Volvo’s venture capital arm, Volvo Cars Tech Fund, has acquired a strategic minority stake in carwow.
The Swedish automaker did not specify how much it has spent on its carwow investment, nor how much of a stake it now holds in the online marketplace. Volvo did say that the investment will allow it to “gain valuable insights in areas such as online sales, customer acquisition and content creation, which will help its shift towards online and direct customer relationships.”
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Volvo and carwow have worked together in the past, including collaborations on the carmaker’s subscription service while also driving traffic and sales leads to Volvo and its retail partners.
“Third-party marketplaces play a key role in any consumer industry, which includes the competitive landscape of Volvo Cars,” Volvo chief commercial officer Lex Kerssemakers said in a statement. “We were one of the first car manufacturers committed to shift to online sales, and through this strategic partnership, we will learn and gain insights into online buying behaviour. Our collaboration with carwow will help us and our retail partners to grow volumes and reach our target of selling around half of our volume online by 2025.”
While you may be most familiar with carwow through its popular YouTube channel, the company also operates an online marketplace for buying and selling cars and has established itself as one of the market leaders in the UK, Germany, and Spain for online sales of new cars. It employs more than 400 people across Europe.
“Volvo Cars and carwow have the same ambitions: to make buying a car online easy and seamless, and to help consumers switch to electric cars,” added the head of the Volvo Cars Tech Fund, Alexander Petrofski. “Our investment in carwow is a good example of how the Volvo Cars Tech Fund aims to support the overall strategic direction of the company.”
