Keeping pace with the UK's fastest growing unicorn
Becoming a billion-dollar business in record breaking time, Cazoo has disrupted and dominated the used car market in the UK and Europe with an innovative online-only model, attaining the title of Britain’s fastest ever unicorn in the process. Growing at breath taking speed, both organically and through aggressive acquisitions, Cazoo needed a strategic partner to enable rapid IT scaling and system integration in a competitive and fast paced market. CAE has been there to support, advise and enable Cazoo’s digital transformation, every step of the way.
CAE became part of this extraordinary story at the very beginning, when Cazoo’s team was just four employees strong. Offering commercial flexibility, agility, leniency and understanding to the hungry start-up, CAE was selected as Cazoo’s preferred IT supplier, as its focus on people and process as well as technology allowed delivery of added value to the client, signifying the start of a true partnership.
Watch our customer story:
Enabling rapid organic growth
From the start of their journey together, CAE supported the operational team, working to scale technology rapidly and securely as the company grew organically at an astonishing pace.
Supporting the IT team, CAE was responsible for creating new sites, standardisation and streamlining the user onboarding programme, along with purchasing and deploying new devices. Security was paramount for the tech-led business, and CAE ensured ongoing support and guidance focused on infrastructure security, locking down endpoints and building a robust security posture.
Supporting innovation & diversification
CAE continues to evolve in line with Cazoo’s expanding vision and goals, offering access to experts with technology understanding of mergers and acquisitions. By taking time in the discovery phase to understand the current state of each company and the best way to enable it to join the Cazoo platform, CAE facilitates rapid integration of new acquisitions, whether that involves a new site, network extension or more. CAE supports the operational IT side and removes the monotony of IT alignment that comes with adding a newly acquired business to the Cazoo family.
The most important business outcome has been that Cazoo’s phenomenal rate of growth was supported by reliable, scalable and secure operational IT. CAE’s role as more than just a technology supplier was critical – by investing time in discovery and design, and ensuring people, process and technology came together to achieve Cazoo’s goals, CAE was able to support and advise as they developed, built and standardised its IT, and now continues to ensure future scalability as demand continues to grow.
Offering a single contact point and alignment with the strategic team, CAE has helped Cazoo consolidate as much expenditure as possible and working closely with vendors has resulted in reduced costs and simplified transactions for an improved ROI.
A fairy tale future
Cazoo continues to grow and expand into more European countries, with a goal of selling 320,000 cars by 2024. As it continues to build its brand, business and infrastructure, CAE is delighted to remain Cazoo’s preferred supplier for technology across Europe. As a true and trusted strategic partner, CAE will be keeping pace with this rare Unicorn, delivering outcomes that exceed expectations and working closely to discover what more we can achieve together as this incredible story continues to unfold.
