Bidbus, a Los Angeles-based startup, has created a digital marketplace where multiple dealers can bid on a used car. This process results in an average offer that's about $2,000 to $3,000 higher than what Carvana offers. The company has raised a $15 million Series A funding round led by Ibex Investors to scale beyond its initial markets of California and Texas.
The startup's co-founder and CEO, Duke Yan, came up with the idea after years spent buying and selling cars on his own. He realized that used-car affordability is not a financing problem, but a market efficiency problem. Bidbus helps dealers by bringing them the most highly-valued used cars, which tend to come from private sellers.
The company has helped people sell around 10,000 cars on its platform and plans to expand its services. With the new funding, Bidbus aims to make selling a car as transparent and competitive as trading a stock, where price is determined by market competition rather than a single buyer.
