Description
Carvana is an online used car retailer based in Tempe, Arizona. The company is the fastest growing online used car dealer in the United States and is known for its multi-story car vending machines. Carvana was recently named to the 2021 Fortune 500 List, one of the youngest companies to be added to the list. As of January 2022, Carvana employs close to 20,000 team members.
History
Carvana was founded by Ernest Garcia III, Ryan Keeton and Ben Huston in 2012. The company's initial funding round came from the used car retailer and finance company, DriveTime.
In November 2013, Carvana opened its first iteration of a car vending machine. In 2015, a fully automated, coin-operated version of the signature car vending machine opened in Nashville, Tennessee.
In April 2017, the company went public and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CVNA.
In response to COVID-19, Carvana introduced touchless delivery and pick-up in March 2020. In Q2 of 2020, the company reported a 25% increase in vehicle sales, as a result of physical dealership sellers being closed as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Carvana had a gross revenue of $1.12 billion, up 13% for the months April–June 2020.
In 2020, Carvana sold 244,111 vehicles and posted annual revenue of $5.587 billion, making it the second largest online used-car retailer in the U.S.
As of August 2021, Carvana's as-soon-as-next day delivery was available in 300+ markets across the country.
The state of Florida has given Carvana a deadline of January 31, 2022 to fix issues relating to car titles before the state will revoke Carvana’s dealer license.
As of January 2022, Carvana was the fastest to sell one million vehicles online in nine years and the fastest used car retailer ever to organically sell over 400,000 vehicles in one year.
In 2017 Carvana acquired rival automotive startup Carlypso to enhance vehicle data and analytical tools. In April 2018, Carvana spent $22 million to acquire Mark Cuban-backed Car360 for its smartphone technology for taking vehicle photos with 3D computer vision, machine learning, and augmented reality.
