Shift Technologies, Inc. is an American company that maintains an

online marketplace An online marketplace (or online e-commerce marketplace) is a type of e-commerce website where product or service information is provided by multiple third parties. Online marketplaces are the primary type of multichannel ecommerce and can be a wa ...

for buying and selling used cars. Founded in 2014, Shift is based in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

’s

Mission District The Mission District ( Spanish: ''Distrito de la Misión''), commonly known as The Mission ( Spanish: ''La Misión''), is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. One of the oldest neighborhoods in San Francisco, the Mission District's name i ...

. , the company offers its services in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

, and

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

, OR.

History

Shift was founded in 2013 by:

George Arison George Arison (born Irakly Areshidze in 1977) is a Georgian-born American businessman, investor and political activist. He is the founder and co-CEO of Shift, an online, peer-to-peer marketplace for buying and selling used cars. Prior to Shift, ...

, Toby Russell, Minnie Ingersoll, Christian Ohler, Joel Washington and Morgan Knutson. The company was incorporated in 2014, and first launched in San Francisco in 2015. The company initially served as an intermediary that bought and sold used cars on a consignment basis. The company then began acquiring cars outright and reselling them on its platform direct to buyers, removing the peer-to-peer consignment model. As a private company, Shift received funding from

Lithia Motors Inc. Lithia Motors, Inc. is an American nationwide automotive dealership group headquartered in Medford, Oregon. It is the third largest new vehicle automotive dealership group in the United States, after AutoNation and Penske Automotive Group. As ...

, Goldman Sachs Investment Partners (GSIP),

Draper Fisher Jurvetson Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) is an American venture capital firm focused on investments in enterprise, consumer and disruptive technologies. In January 2019, DFJ Venture, the early-stage team, spun out and formed Threshold Ventures. DFJ Growth ...

(DFJ),

Highland Capital Partners Highland Capital Partners is a global venture capital firm with offices in Boston, Silicon Valley, and San Francisco. Highland has raised over $4 billion in committed capital and invested in more than 280 companies, with 47 IPOs and 134 Acquisi ...

, SV Angel, Great Oaks Venture Capital, DCM Ventures and others. As of 2019, Shift has raised approximately $300 million, a mix of debt and equity. In June 2020, Shift announced that it would engage in a merger with a

special-purpose acquisition company A special purpose acquisition company (SPAC; ), also known as a "blank check company", is a shell corporation listed on a stock exchange with the purpose of acquiring a private company, thus making it public without going through the traditional ...

(SPAC) called Insurance Acquisition Corp., then a public company listed on the

Nasdaq The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

under the ticker symbol INSU. Following the completion of the merger with Insurance Acquisition Corp. in October 2020 it was listed under the ticker SFT with a valuation of $415.9 million. In 2021, Shift posted $637 million in revenue, which represented over 3 times year-over year growth. In 2022, Shift announced an agreement to acquire the dealer listing marketplace assets of Fair Technologies, which will enable dealers and independent sellers to list their cars alongside Shift’s own inventory. The acquisition closed on May 12, 2022. On August 9th, 2022, Shift announced that it plans to merge with used-vehicle consignment company CarLotz. The merger is anticipated to be completed by the end of the year.

Business model

Shift buys and sells used cars directly to and from consumers through its ecommerce platform. It facilitate financing options, inspections, Department of Motor Vehicles interactions, detailing, pricing and merchandising. Once Shift acquires a car, it inspects and repairs it through its regional reconditioning centers. From there, the company lists cars on its website where consumers can purchase the car online. All cars sold through Shift receive a 150-point inspection prior to being sold, and include a seven-day, 200-mile return policy.

References

External links

*{{official website, https://shift.com Peer-to-peer Transportation in Los Angeles Companies based in San Francisco Retail companies established in 2014 Internet properties established in 2014 Online marketplaces of the United States Automotive websites Auto dealerships of the United States Companies listed on the Nasdaq