo was a London-based online used car platform founded in 2018 by Alex Chesterman, the serial entrepreneur behind Zoopla and LoveFilm. The company aimed to bring the Carvana model to Europe, allowing consumers to buy, finance, and have used cars delivered to their door. Cazoo went public via SPAC on the NYSE in 2021 at a valuation of around $7 billion and expanded aggressively into France, Germany, Spain, and Italy. However, rapid cash burn and a cooling market led to a retreat from continental Europe and a delisting from the NYSE in 2024. Cazoo's trajectory became a cautionary tale in European tech about the risks of capital-intensive consumer marketplaces scaling too fast.