Caronsale

CarOnSale operates a business-to-business platform for the professional used-car trade in Europe, combining an online auction marketplace with software and services covering the full transaction chain. Sellers — licensed dealer groups, authorised dealerships, OEMs and fleets — consign vehicles that are inspected and listed, then auctioned to a Europe-wide base of professional buying dealers. The company states that over 85% of its inventory is not available on other platforms, and that vehicles are documented with a standardised 110-point "COSCheck" condition report including OBD scan and battery test.

Beyond the marketplace, the platform covers sourcing, AI-based valuation and pricing (including a market price algorithm and a "guaranteed price" for sellers), marketing, and fulfilment such as Europe-wide transport, document courier delivery, secure payment and complaint handling. Since 2024 CarOnSale's marketing workflow has been integrated with AlphaController/Alpha Online vehicle-intake software, which the company describes as an end-to-end purchase-to-sale system. Additional buyer-facing features include a bidding agent, instant purchase at a fixed price, themed rotating "showrooms" (e.g. German premium brands, electric vehicles and hybrids, transporters), and a tiered Bonus Club offering fee discounts of 5–30% based on purchase volume.

Founding story

The idea originated with co-founder Oguz Özgüler, a third-generation used-car trader from Nuremberg whose grandfather arrived as a guest worker in the 1970s and whose father built a used-car business and registered the early online trading platform automobilonline.de in the early 2000s. Oguz opened his own dealership in 2011 and, frustrated by limited local networks and the lack of digitisation, envisioned a B2B used-car marketplace as early as 2012. In 2018 he met Tom Krüger and Fabian Roth through a mutual childhood friend and the three founded CarOnSale; Maximilian Schilling, introduced by an early investor, joined the founding team in 2019. Tom Krüger (CEO) previously worked in investment banking, private equity and consulting at Boston Consulting Group; Fabian Roth (CTO) worked at Mercedes' Silicon Valley research centre; Maximilian Schilling (COO) came from Bain & Company.

Business model

CarOnSale intermediates B2B used-car transactions on its platform and adds paid services around them: inspection and condition reporting, data and pricing (market price enquiries, guaranteed prices), Europe-wide transport and logistics, and payment and settlement including complaint management. Sellers are offered a success-based model with no base or listing fees, paying €119 only when a vehicle sells, while free on-site condition reports and listings are provided with no minimum volume. Buyers pay transaction fees, which are discounted through the tiered Bonus Club.

Transaction-based fees on completed sales — a stated €119 seller fee payable only on successful sale, plus buyer-side fees that decrease by 5% to 30% under the Bonus Club tiers — alongside fulfilment services such as transport, payment processing and financing.

Traction

Company figures cite roughly 1.3 million vehicles processed per year, about 130,000 vehicles auctioned per year, around 40,000 dealers/active buyers, about 2,500 consigning dealers, more than 4,100 vehicles in auction at the time of capture, a sales rate above 75%, and roughly 8 days' reduction in standing time per vehicle. The company states revenue doubling annually and user numbers tripling across more than 20 EU markets, and has set a target of scaling toward 1 million used cars sold annually via the platform. It reports working with major OEMs and thousands of dealers across Europe.

Latest developments

In July 2025 CarOnSale announced a €70 million (reported as $82 million) Series C round led by Northzone with existing lead investor HV Capital and participation from Insight Partners, Stripes and Creandum, earmarked for European expansion into new countries, deepening core markets, product and service expansion, team growth and further development of its AI-powered cross-border trading infrastructure. Preceding developments in late 2024 included the Mercedes-Benz B2B auction cooperation for lease returns and demonstration vehicles across Europe and the takeover of and partnership with Alpha Online for AI-assisted vehicle valuation and trading.