Alexander Edward Chesterman (born 9 January 1970) is a British internet

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...

, co-founder of ScreenSelect, which would later become part of online film distributor LoveFilm, and is the founder and CEO of online used car platform

Cazoo Cazoo is a British online car retailer based in London, England which was founded in 2018 by Alex Chesterman. History Cazoo was founded in 2018 by British internet entrepreneur Alex Chesterman. It launched an online marketplace for used cars in ...

. In December 2018 Chesterman raised over £30m in pre-seed funding and then went on to raise a further round of £50m pre launch for Cazoo. He launched the business in December 2019. In March 2020 he then went on to raise a further £100m for Cazoo. He is also the founder of the property website

Zoopla ZPG Ltd. is a British real estate company based in London, England, owned by Silver Lake Partners. Its brands include the property website Zoopla, price comparison service Uswitch, finance comparison website Money.co.uk, personal finance conte ...

in 2007. Zoopla became digital media business ZPG Plc (LSE:ZPG) a FTSE-250 listed company and owns brands which include Zoopla,

uSwitch Uswitch Limited is a UK-based price comparison service and switching website founded in 2000. The site allows consumers to compare prices for a range of energy, personal finance, insurance, and communications services. History uSwitch.com w ...

, PrimeLocation, Money and Hometrack and employs over 1,000 people in the UK. In July 2018 ZPG Plc was bought by US private equity business SilverLake Partners for £2.2bn and delisted from the FTSE 250.

Early life

Chesterman has a bachelor of science degree in

Economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...

from

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

Career

Chesterman served as the executive vice president of

Planet Hollywood Planet Hollywood International Inc. (stylized as planet Hollywood, planet Hollywood observatory and ph) is a themed restaurant chain inspired by the popular portrayal of Hollywood. The company is owned by Earl Enterprises corporation. Earl Ent ...

until 1998. He founded ScreenSelect (later

LoveFilm LoveFilm was a United Kingdom–based provider of DVD-by-mail and streaming video on demand in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Germany. Acquired by Amazon.com in 2011, the service had reached 2 million subscribers. It claimed ...

) which was subsequently sold to Amazon for £200 million. In 2007, he founded

, a property website. In June 2014 he floated Zoopla, which has been renamed and become ZPG, on the London Stock Exchange for nearly £1bn. In 2018 ZPG was sold to US private equity group

Silver Lake Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...

for £2.2bn. He served as chief executive officer until the end of September 2018 when he stepped down but remains on the Board. In December 2018, Chesterman announced a funding round of over £30m for his next venture,

, aimed at transforming the used car market. He has now raised a total of £180m for Cazoo. He is also regarded as one of the UK's most active tech angel investors and mentors. He has backed early stage digital startups, including

Farewill Farewill is a private company that provides will-writing, probate, and cremation services in the UK. Founded in 2015. It claims to be the UK's biggest will writer. Farewill is registered in England and Wales with the Law Society and was declare ...

, Graze, Secret Escapes, SportPursuit, UniPlaces,

CarWow Carwow is an online marketplace for buying and selling cars. It uses the reverse marketplace model to remove the need for customers to negotiate with dealers when buying or selling their cars. When buying a new car, users choose the car they woul ...

, Swoon, and

Farmdrop Farmdrop was an online grocer with a focus on food sourced from local farmers, fishermen, and other producers. The company provided farm-to-table foods for consumers in Greater London and surrounding counties, along with ethically-sourced bab ...

and was awarded an OBE for services to digital entrepreneurship in 2016. He was named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2013 and in 2017 named on

Debrett's Debrett's () is a British professional coaching company, publisher and authority on etiquette and behaviour, founded in 1769 with the publication of the first edition of ''The New Peerage''. The company takes its name from its founder, John De ...

500. In 2021, his net worth was estimated by the '' Sunday Times Rich List'' as £750 million. In 2021, Chesterman led investment rounds in checking and digital onboarding platform Thirdfort and DIY and refurbishment platform Lick.

Political activity

In July 2016, Chesterman was said to be behind a legal challenge to stop Brexit should the British government not allow Parliament to vote on the deal. He donated £300,000 to the Liberal Democrats in the 2019 United Kingdom general election.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chesterman, Alex Living people 1970 births Alumni of University College London British chief executives British technology company founders Officers of the Order of the British Empire Liberal Democrats (UK) donors