BacklotCars completes historic $425M exit, joining ‘power and fierce entrepreneurial spirit’ of KAR Global
November 13, 2020 | Startland News Staff
The $425 million acquisition of Kansas City-based BacklotCars is complete, nearly two months to the day it was announced.
“There is so much energy and excitement around this combination with our employees and with our customers,” Justin Davis, president and co-founder of BacklotCars, said in a release announcing the milestone acquisition’s completion Thursday by KAR Global.
“I’m proud of what the BacklotCars team has built and the thousands of strong dealer partnerships we’ve developed over the past six years,” Davis continued. “And I can’t wait to introduce the innovation, power and fierce entrepreneurial spirit of KAR Global to our culture, our products and our customer base.”
Believed to be the biggest exit on record within Kansas City’s startup ecosystem, BacklotCars announced the sale in September and its founders intentions to continue working within the company — which KAR will leave running in the metro.
Since 2014, BacklotCars has amassed a network of customers across 46 states. It has scaled its operations and marketplace, leveraging technology to deliver upon the mission of making wholesale easy, the company previously told Startland News.
After significant expansion in 2019, the company’s growth accelerated in 2020 as COVID-19 forced the automotive industry to take a digital-first approach to wholesale.
Justin Davis, BacklotCars; Back2KC 2018
Click here to learn more about BacklotCars.
BacklotCars joins a fleet of digital marketplaces within the KAR portfolio, including TradeRev, ADESA.com, and OPENLANE — the largest private label platform for exclusive, off-lease inventory in North America.
“We are laser-focused on providing dealers with the most efficient, convenient and economically advantageous digital marketplaces to sell and source inventory,” said Peter Kelly, president of KAR Global.
BacklotCars is set to help the company accelerate company growth into new markets while keeping a steady hand on the wheel of operations in existing cities, KAR said in a release.
The startup employs 187 full-time employees, 90 based in Kansas City. KAR has no plans to move BacklotCars from its local headquarters — which it established in the renovated Lightwell building last fall.
2020 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Pear Deck student engagement tech grows with KC expansion
Kansas City is apparently a fertile area for burgeoning education tech startups. Iowa City-based Pear Deck recently opened a Kansas City office to help develop a sales team for its student engagement platform. And Kansas City’s history in supporting successful education tech firms helped Pear Deck leaders make the expansion decision. Pear Deck CEO Riley…
What ‘Brexit’ can teach us about startups
Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in this commentary are the author’s alone. Zach and Andrew are both financial tech professionals at blooom. If you watch any financial news or follow anyone besides the Kardashians on Twitter, you probably heard that the U.K. faced its own version of armageddon when it recently voted itself out of…
Never say die: KC forges ahead with bold transportation plan
Kansas City’s bold ambitions for a next-generation transportation system may be down — but they’re not out. On June 22, Kansas City received news that it lost out on a $50 million award that would’ve revolutionized its transportation system. More than 120 public and private leaders collaborated on Kansas City’s pitch for the “Beyond Traffic,…
KCSourceLink: Improving startups’ access to capital ‘a marathon, not a sprint’
A year ago, KCSourceLink discovered that area early-stage investors need more connections with each other and the startups they fund. To that end, the entrepreneurial resource hub on Tuesday rallied an array of major investment groups that target startups in Kansas City, building the foundation of a more connected capital community. In total, 15 local…