Type Privately held company Products Used cars Founded 2012 Motto A Better Way to Buy a Car | Area served U.S. Website www.carvana.com Headquarters Phoenix Parent organization DriveTime | |
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Industry E-commerce / Car dealer Founders Ryan Keeton, Ernie Garcia, Ben Huston Profiles | ||
Carvana, a technology business start-up based in Phoenix, Arizona, is an online-only used car dealer that allows customers to shop, finance, and trade in cars through their website. Founded in 2013 and backed by DriveTime, Carvana offers nationwide delivery or customers can choose to pick up their car at one of the company's locations after completing the purchase online. Customers in some locations can pick up their car from a car vending machine. Carvana ranked 5th on the Forbes list of America's Most Promising Companies in 2015.
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Carvana experience
Background
Carvana is an online used car dealer that sells, finances, and buys back used cars through their website. The tech start-up company was founded in 2013 and is backed by the buy here pay here used car dealer, DriveTime. Carvana is based in Phoenix, Arizona and as of 2016 has locations in Atlanta, Austin, Birmingham, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, Jacksonville, Miami, Nashville, Orlando, Raleigh, San Antonio, Tampa, Richmond, Washington, D.C. and now Columbus. The company delivers cars to customers anywhere in the country for an additional fee, or customers can pick up their car at one of the company's locations after completing the transaction online.
Forbes ranked Carvana 5th on their list of America's Most Promising Companies in 2015.
Technology
Potential customers can view images of the interior and exterior of each car in 360 degrees on the company's interactive website.
In November 2013, Carvana opened the nation’s first car vending machine in Atlanta, Georgia and in 2015, the company opened the world's first fully automated, coin-operated car vending machine in Nashville, Tennessee. The vending machine in Nashville is a five-story glass tower that holds 20 cars at a time. After buying the car online, customers who chose to pick up their car in Nashville insert a Carvana-branded coin that's unique to their transaction and allows the machine to recognize their order and release the right car at one of the delivery bays.
Competitors
As of 2016, Carvana's competitors included Carlypso, Beepi, Shift, Vroom.com, AutoNation, CarMax, Penske Automotive Group, and Sonic Automotive.