Osborne Clarke advises Kickdown on seed funding round

Osborne Clarke has advised car auction platform Kickdown on its recent seed funding round.

Kickdown, the leading German auction platform for car enthusiasts, was founded in 2020 by Moritz Helbich together with tech entrepreneurs Wolfram Graetz and Gary Boeing. As a marketplace for classic and collector cars, the start-up aims to offer buyers and sellers a comprehensive, high-quality and secure trading experience. With an expected auction volume of EUR 40 million this year and over 30,000 registered users, the portal shows great potential.

“We launched Kickdown because we share a passion for automobiles and at the same time realised that it was time for a platform that would revolutionise the trading of historic and special vehicles. Our service offers not only professional photos and editorial listings, but also personal contacts for a smooth sales process,” says Moritz Helbich, CEO and founder of Kickdown. “And this is just the beginning. The future will be even more exciting when our customers can register their vehicles directly as they wish, accompanied by customised insurance and much more – all on one platform.”

To make this future happen, the Hamburg-based auction platform has now secured seed funding from renowned private investors. Among others, the founder of the high-end bakery concept “Zeit für Brot”, Dirk Steiger, the software entrepreneur and co-founder of the German AI champion “Empolis”, Dr Christian Schulmeyer, as well as other entrepreneurs are providing Kickdown with capital for growth and innovation.

For Osborne Clarke Nicolas Gabrysch and Benedikt Hülsmann (both Corporate / Venture Capital) worked on the project.