Motoring.co.uk accelerates its growth with the Greater Manchester Loan

The Greater Manchester Loan Fund (GMLF), managed by Maven, has completed a £500,000 investment in the automotive website Motoring.co.uk (Motoring).

The GMLF was established by the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities to provide flexible funding solutions to promising businesses that are struggling to access finance as a result of banks imposing tighter lending criteria. The Fund aims to provide loans ranging from £100,000 to £500,000 to eligible SMEs in the Greater Manchester area, with the potential to provide follow-on funding up to £750,000. Maven, which manages similar funds on behalf of the UK and Scottish Governments, was appointed as manager of the GMLF in June 2013.

Motoring was established in 2007, initially focusing on providing classified adverts in the used car market. Since then the business has evolved significantly, and now provides a wide range of content, information and services for users across buying, selling and owning a car. This diversification has allowed the business to generate income from a variety of sources including manufacturers, advertising agencies, franchised car dealers, insurers and other service providers.

With unique visitors in excess of 600,000 per month and over 1.3 million registered users Motoring.co.uk is looking to increase web traffic further with the launch of a new portal called ‘MyMotoring’.

This innovative platform will act as a central hub for motorists, and uses social content and tools to engage users throughout the whole ownership experience, providing reminders and offering solutions for key ownership events. This makes it highly attractive to car manufacturers, dealers and service providers, who will be able to interact in real-time with users across their whole vehicle life cycle.

The funding from the GMLF will enable the business to both augment its existing website and finalise the development of the MyMotoring platform. It will also provide the necessary working capital to accelerate the growth of the user base, and the infrastructure required to support its continued expansion; Motoring plans to launch a series of new products, with an initial focus on the after-sales market.

Andy Thomas, Investment Manager at Maven said: “We’re delighted to have made this investment in Motoring.co.uk, which is our seventh deal through the Greater Manchester Loan Fund. They are a highly innovative company that have developed an exciting new online product. We’re looking forward to working with the management team to help grow the business and create more jobs in the area”

Terry Hogan, Managing Director at Motoring added: “We genuinely believe that MyMotoring could be market–changing, as it delivers such a substantial improvement in the user experience when compared to current products. The very best online businesses like Amazon or LinkedIn put the consumer at the centre of their businesses, and we aim to do the same, making motoring easier for millions of consumers.

This funding is crucial in allowing the launch to be significantly accelerated, for us to capitalise on our market-leading position. We have chosen the right partner in Maven, and we look forward to working closely with them on our future plans”