Online marketplace Carwow has acquired automotive content and commerce media business Autovia, growing its reach and capabilities with in-market car buyers and sellers.

Autovia reaches over 15 million car owners, buyers and enthusiasts every month through its print and digital titles including Auto Express, evo, DrivingElectric and Carbuyer, as well as its annual satisfaction survey, Driver Power.

Carwow already publishes its own content on its YouTube channel that generated over 1.1bn video views in 2023.

The acquisition will add to Carwow’s advertising and e-commerce capabilities for its manufacturer and dealer partners to help grow digital engagement with millions of consumers.

The deal also presents new opportunities for embedding Carwow’s e-commerce offering for new and used car sales across Autovia’s brand titles. 

Since 2011, Carwow has helped over 2.5 million people find, buy or sell a car across the UK, Germany and Spain. One in every 10 of all new cars registered privately in the UK is bought via its website, and since the company added their car-selling platform to its UK offering in 2021, it has helped drivers to sell over 122,000 used cars directly to more than 4,500 dealer partners, worth a combined value of over £1.6 billion. 

John Veichmanis, Carwow CEO, said: “Over the last decade, we’ve become synonymous with creating some of the world's most popular, entertaining, and informative car content. As a result, Carwow is the starting point for millions of drivers when they think about changing cars. We help our drivers research, shortlist, find a new car and sell their old one, all in one place. We're super-excited about the Autovia team joining the Carwow family as combining these well-respected and much-loved publishing brands with our marketplace, enabling even more people to change their cars with the Carwow Group.”

Julian Lloyd-Evans, executive director at Autovia, said: “We are very pleased to become part of the Carwow Group. Like us, Carwow places huge value on quality, independent, editorial that gives its audiences the knowledge and reassurance they need, no matter what their budget or preference, when it comes to changing their car. In Carwow, we are excited to be part of an industry-leading marketplace business that delivers a great customer experience and significant sales for its OEM and dealer partners.”