A YouTube star who helps car owners sell rare vehicles has made a big sale of his own. Cars and Bids, the auction platform co-founded by Doug DeMuro, has landed $37 million in new funding courtesy of The Chernin Group.
As part of the deal, The Chernin Group will take a majority stake in DeMuro’s digital empire. His YouTube channel will be merged with Cars and Bids to create a single entity, which will be led by newly-appointed CEO Ro Choy. The former BitTorrent CEO will steer DeMuro’s business as it looks to accelerate its growth.
DeMuro, whose editorial experience includes stints at Jalopnik and Autotrader.com, launched his eponymous YouTube channel in 2013. Over the following decade, the Denver native established himself as one of the most trusted car reviewers on the platform.
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Videos on DeMuro’s YouTube channel have collectively received more than 1.7 billion lifetime views. While he inspects and test drives all sorts of vehicles, the creator’s most-watched videos feature luxury cars and trucks. His take on the Bugatti Chiron has pulled in more than 15 million views.
Alongside co-founder Blake Machado, DeMuro established Cars and Bids in 2020. The auction site is self-described as a place to sell “anything cool and exciting from the 1980s to the 2020s.” To date, it has hosted 10,000 auctions. The total value of the vehicles sold via Cars and Bids is more than $230 million.
“Cars and Bids provides a great digital auction experience for automotive enthusiasts, and we auction some of the coolest cars in the world – and the investment from TCG ensures it’s only going to get better,” DeMuro said in a statement. “I’m also thrilled to combine my YouTube channel and Cars and Bids into one entity, creating one great place for enthusiasts to buy, sell, and learn about cars.”
Chernin Group Principal described DeMuro as “one of the most trusted names in the automotive space,” and the investment firm’s goal is to make Cars and Bids “the go-to place to buy and sell modern enthusiast vehicles.” In a 2021 interview with The Verge, DeMuro said that he plans to improve Cars and Bids with “more new, cool stuff that we can do to differentiate more and to make it an even better experience.”
Now, under Choy’s leadership, DeMuro’s digital empire has a chance to reach its lofty goals. The new Cars and Bids CEO will focus on content, technology, and business operations as he and DeMuro zoom toward the growth they are aiming for.
