Draper Esprit, a leading venture capital firm investing in and developing high growth digital technology businesses, today congratulates core company Cazoo Holdings Limited (“Cazoo”) on its $7.0 billion business combination with publicly-traded special purpose acquisition company (“SPAC”) AJAX I and expresses its support for the transaction.
Providing the deal meets with the approval of AJAX and Cazoo shareholders, the combined company will be named Cazoo and will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. This is expected to take place in the third quarter of 2021.
The transaction includes up to $805 million AJAX cash in trust and an $800 million fully committed PIPE and will deliver approximately $1.0 billion in gross cash proceeds to the combined company, assuming no redemptions and after accounting for cash proceeds payable to the existing Cazoo shareholders. The transaction was led by the AJAX sponsors and D1 Capital Partners and joined by new and existing investors including Altimeter, funds & accounts managed by BlackRock, Counterpoint Global (Morgan Stanley) and Fidelity Management and Research Company LLC, Marcho Partners, Mubadala Capital, Pelham Capital, Senator Investment Group and Spruce House Partnership.
Cazoo is pioneering the shift to online car buying in Europe and since being founded in 2018, has delivered over 20,000 cars to consumers across the UK who have embraced the selection, transparency and convenience of buying quality used cars entirely online. Following its recent acquisitions, Cazoo is also now Europe’s leading car subscription player with over 6,000 subscribers across the UK, Germany and France.
This transaction would support Cazoo’s mission to continue to transform the car buying experience across Europe, with the proceeds funding the further build out of its brand and infrastructure. With its best-in-class and unique consumer proposition and fully integrated model, Cazoo is well positioned to take advantage of the shift to online car buying and disrupt the huge and highly fragmented European car buying market.
Alex Chesterman OBE, Founder & CEO of Cazoo, commented:
This announcement is another major milestone in our continued drive to transform the way people buy cars across Europe. We have created the most comprehensive and fully integrated offering in the largest retail sector which currently has very low digital penetration. This deal will provide us with almost $1 billion of further funds to fuel our growth and I am delighted to be partnering with Dan and his team at AJAX to rapidly expand and deliver the best car buying experience to consumers across Europe.
Martin Davis, CEO at Draper Esprit, commented:
Cazoo are tapping into a huge potential market and we’ve witnessed their breath-taking growth over the last 12 months. Merging with AJAX I will provide Cazoo with the capability to fuel their growth, both organic and through acquisition. We look forward to Alex and his highly experienced team taking this next step onto the public markets.