German startup AUTO1 gets $558 million Softbank investment

BERLIN – Japan’s Softbank is investing 460 million euros ($558 million) in German used car trading platform AUTO1.

The Berlin-based company was launched in 2012 and operates in over 30 countries, selling more than 40,000 cars a month on its associated sites.

AUTO1 said in a statement Monday that the investment from Softbank Vision Fund values its business at 2.9 billion euros. The company had revenue of 1.5 billion euros last year.

Akshay Naheta, a partner at SoftBank Investment Advisors, was quoted as saying that AUTO1’s platform adds “efficiency and transparency to the fragmented used car market, which is worth more than $300 billion annually.”