Beepi
 |
|
| Privately-held company | |
| Industry | E-commerce / Car dealer |
| Fate | Bankruptcy |
| Founded | April 2013 |
| Defunct | January 7, 2017 |
| Headquarters | Mountain View, California, United States |
|
Key people
|
Ale Resnik, Co-founder/CEO, Owen Savir, Co-founder/COO, and Fabrice Grinda, Executive Chairman |
| Products | Secondary online marketplace for cars |
| Website | www.beepi.com |
Beepi was a Mountain View, California company offering an online peer-to-peer marketplace for buying, selling and leasing used cars, where transactions can be carried out entirely with a smart phone or a PC. It was launched in April 2014.
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 it started selling assets in the process of closing down.
Beepi was a peer-to-peer marketplace. 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. 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. Buyers had the option to pay Beepi in bitcoin, direct debit, financing or credit cards.
In 2016 the company announced it would begin providing car leasing.
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. 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.
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. The company announced a Series B investment of $60 million in October, 2014 at a valuation of $200M, and estimated that its annual revenue would be $15M. By that time it had expanded to Los Angeles and San Diego.
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.
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.
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Wikipedia