PSA Group, Europes’ second biggest carmaker behind the brands Peugeot, Citroën and DS — has acquired a majority stake in auto-repair marketplace Autobutler.
Autobutler, founded 6 years ago by Christian Legêne and Peter Zigler, lets car owners get car repair quotes online from garages in Denmark, Sweden, U.K. and Germany, thus bringing greater transparency to the auto-repair industry.
“The future in the automotive industry is digital. For the last six years we have proven that car owners are ready to go digital in the search for reputable garages. With PSA’s focus on digitalisation and their Push to Pass strategy we see great synergies and believe the alliance is a good match which will help Autobutler become Europe’s number one platform for online workshop repairs offering the best transparency and trust.” said Christian Legêne.
New investor
The deal is a mixture of acquisition and investment. The exact details are not public, but PSA Group now owns a majority of the shares in Autobutler. Also, it is said that the investors, such as VCs Creandum and Index, and angel investor Jesper Buch, have made an exit from the startup as a part of the deal. They had invested at least € 7 million in the startup since start.
PSA Group will also be making a significant “two-digit million Euro” investment into the car repair online marketplace.
According to sources, it will spend over € 30 million on the deal in total.
Autobutler will reamin based in Copenhagen, even if now Frensh owned majority. The startup is currently operating in several European countries, however it is reported to be struggling to make money outside Denmark. According to Børsen the latest accounts showed a deficit of almost € 3 million, after among others having stopped cooperating with Ebay in Germany in 2015. It was therefore necessary to make new investments in the company, said the filings.
You can read more about the deal at Børsen and TechCrunch.