Last week a Ukrainian co-founded, UK-based fintech announced the completion of its £15.5 million Series A round. A bevy of top venture funds were involved, including Jaguar Land Rover’s investment arm InMotion Ventures, US-based fintech specialists QED Investors, Athens-based VentureFriends and Kyiv-based u.ventures.
Co-founded in 2021 by Ukrainian and UK entrepreneurs (Igor Gordiichuk, Amy McKechnie, Aidan Rushby and Roman Sumnikov), Carmoola launched its app in March 2022. Since then it claims to have enabled the purchase of more than £46 million worth of cars, as reported by UK online publication TechFunding News.
This car finance startup promises says it helps car buyers “find out how much [they] can spend on new wheels in just 60 seconds,” and arrange suitable flexible monthly payment plans.
After a “fast, paperless” identify verification experience,” buyers may purchase their new car using various online payment methods.
“We’re changing the [car buying experience] by offering a transparent, accessible, and user-friendly alternative,” Rushby told TFN, aiming to “rebalance car finance in favour of the buyers.”
“The traditional car finance market is riddled with issues that make it difficult and frustrating for buyers,” including opaque pricing and the lack of control and flexibility in repayments.
In addition, “people with certain credit scores or employment situations can struggle to get approved for car finance, even if they can afford the repayments,” Rushby added.
The latest deal brought Carmoola’s total funding amount to £172.9 million in debt and equity, according to CrunchBase data.
Carmoola is not the only UK fintech involving Ukrainian entrepreneurs. Other examples include Fintech Farm, a neobank that raised $22 million in April 2023, and Finmap, the developer of a cashflow management tool for SMBs, which landed a more modest €1 million a few months earlier.
