Car finance fintech Carmoola in full swing with its £95m NatWest debt facility

“Used car financing couldn’t be more ready for a fintech revolution.”

Image source: Igor Gordiichuk, Amy McKechnie, Aidan Rushby, Danny Armstrong & Roman Sumnikov/Carmoola.

Car finance fintech Carmoola has raised £103.5m in a mix of debt and equity to “revolutionise” the way people pay for cars in the UK.

The British-Ukrainian start-up, which launched just 10 months ago, raised £8.5m Series A alongside a £95m debt facility from NatWest.

Hoping to liberate the “archaic, slow and backward” car finance market, Carmoola aims to provide its customers with a new fintech-forward product in the form of “neo-car finance”.

“Used car finance couldn’t be more ready for a fintech revolution,” said Carmoola CEO Aidan Rushby.

“Consumers want the freedom to shop anywhere, and know what they can spend, without sending out reams of forms and payslips.”

According to Carmoola, it has reduced the typically lengthy process of completing a car purchase from days to “just minutes”.

It says it uses exclusive proprietary technology and systems that enable a streamlined process, providing customers with a budget and a free history check on the car.

“Frustrated consumers are being cornered by over-pricing, manipulated commissions and poor customer service, but it’s the very process of obtaining finance that is at the heart of the problem,” Rushby continued.

“It’s full of paperwork, long processes and a lack of security, but most importantly, car financing is achieved after the consumer has fallen in love with the car they want, which puts them completely on the back foot. Until now, that is.”

Carmoola says its technology allows payments to be made online instantly and within 60 seconds in person at a showroom.

It plans to use the funds from the round – led by US-based fintech specialists QED Investors and with participation from existing investors VentureFriends and Jaguar Land Rover’s investment arm InMotion Ventures – to scale the businesses and support growing demand by expanding the team.

“Having failed to adapt to modern consumer expectations, the car finance industry has been caught off guard by the new car finance brand Carmoola, which champions the consumer at every stage of the process,” QED Investors partner and head of Europe Yusuf Özdalga said.

“Carmoola is poised to dominate the car finance sector with a game-changing approach to procurement.”