Over the last few months, we struggled with whether or not to publicly announce our Series B round. While a funding round certainly validates historical performance, I believe it is more a bet on a business’s future execution potential. One of our core cultural values is to “have an underdog mentality” which means to approach every interaction with humility, always believe you can do better and never assume that you’ve won. We have accomplished a lot but the bar is high and we have so much left to do.
The car dealership industry is one that hasn’t changed all that much over the last century. Traditionally, buying a car has involved multiple trips to the dealership or meeting a stranger in a McDonald’s parking lot. A car is often the second largest (if not largest) purchase that many will make in their lifetimes. Owning a car can offer freedom, independence, and fun, yet the thought of going through the car buying process often invokes feelings of stress, anxiety and distrust. This lack of trust is at the core of the problem. In a recent Gallup poll, car salespeople were ranked last in terms of their perception of honesty and ethics. We’ve received so much feedback from our thousands of customers telling us about how much time we saved them, how easy the process was, and how they would never set foot in a physical dealership ever again. In many ways, what we’re doing at Clutch parallels my experience at Uber. We’re building an incredible team and delivering a 10x better customer experience for a higher quality product at more competitive prices. Similarly, at Clutch, we’re looking to redefine an industry by fundamentally changing the way that Canadians buy and sell cars and build a category defining brand.
Our team is the foundation to our success and while it is mighty, it is still small and in order to continue executing on our vision, we need to continue adding the best people. There is a war for talent. We’re competing against US tech giants entering Canada, established Canadian companies, and startups announcing their own massive funding rounds. We ultimately decided that we would be doing a disservice to the team by not announcing this round. By announcing the round we wanted to acknowledge and thank the incredible work of the 150+ Clutch teammates across the company and also invite like-minded individuals looking to set a new bar for an industry.
We’ve built a culture that values personal growth, encourages innovation, embraces teamwork, focuses on customer experience, and aims to make a positive impact on the communities we serve. Another one of our values is “to promote autonomy” and that requires hiring talented, high-judgement individuals who have the confidence to make difficult decisions. We hope this announcement helps attract people who share our values. This funding round will allow us to continue building our vision of making car buying and ownership easy, transparent and convenient. We believe we’re building something special and encourage anyone interested in fundamentally changing a consumer category in Canada to join us. If you are interested in learning more, see our open roles and find out more about what it means to be a “Clutch teammate” here.
As such, we are announcing a $100 million Series B equity financing. We are delighted to be partnering with D1 Capital Partners who led the round and to be welcoming Scott Baxter to our board. With significant investments in Carvana, Kavak, and Cazoo, D1 has established themselves as a global leader in the online auto retail space. I’m also excited to partner with Jay Kahn at Flight Deck Capital. Jay and I have been friends for over a decade and I love it when personal and professional worlds collide. Also, thank you to Laura at Canaan, Jason at Upper90, Janet at Real Ventures, Andrew at BrandProject, Alex at Global Founders Capital and Jeff at FJ Labs for your continued support. Ultimately this funding round is a continued belief from our investors that we can continue to execute and become the trusted leader for car buying in Canada. We have so much left to do so we are humbled by the support of our investors, teammates, and customers. We are embracing the opportunity and will continue driving forward.
Onwards!
Dan
