The €100M funding round was led by VentureFriends, a top Greek fund based in Athens, with additional participation from Endeavor Catalyst, the rules-based, co-investment fund of Endeavor, set up to invest exclusively in Endeavor Entrepreneur-led companies. What’s special about this round, is that it is the 5th company from the Endeavor Greece network that Endeavor Catalyst has invested in. Its previous investments include Hellas Direct (Fund I), Blueground (Fund II), Workable (Fund II), and Nova Credit (Fund III). Spotawheel’s funding round was also joined by Adevinta Ventures, UNIQA Ventures, Rockaway Ventures, Velocity Partners, FJ Labs, Collective Spark, Endeavor Catalyst and others.
Spotawheel will use this capital to expand internationally, upgrade its Europe-wide data-driven inventory sourcing, grow its staff and scale its operations in Germany while establishing teams in Western Europe.
Founded by Charis Arvanitis, and Kiriakos Agadakos in 2016, Spotawheel was established as a full-stack e-commerce platform with the aim of solving the main problem faced by anyone who buys a used car: quality control. The company offers quality inventory and a transparent customer experience to typically underserved, value-sensitive customers. To date, Spotawheel has sold over 6K+ vehicles in Greece and Poland, with plans to expand into a pan-European platform, where there is a massive $540B second-hand vehicle market with over 35M annual end-user transactions. With this round, they will be tapping into a Central and Eastern European platform and capitalizing on what they believe to be a used car market worth €100B.
Spotawheel was one of the original companies that joined the Endeavor Network through the first OPAP Forward cohort in 2017. Shortly after, Spotawheel then joined the first batch of Endeavor Greece’s ScaleUp Program in October 2020. The program helped Spotawheel’s acceleration using Endeavor Greece’s services such as access to strategic guidance from expert mentors, talent, and evidently, funding through the international Endeavor investor network. Endeavor’s role is to offer strategic connections to portfolio companies, in an effort to help them gain insights as they expand into new markets. Endeavor has a strong portfolio in the auto marketplace segment, which allowed us to facilitate the connection between Spotawheel, and unicorns such as Kavak, Creditas & Clicars, empowering them to exchange market insights. Following the company’s success in the field, Charis Arvanitis, co-founder & CEO of Spotawheel, was nominated to join the Endeavor network, during the 12th Virtual International Selection Panel (ISP). Charis Arvanitis passed with flying colours and was selected as an Endeavor Greece, Endeavor Entrepreneur in March 2021. When selected back in 2021, Charis stated that the process was
“Much more of an open mentor-mentee discussion with top global minds rather than just a typical selection process. That reflects on the quality and vision of Endeavor’s network, we are very privileged to be a part of and be able to give back.”
To date, Spotawheel has achieved a 4X Year over Year growth, with approximately €120M Total Funding Amount. Recently, the company was featured for the second consecutive year on the Financial Times’s list of the 1,000 Fastest Growing Companies in Europe. Spotawheel has grown rapidly; it has over 350 employees of whom are employed in offices in Greece, Poland, Germany, and Romania.
“You need to understand what your customers’ needs are. It’s important to understand how a customer from England is differentiated from one in Poland and what exactly they need to solve their respective problems.”
To learn more about the history of Spotawheel from its founder and CEO, Charis Arvanitis, listen to the relevant Outliers Podcast.
Endeavor Catalyst is Endeavor’s rules-based, co-investment fund that invests in the companies of Endeavor Entrepreneurs. With $250M in Assets Under Management (AUM) across three funds, Endeavor Catalyst has made 180+ investments in 30+ markets to date and counts 26 unicorns in its current portfolio. Endeavor Catalyst offers a unique opportunity for Endeavor to become financially self-sustaining by investing in the very entrepreneurs it supports.