Autoweb.com, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based online car seller, will announce later this month that it has received a $2 million cash infusion from the Toronto Star, according to Autoweb president and CEO Payam Zamani. The company, which maintains a network of 4,000 new and used car dealers, will also announce soon that it has become the first online auto-commerce site to offer replacement parts.
The Canadian newspaper company maintains an electronic publishing arm called Torstar Electronic Publishing Ltd. Autoweb has a Canadian division called Autoweb Canada, which maintains relationships with about 200 Canadian auto dealers, the company said.
Big hits
Autoweb claimed more than 2.1 million unique visits for the month of August, and says it helps generate in excess of $660 million worth of car sales a month.
For the relatively closely held Autoweb, the Star will be the fourth major investor. According to Zamani, the company launched in 1994 with financial help from OnWord, a CD-ROM related firm, and then enjoyed a $5 million investment from VC Geocapital Partners.
The third investor, also not announced yet, was Technology Crossover Ventures, which put in $5 million this summer. Technology Crossover Ventures, headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., has also invested in ivillage and AllApartments, an online apartment finder.
Like other online auto commerce sites, such as Microsoft's CarPoint and Auto-By-Tel, Autoweb operates by pointing online users to a network of car dealers, and by supplying extensive info on loans, insurance rates, vehicle recall and service data. It also operates a used car classified service.
No easy task
Zamani said Autoweb would announce the availability of replacement parts online "within three months." This was no easy task, he adds, because of the mammoth size of the parts databases maintained by each car company, some of which are not in digital form. "No one else has done this," he says.
J.D. Power & Associates estimated on Sept. 14 that one-fourth of all new-car buyers use the Internet now to "arm themselves with vehicle product and pricing information during the vehicle-shopping process."
