armoola, a new online motor financing platform trying to slash car financing paperwork, has been backed by Jaguar Land Rover.
The company has raised £27 million, with cash coming from InMotion Ventures, the Jaguar Land Rover investment fund, along with seed funder Venture Friends, BCI and California-based Clocktower Ventures.
The London-based start-up has been co-founded by British and Ukrainian team of former Movebubble execs Aidan Rushby, Roman Sumnikov and Igor Gordiichuk, and former Zoopla executive Amy McKechnie.
The Carmoola service is aimed at providing consumers with a budget and finance decision to purchase a car within sixty seconds and allows them to purchase a vehicle instantly with a virtual card online. It works with online car retailers like Cazoo and dealerships.
Rushby said: “If you think about all the tech innovations that have happened in most of the consumer sectors, whether that might be retail banking or credit cards, or even buy now pay later solutions, then consumers have access to really great products.
“If you look at car finance it hasn’t been changed for some time, so the consumer is paying for all the inefficiencies and all the old technology.”
Alex Smout, principal at InMotion Ventures, said: “Carmoola has reinvented how people pay for cars, focusing on transparency and flexibility to give consumers confidence in the process and access to a greater range of vehicles.”
Apostolos Apostolakis, partner at Venture Friends, added: “Consumer fintech has been driven by improved user experience, but the process for applying for used car finance is opaque and frustrating. Carmoola has transformed the process into a user-centric app that we’re confident will become consumer’s preferred option to finance their next car.”
Rushby exited online property rental platform Movebubble in February last year after selling his stake in the venture. He stepped down from the company after seven years at the helm.