70 million euros for Berlin used car startup Car On Sale

Existing investor HV Capital is following suit. The Berlin-based early-stage investor joined the Series B in 2021. Insight Partners and former Daimler CEO Zetsche are also involved.

Car On Sale aims to become the leading digital marketplace for B2B used car sales in Europe. The Berlin-based startup has now received €70 million from both existing and new investors.

The round was led by the global venture capital fund Northzone together with existing investor HV Capital . Insight Partners, Stripes, and Creandum also participated in the Series C round. Former Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche also holds shares in the company, having joined as a business angel in 2019.

This brings the total investment to over 135 million euros. Castle Tech GmbH, the company behind Car on Sale, recently raised around 51 million euros (60 million dollars) in a Series B in 2021. The valuation is not disclosed.

With the €70 million financing, Car On Sale is above the European average for late-stage financing, according to Pitchbook information . And that's without being an AI startup. While the company has the potential to bring AI to a previously very traditional industry, says Northzone partner Sanjot Malhi, Car On Sale's software ecosystem is not yet AI-based.

According to the Federal Motor Transport Authority, the number of new car registrations fell year-on-year in 2024, but car ownership transfers increased by 5.7 percent compared to the previous year.

Car On Sale offers professional dealers and OEMs a digital B2B auction platform for used cars . Through showrooms, buyers, i.e. car dealers, can participate in daily vehicle auctions and expand their used car fleet.

Sellers, i.e., licensed dealers and OEMs, can advertise and have their used cars appraised free of charge via Car On Sale. If a vehicle is successfully marketed through the platform, the OEMs pay €99, according to the company. The startup advertises fewer downtimes and a higher margin than traditional offline retail.

Tom Krüger, Fabian Roth, and Oguz Özgüler founded Car On Sale in 2018. Krüger, a former BCG consultant, dropped out of his doctorate at RWTH Aachen University to found CarOnSale. Roth, who also dropped out of his doctorate in Information Systems at FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg, did the same when CarOnSale received seed funding in 2019.

Roth and Krüger both earned their bachelor's degrees at the same time from FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg. Before joining Car On Sale, Roth worked as a software engineer at the Mercedes-Benz R&D Center in San Francisco. Car On Sale is now an official Mercedes-Benz partner for the marketing of leased returns and demonstration vehicles in Europe.

Özgüler brings experience in the used car trade to the founding team. He was a self-employed used car dealer for seven years before managing the used car division at a car dealership in Nuremberg. He reportedly met Krüger and Roth through a mutual childhood friend.

The founding trio leads the company together with Maximilian Schilling, who joined the company in 2019 and has been Chief Operating Officer since 2022. He holds a degree in business administration from St. Gallen and is a former Bain consultant.

With the fresh capital, they plan to expand across Europe, expand their product and service offerings, and strengthen their position as the market leader in digital vehicle trading. The startup also plans to expand its team, which currently consists of around 50 employees.

In Europe, Car On Sale isn't the only startup with funding in the used car business. Founded in 2023, Madrid-based Dealcar raised €3 million in a seed round in early 2025, including funding from Entourage and 4 Founders Capital. Dealcar develops AI-powered management solutions for car dealerships.

The British online used car dealer Motorway recently raised around €160 million ($190 million) in a Series C funding round in 2021 and has since been considered a unicorn. Index Venture, Iconiq Capital, and BMW i Ventures are among the investors.

In Germany, players such as Auto1, Cardino, and Cox Automotive Remarketing are active in the used car market. Auto1 and Cardino target private customers. The examples of Heycar and Abracar demonstrate that the used car business isn't a sure-fire success. In April 2025, Volkswagen was forced to shut down its Heycar used car platform . This was due to a lack of dealer commitment and excessive costs, it was cited. Five years earlier, Allianz had already discontinued its multi-million-euro used car project Abracar because it couldn't find a strategic investor.