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CarWoo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

CarWoo was an online new car shopping pricing and information website that allowed consumers to buy cars by negotiating with car dealers in a semi-anonymous online reverse auction. CarWoo, whose logo also appears as CarWoo!, was a competitor to TrueCar, which was a similar but negotiation-free car buying platform.

Operations

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Carwoo was an anonymous automobile marketplace that enabled its users to purchase cars without providing personal information to dealers until after an offer was made and accepted. Once a buyer accepted an offer, their information was transferred to the dealer.[1] Rather than buyers bidding up the price, salespeople bid the selling price lower.[2]

History

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CarWoo was founded in Burlingame, California by Tommy McClung, a serial entrepreneur who previously co-founded IMSafer. [3] They received seed money and advice from Y Combinator.

On October 13, 2010 the firm launched their marketplace and received a Series A round of financing,[4] $6 Million, led by Interwest Partners, Comcast Interactive Capital, Blumberg Capital, Accelerator Ventures, Raymond Tonsing and Dillon McDonald.[5] In 2011, the firm received a Series B round of funding in the amount of $6 million, mostly from the same investors. [6] By the end of 2011, their network included 11,000 car dealerships. By July 2012, this figure grew to over 13,000.

In 2013 McClung announced CarWoo needed at least an additional $50 million to sustain their growth rate and remain in business.[7] He would spend most of 2013 travelling to major investors trying to secure this additional operating capital.

Attempts to raise additional capital repeatedly failed,[8] and on January 20, 2014 the firm closed.[1] Its assets were acquired by TrueCar, their leading competitor.[9] TrueCar also hired nine employees, including McClung, who was later promoted to Chief Technology and Product Officer at TrueCar, Inc.[8]

References

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  1. ^ a b ""Pressure-Free" Car Buying Service CarWoo! Shuts Down". TechCrunch. 21 January 2014. Retrieved 2019-02-28.
  2. ^ "CarWoo Launches CarWoo Version 2 To Keep Car Buyers Even More Informed". TechCrunch. 4 February 2011. Retrieved 2019-02-28.
  3. ^ by (2012-07-11). "Co-Founder and CEO of CarWoo! Explains The Seven Needs of Online Buyers". Digital Dealer. Retrieved 2019-02-28.
  4. ^ "CarWoo unveils a better way to buy a car". VentureBeat. 2010-10-13. Retrieved 2019-02-28.
  5. ^ FinSMEs (2010-10-13). "CarWoo! Closes $6M Series A Financing". FinSMEs. Retrieved 2019-02-28.
  6. ^ "CarWoo! Fuels Up with $6M". www.vcnewsdaily.com. Retrieved 2019-02-28.
  7. ^ "CarWoo Runs Out of Investment Cash, Shuts Down". www.carbuyingtips.com. Retrieved 2019-05-31.
  8. ^ a b "How CarWoo's Business Stalled". Inc.com. 2014-02-04. Retrieved 2019-02-28.
  9. ^ "CarWoo Runs Out of Investment Cash, Shuts Down". www.carbuyingtips.com. Retrieved 2021-03-16.