Driverama launched to market in April this year, promising to be the “first ever borderless online used car retailer” in continental Europe. Motor Finance caught up with Stan Galik, chairman of the board of directors, to discuss the launch and future plans for the company.
MF: Could you give us an overview of the platform?
SG: Driverama is an online platform for buyers and sellers of used cars across Europe, offering a wide choice of vehicles at value for our customers. Our business model is centred around the mantra of ‘fair buying, fair selling’ and we achieve this through our leading data science capabilities and machine learning tools.
In practice, this means that Driverama customers will be able to buy or sell cars anywhere in Europe, always at the best possible price, through live data and pricing differences from country to country.
Customers have the option to buy, sell, exchange, or lease a car online or in one of our branches, offering a truly seamless end-to-end experience. We also offer ancillary products and services, such as warranty, roadside assistance and extra equipment.
We have ensured the process of buying and selling is as simple and hassle-free as possible. When buying a car from Driverama, customers can browse our inventory of over 5,000 cars, comparing models, makes, prices and financing options.
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By GlobalDataEvery car has undergone a 150+ point inspection and is provided with a full-service history, ownership report and professional clean and, once purchased, we offer the choice of cross-country home delivery or collection from the customer’s nearest Driverama branch, alongside a 14-day money-back guarantee.
When selling a car to Driverama, our pricing algorithms mean we can offer a price that is driven by market data, presenting customers with an initial offer in less than 10 minutes. Customers can then book in for a technical inspection, either at home or at one of our branches, to produce a transparent report showing all the factors affecting the final price of the car.
Ultimately, our ambition is to deliver a borderless, pan-European online automotive offering, bringing a revolutionary way of car buying and selling to millions of people, to become the largest player in the European used car market by 2025.
Talk us through the technology used on the platform?
We have invested €75m in building a world-leading tech team and proprietary platform which is the most advanced and complex in the market. Data absolutely drives our business. By retrieving data from the market, web visitors, online car ads, ERP, marketing tools and more, we create a holistic picture of our customers and the market demand.
This means we can identify the fastest-selling used cars with the highest return on investment within minutes, enabling us to buy and sell cars with the most attractive profit margins. This is based on AURES’ existing data-driven pricing model, using downloaded data from the top automotive services combined with internal sales and customer search data.
Not only this, but our real-time AI pricing engine can also predict in minutes whether a particular make or model of vehicle will be more or less likely to sell with high margin financing products attached, how quickly it will sell and at the best price in which country.
Taken together, this technology enables us to scale rapidly and move into new European markets with ease, as well as offering total transparency, value, and speed for our customers.
How much of a market is there for consumers buying cars from other countries?
We know there is a market for consumers buying cars from other countries through AURES’ 30 years’ experience of selling cars in Eastern Europe, with its 47 branches across Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary.
In fact, AURES has already sold over 40,000 cars online into Western Europe, with half of these vehicles heading to customers in Germany, demonstrating initial but significant demand for pan-European online used-car retailing.
Using AURES’ track record, knowhow and decades-long experience of scalable cross-border selling in Europe, we are confident that the convenience, value, choice and service of Driverama’s offering will bring a revolutionary and popular way of car buying and selling to millions of people across the continent.
What has the initial feedback been from customers?
Driverama is launching its first retail buying branch to customers in Germany in July, so watch this space! We have also tested and trialled the new platform extensively with user groups and received really positive feedback and results.
What have you got in the pipeline for the next 12 months and beyond?
We have just set up our headquarters in Germany and the Netherlands and are recruiting more employees to join our growing team as we prepare for the launch of Driverama’s retailing buying operations in Germany in July.
In the next 12 months, we have €100m of planned investment to grow and scale the business, rolling it out across Europe. This will include sourcing 5,000 fully inspected cars, further refining our cutting-edge IT infrastructure and data-science operations (including the development of a Driverama app), hiring more customer-facing employees, setting up our network of branches and establishing our warehouse facilities that will house the vehicles.
By 2025, we will have rolled the concept out to 11 countries across Europe. We are going to be really busy but couldn’t be more excited.
