Type Privately-held company Headquarters Mountain View Date founded April 2013 | Website www.beepi.com CEO Ale Resnik (Apr 2014–) Founders Ale Resnik, Owen Savir | |
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Industry E-commerce / Car dealer Key people Ale Resnik, Co-founder/CEO, Owen Savir, Co-founder/COO, and Fabrice Grinda, Executive Chairman Products Secondary online marketplace for cars Motto Buying and Selling a Car. More than Improved. Elevated. Profiles | ||
Beepi challenging car buying habits
Beepi was a Mountain View, California company offering an online peer-to-peer marketplace for buying, selling and leasing used cars, where transactions can be carried out entirely with a smart phone or a PC. It was launched in April 2014. As of December 2016, Beepi confirmed that it had shut down operations outside of California, and was limiting operations within California. Beepi also started refusing to pick up vehicles from Sellers who had listed vehicles with the service. Beepi is winding down completely as of February 2017, and has started the process of selling its assets to satisfy creditors.
Contents
Beepi more than a lot better
Services
Beepi is a peer-to-peer marketplace. Cars undergo an inspection and are listed on Beepi's website for a fixed sales price, with Beepi taking up to a 9% commission and buying unsold cars after 30 days. While buyers do not personally inspect or test drive the car before purchase, they have a 10-day return window after delivery and a warranty. Buyers have the option to pay Beepi in bitcoin, direct debit, financing or credit cards.
In 2016 the company announced it would begin providing car leasing.
History
Beepi was co-founded by CEO Ale Resnik and COO Owen Savir in April, 2014; the service was initially available only in the San Francisco area. Resnik said that he was inspired to create Beepi after a negative experience with a used car that he purchased while a student at MIT.
Beepi raised a $5 million Series A in April 2014, led by Jeff Brody of Redpoint Ventures and including angel investors from the tech industry. The company announced a Series B investment of $60 million in October, 2014 at a valuation of $200M, and estimated that its annual revenue would be $15M. By that time it had expanded to Los Angeles and San Diego.
In December 2014 it raised an additional $12.7 million from three investors, mostly to clean up its capitalization table by buying out early investors who had invested relatively small amounts.
In April 2015 the company opened an office in Phoenix, the first city outside of California in which it had offices. As of that time, people could use Beepi in 200 cities, but delivery was free only in California and Arizona.
In August 2015, the company raised $70 million in equity and debt funding at a valuation of about $500 million after co-founder and CEO Ale Resnik told the Wall Street Journal in May he expected to raise more than $300 million “monster round” of financing at a valuation over $2 billion. In January 2016 Resnick announced that Beepi had raised $70M in late 2015, in a round led by China's largest domestic automobile maker, SAIC Motor; he attributed the shortfall from his $300M projection to turmoil in the fundraising markets. The round brought the total raised by Beepi to $150M.
In December 2015 Ally Financial and Beepi announced a partnership in which Ally will offer financing for buyers in the Beepi marketplace.
As of February 2016 Beepi's advisory board included Larry Summers and Jim Messina.
Competitors
As of August 2015, Beepi's competitors included Carvana, Shift, and Vroom.com.