THE company that sold David Beckham's BMW on eBay has secured a $6m (3.2m pounds) investment from the London arm of Accel Partners, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, writes Paul Durman.
The investment in Autoquake, which claims to be the largest second–hand car dealer on eBay, was led by Judy Gibbons, until last year one of the most senior British executives at Microsoft. Gibbons, a former non–executive director of O2 as well as a winner of the Microsoft Women's Leadership award, joined Accel at the start of the year.
Autoquake takes care of all aspects of listing a car on the online auction site – taking more than 70 photographs of each vehicle, recording each scratch, and assessing wear and tear. Gibbons said the comprehensive information made it easier to find buyers – 80% of whom make a purchase without asking to see their cars.
A large part of the firm's business comes from company fleets, but it has also sold vehicles for the model Caprice and Beckham's former Manchester United team mate, Ryan Giggs.
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