Online car dealer Cazoo crashes into insolvency putting jobs at risk

Cazoo has appointed administrators after the former British tech unicorn crashed into insolvency, putting more than 200 jobs at risk.

The online used car business, founded by former Zoopla boss Alex Chesterman, on Tuesday confirmed the appointment of administrators from Teneo, who will seek to sell off Cazoo’s remaining market place business.

The collapse marks an end for Cazoo, which was once a darling of the British tech sector and was valued at more than £6.3billion (€7.4 billion) after floating on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021.

The heavily loss-making business came under pressure from rising interest rates and increasing competition from rivals who copied its online sales model.

More recently, it has been hit by a collapse in the value of used cars and fears that demand for electric vehicles has stalled.

Talks continuing with hopes of eventual takeover

Cazoo had cut 728 jobs since the start of March after launching dramatic cost-cutting efforts in an effort to stay afloat.

The insolvency experts have said they will retain the firm’s 208 remaining staff for the time being during the administration process.

Matt Mawhinney, joint administrator at Teneo, said: “We continue to progress discussions with a number of interested parties on the marketplace business and remaining customer collections centres.

“The marketplace model is performing ahead of expectations, with strong dealer sign up, and the administration appointment provides us with an opportunity to secure a sale of the business over the course of coming weeks.”

Cazoo launched its dramatic restructuring in March and has since sold its entire vehicle inventory and transitioned into a pure marketplace platform for people looking to buy and sell cars.

The process saw it sell a number of repair centre and customer collection centres to Constellation Group, the rival firm behind Cinch and WeBuyAnyCar.