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Instamotor Raises $1.77 Million To Provide Trust And Transparency In The Car Marketplace

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Instamotor is a marketplace for buying and selling used cars. Instamotor’s free app helps you find used cars for sale directly by the owner. Find the perfect used car with Instamotor’s extensive search filters and easily favorite listings that match your criteria. Every vehicle listed is pre-screened and includes a free vehicle history report, a free recall check, and a free fraud and safety review. Below is our interview with Val Gui, Co-Founder and COO of San Francisco based Instamotor:

Val-Gui

Q: What is Instamotor? Could you tell us Instamotor’s startup story?

A: Instamotor is a marketplace for buying and selling used cars. We are also doing much more than that by providing trust and transparency to the marketplace. The main challenge of automotive transactions, especially on the private party side, is that there is a large asymmetry of information available to the buyer and seller; the seller always has much more information about the car than the buyer. The seller has owned the car, they know how it’s performed, they know how they’ve maintained it and in general the condition of the car.

Unfortunately, the seller also has a large financial incentive to cover up potential issues they may know about, or minimize problems. It becomes the buyer’s job to try and get all the necessary information to make an informed decision.

Instamotor provides that transparency from the get go. We prescreen the cars so that everything is out in the open and buyer and seller can meet on equal footing.

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Q: Could you please give us more insights into Instamotor apps functionality?

A: The most important features Instamotor provides are on the back end that aren’t immediately obvious in the app. We pre-screen the cars for issues (and actively reject cars from the marketplace that don’t meet standards), we actively monitor the marketplace to eliminate bad actors and we provide customer service for both buyers and sellers in case they have any issues or questions.

The app also provides a privacy protection for both buyers and sellers by not exposing their phone numbers or direct address. We also block spam.

Finally, the app helps you find cars, you can search for specific cars, get recommendations based on previous searches and favorited cars, and communicate, all within the app.

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Q: What are the biggest benefits for buyers and sellers?

A: The biggest benefit by far is the transparency we add to the marketplace. Buyers and sellers can go into the negotiation feeling empowered that they have enough information to make an informed decision.

Q: You’ve recently announced $1.77 million Debt Financing; what’s your next step?

A: In this round we were able to bring in American Family Insurance (a Fortune 500 company) as a strategic investor. American family believes that the future of automotive products and services are going to be best provided by marketplaces like ours. We are going to continue working on providing trust and transparency in the marketplace and begin to layer in additional products and services that are highly relevant for car buyers.

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Q: How does the future look like for Instamotor?

A: In one word… Bright. We are continuing to grow and will add new cities soon. We know that buyers and sellers see high value in what we’re doing. As we continue to add more safety and transparency features, buyers and sellers are only going to find more value in what we do. We’re excited about what we’re doing, and we’re seeing that our users are as well!

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