Osborne Clarke in Reading advises used auto finance platform on Carlyle deal

Published by

Giles Gwinnett

Mike Freer of Osborne Clarke - picture contributed

Evolution, the used auto finance platform, is to be acquired by global investment firm Carlyle in a deal advised by lawyers at Osborne Clarke in Reading.

Evolution was founded in 2002 and connects car dealers and auto finance providers with multiple lenders.

It has grown to become the largest used car finance marketplace in the UK and has around 500 employees, supporting over 4,000 dealer forecourts.

It also has brand partnerships with the AA and fintech services like Experian and ClearScore, which offer access to direct-to-consumer channels.

In the last 12 months, Evolution has enabled nearly 150,000 financing transactions with a total platform volume in excess of £2 billion.

The secondary private equity transaction also involves Evolution’s founders and existing investor LDC.

Equity for the investment was provided by Carlyle Europe Technology Partners (CETP) V, which is a €3 billion fund which invests in technology companies across Europe.

CETP will work with management to support Evolution’s growth and expand the range of dealers’ product offerings on its interface and in doing so becoming an enablement platform for additional sales, developing a digital lead-generation capability, and exploring consolidation of the fragmented motor finance market through further M&A.

CETP was advised by Houlihan Lokey, DLA, Alvarez & Marsal, LEK and Seedcloud.

Evolution Funding and LDC were advised by Arma Partners, Gowling WLG, KPMG, OC&C and Crosslake.

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Giles Gwinnett

Giles Gwinnett is a writer at The Business Magazine. He has been a journalist for more than 20 years and covered a vast array of topics at a range of media settings - in print and online. After his NCTJ newspaper training, he became a reporter in Hampshire before moving to a news agency in Gloucestershire. In recent years, he has been covering the financial markets along with company news for an investor-focused web portal. His many interests include politics, energy and the environment. He lives in Dorset.