Used car marketplace Cazoo was one of Europe's highest-valued startups when it floated on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021. But since then its share price has plummeted 99%, it's withdrawn from the EU altogether and its market cap now stands at just $83m. So what happened? "They raised huge amounts of money at an extremely aggressive valuation, which forced them to try for hypergrowth,” one source close to the company tells Sifted. "Cazoo didn’t know how to effectively invest the money they were given."
One investor close to the company when it floated also tells Sifted the timing of the IPO "was the worst in history".
Freya Pratty digs into what went wrong. Also from the Sifted newsroom: |
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💰 Series A+ -
Dexter Energy, an AI-powered company that forecasts renewable power generation for energy companies, has raised a €10.5m Series B.
- The UK's Yonder, a credit card with a rewards programme, has raised £62.5m in Series A funding from investors including Northzone. £50m of the raise was debt.
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Ariceum Therapeutics, a company developing treatments for hard-to-treat cancers, has raised an additional €22.75m in Series A funding.
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💰 Undisclosed - Dutch startup Factris, which finances unpaid business invoices, has drummed up €50m.
- Challenger mobile network Honest Mobile has raised £3m.
- Minagro, which makes sustainable products for crops, has raised €1.2m.
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Sadia Nowshin Editorial Assistant |
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