When the chips are down

The last 18 months has provided a perfect storm for vehicle production, and a perfect tailwind for used vehicle demand. Lockdowns forced down time for vehicle manufacturers, chip production has been under severe strain for the same reason, and available supply has shifted aware from vehicles to consumer electronics. Add in global supply chain bottlenecks, and new car production has become a nightmare. In the third quarter of 2021, orders of new vehicles in the US were at least 13% lower year on year, CNBC reports. The pandemic also changed how consumers buy and sell cars. Hans Christ, CEO of Bipi, told us that "before Covid, 99% of cars were bought and transacted in a physical place." Just looking at the shirt sponsors of the Premier League will tell you that's no longer the case.

VC investment in used car marketplaces reached €5.3 billion in 2021 year-to-date, a 56% increase year-on-year. There are now 12 unicorns in the category, 3 of which hit the $1B+ valuation this year. Used car marketplaces are increasingly embedding fintech solutions to reduce transaction friction and increase customer lifetime value. For example, Cazoo and Kavak offer digitally-approved financing. Cazoo also bundles insurance. Alex Chesterman, Founder & CEO of Cazoo, told us that "the acceleration in the shift to online retail has been partly enabled through the increased integration of financial products and services".

Read more in our report on fintech-enabled marketplaces, and see every car marketplace round.

Latest online marketplace deals

Select deals from last week:

🇺🇸 Dutchie, an Oregon-based cannabis marketplace, raised $350 million at $3.8 billion valuation. It has more than doubled its headcount and valuation since March this year. Legal marijuana sales in the US are expected to reach $24 billion in 2021 and grow to $70 billion by 2028. Dutchie is not the only game in town. There are 110 marketplaces and direct-to-consumer cannabis companies in the US alone.

🇺🇸 Outschool, an SF-based online education platform for kinds, raised $110 million Series D at $3.0 billion valuation, a 2.2x increase since its previous round in April this year. Outschool is part of a larger trend where passionate individuals monetize their knowledge. Explore the landscape of the passion economy.

🇮🇳 CarDekho, an India-based marketplace for new and used cars, raised $250 million in debt and equity, becoming the latest marketplace unicorn. This year has seen an increased interest in car search marketplaces in India. Investors poured €870 million in Indian used car marketplaces, a 3x increase year-on-year. Competition has been heating up. Rival CARS24 received $340 million backing in September from SoftBank and DST Global, among others. And ride-hailing company Ola started a used car marketplace in June.

Other promising marketplace deals from the last week: 

🇮🇳 Melorra, a direct-to-consumer jewellery brand based in Bengaluru, raised $24 million to update its technology stack and invest in marketing.

🇰🇷 KREAM, a South Korean online shop for sneakers, secured $85 million from SoftBank, Altos Ventures and Mirae Asset & Capital.

🇪🇸 Top Doctors, a Barcelona-based digital healthcare platform, raised $13 million to make healthcare more accessible.

Read up on all the latest marketplaces deals in Dealroom.co

Notable exits:

🛍 Delivery Hero acquired Hugo's food delivery and quick commerce business in Central America. Hugo is a leading marketplace in the region and a run rate Gross Merchandise Value of $150 million. Hugo offers 24 digital services, including food and grocery delivery, logistics, digital payments, ticket booking, and more. It

🏋️ The leading wellness platform Mindbody (owned by Vista Equity Partners) acquired ClassPass, a platform with thousands of online classes and gyms to book classes at. The transaction brings two of the most prominent wellness companies together, creating a one-stop shop for consumers and business owners.

Read up on all the latest marketplaces exits in Dealroom.co

In other news

✈️ Airbnb CEO Says There Will Be a New Golden Age of Travel (video interview).

💳 Fintech-Enabled Marketplaces: An Interview with Pete Flint of NFX. We recently published a whole report on the topic.

🛒 Shopify is teaming up with Microsoft and Oracle, among others, to consolidate merchants’ commerce operations via Reuters.

💄 Same-Day Delivery Now Available at Sephora via Pymnts.

📆 The Marketplace Conference agenda is out (below) and packed with awesome content.

🛫 AliExpress Unveils Innovative Logistics Solutions via Yahoo News.

We're hiring! If you are interested in delivering industry-leading research (or working in product, sales or marketing), check out our jobs page, or reply to this email.

Tip of the week

There are 268 private marketplace unicorns as of today. Using Dealroom's Landscape view feature, we've grouped them by industry. If you click on the industry label on each box (e.g. fashion), the app takes you to a list of only private marketplace unicorns in that industry. For further insights, you could sort startups on growth signals (e.g. "employee growth in the last 12 months").

Job opportunities

Glovo is hiring a Product Design Lead in Barcelona. See other 167 job openings.

Oda is looking for a Pricing Analyst in its Oslo office. Check out all 19 job openings.

Cazoo is searching for Product Manager - Market Valuations in London. Have a look at the other 42 vacancies.

Discover 91k jobs openings at marketplace startups. (login for full results)

Dive in

💰 Marketplaces VC investment heatmap

🦄 468 marketplaces unicorns and $1B exits

📈 The fastest growing European marketplaces by headcount increase

Ivan Draganov

Senior Innovation Analyst
Dealroom

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