Start-up Jigcar has completed a £750,000 pre-seed funding round.
Founded by three former members of Cazoo, Jigcar aims to transform the logistics operations of multi-site car dealer groups by optimising stock turnover, reducing costs, and improving customer experience
Despite its January entry into the market, the company said it has already gained traction among the top 50 UK dealers, including partnerships with well-known franchise groups such as Glyn Hopkin, Steven Eagell, and Perrys Motor Group.
The startup’s platform uses AI to manage and optimise logistics across all sites, internal drivers, trucks, and third-party logistics providers.
This technology, accessible via both web and mobile apps, provides insights into costs and performance, essential for developing a successful logistics strategy at group level.
The combined experience of founders Elliott Perks, Rupert Jackson, and Jackson Thomas at Cazoo and SaaS companies like Personio and Fonoa led to the team identifying a gap in the automotive industry for specialised logistics solutions.
To strengthen its leadership team, Jigcar has appointed Jon Pollock, former executive at Nissan, Toyota, and McLaren as commercial director and Simon Bottomley, ex-COO at Hendy and current COO at Vindis, as a non-executive director.
Elliott Perks, CEO of Jigcar, said: “A group-level logistics strategy is key to supporting a successful omnichannel sales model, and Jigcar is here to support that – whether a group’s logistics is fully outsourced, fully internal, or a hybrid of the two.”
Jigcar said it is already delivering tangible results for its clients such as its first customer Glyn Hopkin, which has reported a 1.2-day reduction in car movement time, resulting in an additional £200,000 in profit from increased stock sales, along with forecast six-figure savings in logistics costs this year.
Dean Quy, sales operations director at Glyn Hopkin, reported: “Thanks to Jigcar, we have gained invaluable visibility over our operations across all 34 sites. It has truly revolutionised our logistics management, leading to smoother operations and greater collaboration within our motor group.”
The funding round was led by Concept Ventures and included participation from industry executives at Hendy Group, Motorpoint, Carwow, Impel, and Cox Automotive.
Oliver Kicks, partner at Concept Ventures, explained: “At Concept, we look for founders with deep domain expertise, a strong eye for product, and ambitions to build globally significant companies. Elliott, Rupert, and Jackson possess the right expertise and skills to tackle the large and globally relevant problem of logistics and planning across car dealer groups.”