Vroom to shut its e-commerce operations, cut nearly 90% of jobs

San Francisco, Jan 24

US-based leading e-commerce platform for buying and selling used vehicles Vroom has announced that it is discontinuing its e-commerce operations and winding down its used vehicle dealership business in order to preserve liquidity and enable the company to maximise stakeholder value through its remaining businesses.

As part of a plan, the company expects that approximately 800 employees will be laid off, which is about 90 per cent of the total workforce.

"The company anticipates that approximately 800 employees will be impacted upon substantial implementation of the Value Maximisation Plan, resulting in a reduction of approximately 90 per cent of the employees not engaged in UACC’s or CarStory’s operations," Vroom said in the filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Under the Value Maximisation Plan approved by Vroom’s Board of Directors, the company is suspending transactions through vroom.com, planning to sell its current used vehicle inventory through wholesale channels, and halting purchases of additional vehicles.

The company anticipates the Value Maximisation Plan to be substantially implemented by March 31, 2024.

"As we previously disclosed, we intended to raise additional capital to fund our operations and support the extension of our vehicle floorplan facility beyond its current expiration date of March 31, 2024," Thomas Shortt, the Company’s Chief Executive Officer, said in a statement.

"Despite significant efforts to do so, we ultimately were unable to raise the necessary capital in the current market," he added.

The United Auto Credit Corporation (UACC), an automotive finance company, and CarStory, an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered analytics and digital services platform for automotive retail businesses will continue to serve their third-party customers, with their operations unaffected by Vroom’s e-commerce wind-down.