GloveboxDirect, an online marketplace for car and bike parts, has raised £180,000 in 3 days crowdfunding on Crowdcube, according to the company. The offer represented an 18.51% equity stake in the firm at a pre-money valuation of £800,000. Reportedly, 119 investors participated in the offer.
GloveboxDirect is the creation of three entrepreneurs who have worked at eBay and with some of the automotive sector’s major e-commerce players – including Mister Auto, The Parts Alliance, and Halfords – as well as leading manufacturers such as BMW, Nissan and Toyota. Their past experience led them to the revelation that it was rather difficult to buy authentic car and bike parts online. The founders say that only 5% of the €26 billion market for car and bike parts sales currently online. Glovebox wants to alter this paradigm by becoming the go to site for things in the car/bike parts industry.
CEO and co-founder of Glovebox Joe Tarragano previously led eBay’s automotive sales division. He says that until now, no manufacturer makes their entire inventory available online;
“We are building an easy-to-use, trusted marketplace that unlocks parts and accessories ecommerce for every major car and bike manufacturer in the UK.”
Graham Broughton, co-founder of Glovebox who once managed the eBay and Amazon e-commerce activities for parts retailers such as Mister Auto and the Parts Alliance, added;
“The sheer complexity of cataloguing millions of car parts has effectively acted as a barrier for the development of e-commerce in the auto space. We’ve spent 3000 hours of product development to create an easy to use platform that will make the cataloguing and management of car parts an easy extension of manufacturers’ own inventories. We also plan to offer click and collect and, uniquely, click and fit services in the future; something that really benefits dealers and also extends the benefit and value for manufacturers.”
Laurence Guy is the other co-founder and is Chairman of the startup. Guy is a serial entrepreneur who co-founded ZigZag Global and built the We Are Pentagon Group into a multi-million-pound global eCommerce services business. Today, it is the leading UK provider to the automotive sector, managing the eBay and Amazon stores for brands such as BMW, Toyota, Nissan and Renault.
GloveboxDirect has been in beta since November. Glovebox will use the investment to roll-out a full launch of the site and hire new staff for product development and marketing. The online marketplace is looking to confirm at least four additional manufacturer partnerships in the coming months.
Suzuki is the first official partner for Glovebox. Currently, it has more than 20,000 parts available for sale on the site as part of the live beta test with a further 150,000 being processed. As part of the partnership deal, Glovebox has also presented alongside Suzuki in their Suzuki Village at the Classic Bike Mechanic Show.
“Glovebox are a great team who are forming the basis of a great opportunity to bring specialist products to consumers that they can’t buy online today,” shared Wayne Dye, General Manager at Suzuki.
ENDS.
Notes to Editors
About Glovebox
GloveboxDirect.com, a pre-launch online automotive marketplace that will give consumers access to a wide range of authentic car and bike parts. The marketplace is the brainchild of three entrepreneurs who have worked with some of the automotive industry’s major e-commerce players including Mister Auto, The Parts Alliance, Amazon and eBay and who believe that with less than 5% of the UK’s €26bn market for car and bike parts sales happening online, there is significant opportunity for disruption.
About the founders
Joe Tarragano, Co-founder and CEO, has 20 years experience working in online commerce including six years at eBay, where he led European sales for the Automotive Parts & Accessory category working with Ford, Vauxhall, BMW, Peugeot and others. He launched his own social network in 2004, and was a partner at one of the UK’s largest independent marketing agencies, where he worked on projects including a website launch for Halfords, and digital transformation projects at Argos, Homebase, Debenhams, New Look & Maplins.
Graham Broughton, co-founder, has years of experience in automotive ecommerce including co-founding an online aftermarket car parts business and managing the eBay & Amazon ecommerce activities for parts retailers such as Euro Car Parts, Mister Auto and the Parts Alliance.
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