Beepi
| File:BeepiWhite200x200.png | |
| Privately held company | |
| ISIN | 🆔 |
| Industry | E-commerce |
| Fate | Asset Sale through ABC process |
| Founded 📆 | April 2013 |
| Founder 👔 | |
| Defunct | February 2017 |
| Headquarters 🏙️ | Mountain View, California, United States |
Area served 🗺️ | |
Key people | Ale Resnik, Co-founder/CEO, Owen Savir, Co-founder/COO, and Fabrice Grinda, Executive Chairman |
| Products 📟 | Online marketplace for used cars |
| Members | |
Number of employees | |
| 🌐 Website | www.beepi.com (archived July 2016) |
| 📇 Address | |
| 📞 telephone | |
Beepi was a company based in Mountain View, California that offered an online peer-to-peer marketplace for buying, selling and leasing used cars,[1][2] where transactions could be carried out entirely online using a PC or a smartphone.[3] It was launched in April 2014.[3][4] As of August 2015, Beepi's competitors included Carvana, Shift, and Vroom.com.[5]
In December 2016, after a failed effort to raise further funds, Beepi closed operations outside California, and sought to sell itself to competitors, and then to merge with another company. When those efforts failed, in February 2017 the company closed down and sold off in parts to satisfy creditors.[6]
Services[edit]
Beepi was a peer-to-peer marketplace.[7][8] Cars underwent an inspection and were 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.[9][10] While buyers did not personally inspect or test drive the car before purchase, they had a 10-day return window after delivery and a warranty.[9][11] Buyers had the option to pay Beepi in bitcoin, direct debit, financing or credit cards.[3]
In 2016 the company announced it would begin providing car leasing underwritten by Ally Financial.[2]
History[edit]
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.[3] 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.[12]
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.[13] The company announced a Series B investment of $60 million in October, 2014 at a valuation of $200M,[14] and estimated that its annual revenue would be $15M.[3] By that time it had expanded to Los Angeles and San Diego.[3]
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.[15] 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.[16]
In May Resnik told the Wall Street Journal that he expected to raise a more than $300 million “monster round” of financing at a valuation over $2 billion.[17] In October 2016 Beepi raised $70M, led by China's largest domestic automobile maker, SAIC Motor; Resnick attributed the shortfall from his $300M projection to turmoil in the fundraising markets. The round brought the total raised by Beepi to $150M.[18] In the fall of 2016, Beepi was selling only 153 cars each month in California, where the largest used-car seller sold an average of 8,500 cars each month.[19]
In December 2015 Ally Financial and Beepi announced a partnership in which Ally would offer financing for buyers in the Beepi marketplace.[20]
As of February 2016 Beepi's advisory board included Larry Summers and Jim Messina.[21]
In December 2016, after a Chinese investor pulled out of a proposed investment,[22] Beepi shut down operations outside of California, offered to sell itself to its competitor, Shift, laid off 180 staff, and was in the process of merging with Fair.com, a new company.[23][24] As of February 2017 the merger with Fair.com had fallen through and the company was starting to sell assets in the process of closing down.[22] It went through a process called Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors in which it assigned its property to a company called Sherwood Partners, which in turn sold the assets in order to repay Beepi's creditors.[22][6]
References[edit]
- ↑ Manjoo, Farhad (April 22, 2015). "An Online Tune-Up for the Used-Car Marketplace". The New York Times. Retrieved April 22, 2015.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 della Cava, Marco (April 20, 2016). "Car-buying startup Beepi to offer used car leasing". USA Today. Retrieved April 20, 2016.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Chapman, Lizette (October 7, 2014). "Beepi raises $60 million to sell used cars to the smart". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved February 5, 2015.
- ↑ Shieber, Jonathan (December 10, 2015). "Buy A Car On Your Phone With The New Beepi App". TechCrunch. Retrieved December 30, 2015.
- ↑ Jerry Hirsh (August 2, 2015). "Cutting Edge Virtual used-car dealers gain traction". Los Angeles Times.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Lunden, Ingrid (February 16, 2017). "Car startup Beepi sold for parts after potential exits to Fair, and then DGDG, broke down". TechCrunch.
- ↑ Hanft, Adam (May 23, 2014). "Finally Someone Is Sending Car Salesmen to the Junkyard: An Interview with Ale Resnik, Co-Founder of Beepi". HuffPost. Retrieved February 13, 2015.
- ↑ "50 Companies That May Be the Next Start-Up Unicorns". The New York Times. August 23, 2015. Retrieved September 10, 2015.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Del Rey, Jason (April 15, 2014). "Beepi Could Be the Car Buying Site We've Been Waiting For". Re/Code. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
- ↑ Lawler, Ryan (September 5, 2014). "Peer-To-Peer Auto Marketplace Beepi Adds A 'Prime' Option, Now Shipping To 140 Cities". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 12, 2015.
- ↑ della Cava, Marco (April 8, 2015). "Beepi brings Uber-like ease to used-car shopping". USA Today. Retrieved April 13, 2015.
- ↑ "MIT Sloan Newsroom". MIT.edu. MIT. October 31, 2014. Retrieved February 5, 2015.
- ↑ Brody, Jeff (April 15, 2014). "Redpoint Ventures". Redpoint. Redpoint. Retrieved February 5, 2015.
- ↑ "Next Billion Dollar Start Ups". Forbes. April 15, 2015. Retrieved September 10, 2015.
- ↑ Del Rey, Jason (December 30, 2014). "Used Car Site Beepi Lands $12 Million From Yuri Milner and AngelList's Largest Ever Investment". Re/Code. Retrieved February 9, 2015.
- ↑ Tishin, Donkersley (April 10, 2015). "Beepi expands to Phoenix – interview with CEO Alejandro Resnik". AZ Tech Beat. Retrieved September 11, 2015.
- ↑ Demos, Rolfe Winkler and Telis (October 20, 2015). "Investors Strike Back on Silicon Valley Valuations". Retrieved September 2, 2016.
- ↑ Rao, Leena (January 21, 2016). "China's Biggest Automaker Just Invested In A Used Car Startup". Fortune. Retrieved January 26, 2016.
- ↑ Winkler, Rolfe; Demos, Telis (October 21, 2015). "Valuations of Startups Receive New Scrutiny". Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition. p. B.4.
- ↑ Dexheimer, Elizabeth (December 16, 2015). "Ally to Finance Used Cars Bought Online With Beepi Partnership". Bloomberg Business. Retrieved December 30, 2015.
- ↑ Logan, Bryan (February 1, 2016). "This guy was so frustrated about buying a lemon that he vowed to revolutionize used cars". Business Insider. Retrieved February 2, 2016.
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 Chernova, Yuliya (16 February 2017). "Beepi Winding Down After Burning Through $150 Million". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
- ↑ "TechCrunch - Used-car marketplace Beepi shuts down outside of CA". December 7, 2016. Retrieved September 5, 2017.
- ↑ Burke, Katie (December 12, 2016). "Beepi's demise shows perils for used-car startups". Automotive News.
Further reading[edit]
- Davey Alba (02.09.2015). "The Next Big Thing You Missed: An Online Used-car Company You Can Actually Trust". Wired. Check date values in:
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