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Cardino sparks investor excitement with €4 million seed round
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Cardino sparks investor excitement with €4 million seed round

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June 11, 2024

Paige graduated from the University of Greenwich in 2014 with…

The funding round was supported by an array of angel investors, including key investors from platforms like Rosberg Ventures, Vinted.com, Bolt, HomeToGo, Dance and HeyJobs.

Nico Rosberg of Rosberg Ventures shared his excitement about the platform’s impact, saying: “The future of cars is electric. For that, we need a sustainable used car market. Henrik, Lukasz and the entire Cardino team are doing pioneering work with their platform. Cardino is both efficient and transparent, setting new standards for the entire industry. That is why I am happy to support this mission as an investor.”

“Cardino is dedicated to revolutionising the used EV marketplace through its digital-first approach, making the process convenient and efficient for sellers and dealers,” says Henrik Sachs and Lukasz Pajak, Founders.

This investment is a testament to the market’s confidence in Cardino’s innovative business model and its growth trajectory. Notably, Cardino achieved nearly 50% quarter-over-quarter growth in Q1 of 2024, and its annualised Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) soared to €100 million. Such figures underscore Cardino’s position as a trailblazer in the rapidly evolving landscape of electric vehicles.

“We entered Cardino when it still had very little traction (about 25 cars sold), but it was immediately clear to us that this is a market that will grow very quickly and at the same time is not yet occupied. Plus, it can pack a lot of other products and services on top of it, so the potential is almost limitless. When we put all this together with founders who complement each other perfectly not only with their experience, but also with their personalities and competences, it was an obvious choice,” comments Jan Krahulík, partner of DEPO Ventures angel funds, in whose portfolio Cardino is located.

Delivering an electric car from anywhere in Europe to the customer’s door

Cardino enables the sale of used electric vehicles via a digital platform, leveraging a solid network of trusted dealers across Europe. This efficient model not only streamlines the sales process but also promotes a sustainable and circular economy by facilitating the transfer of used EVs to new owners.

Private sellers enjoy a free, seamless experience and an impressive 80% likelihood of receiving a binding offer within 72 hours of listing. The company manages all aspects of the transaction, from complementary valuation based on real-time market data to handling logistics, pick-up, and payment processing. The vehicle is collected within seven days and delivered across Europe without the seller ever leaving home.

Cardino equips car dealerships with an advanced toolkit to efficiently source EVs. The biggest value for dealers is the ease of access to supply from different markets and the high quality of cars with low mileage and no damage. Cardino screens sellers and inspects vehicle condition, history, and battery reports for quality assurance.

The platform provides comprehensive vehicle profiles and enables direct bidding, simplifying the acquisition process, generating competitive prices for buyers and connecting sellers and buyers from different markets.

See Also
When global labour market data is released, headlines tend to fixate on a single metric: unemployment. This year is no different. According to the latest figures from the United Nations and the International Labour Organisation, global unemployment remains relatively stable at just under five per cent. At face value, this suggests a labour market that is holding firm despite economic uncertainty, geopolitical instability and technological upheaval. In reality, it masks a serious and underreported problem: the true global jobs crisis is not a lack of work, but the growing scale of informal work. More than 2.1 billion people worldwide are employed in the informal economy, including misclassified workers operating outside effective regulatory coverage, where employment is typically unregistered, contracts are absent or unenforced, and access to labour rights and social protections is limited or non-existent. That represents a large portion of the global workforce. If unemployment reveals how many people cannot find work, informality shows how many are working without protection or long-term opportunity. Informal work is often associated with developing economies or unregulated sectors. However, this form of work is increasingly occurring within developed economies and regulated sectors, hidden within otherwise legitimate, fast-growing small and medium-sized enterprises – and this is often unintentional. For both businesses operating solely in domestic markets and those that have expanded abroad, adopting new workforce models and attempting to respond to rapid technological change, the crisis of informality is emerging in three key areas. The first is worker misclassification. Individuals are engaged as independent contractors but operate in practice like employees – working fulltime, at set hours, for years at a time. This is particularly prevalent in gig and platform-based roles, where algorithms determine pay, hours and performance without considering employment rights. Gig and platform work often presents as flexible and empowering, however, in practice, many platforms exercise employer-like control over payment, performance management, hours, and length of engagement, while explicitly avoiding employer obligations such as tax filings and the provision of statutory benefits like annual leave and healthcare. The result is a growing cohort of workers who fall between legal categories, carrying the risks of self-employment without the autonomy or protections that should accompany this mode of work. The second area is cross-border remote work, where informality can inadvertently arise. With post-COVID remote working models here to stay, companies are directly hiring overseas talent, assuming that because the worker is not based in the company’s home country, local employment laws do not apply. Where employment is not properly registered (whether by the employer and/or employee), local labour law is not applied, or social security obligations are misunderstood or ignored, these arrangements can slip into a form of modern informality, even where the relationship appears to be formal on the surface. This is often the point at which organisations begin to seek external guidance. In many cases, neither party fully understands the legal implications of the arrangement, which leaves both employer and worker exposed. We frequently see organisations approach us when a specific issue surfaces, such as payroll inconsistencies, questions around benefits entitlement, or concerns raised by the workers themselves, including registration process failures. Business leaders should also be aware that permanent establishment risk can arise if a remote employee is deemed to represent the company locally, which can trigger corporate tax obligations. Social security errors can happen when contributions are not made correctly in either jurisdiction, leaving workers without coverage and employers facing backdated liabilities. Meanwhile, employment law conflicts can emerge when contracts fail to meet the requirements of the host country regarding notice periods, benefits or termination rights. The third driver of informality is structural. These arrangements are becoming more common as artificial intelligence and evolving workforce models outpace regulation. Businesses are innovating at speed, but legal frameworks are struggling to keep pace. The UK’s Employment Rights Act offers a clear case study of the direction of travel. Worker protections are expanding, classification rules are tightening and enforcement is becoming more coordinated across agencies. Informal arrangements that once sat in legal grey areas are moving firmly into view and what was previously tolerated is falling under scrutiny. The challenge is that informality is rarely a deliberate choice. For many growing organisations, it becomes the default because compliant pathways are complicated and difficult to navigate alone, particularly across multiple jurisdictions. Legal advice, payroll, tax, HR, and immigration compliance are often siloed, leaving gaps that businesses may not even realise exist until a problem arises. For instance, digital nomad visas are often viewed as providing holders with wholly compliant right to work status, however employers may not realise that this is not always the case and contracts may not reflect the correct legal status or entitlements. Addressing informality requires a change in how we think about employment at a global level and recognising that flexibility and compliance are not mutually exclusive. Businesses need models that allow them to access global talent quickly while ensuring workers are properly employed and protected under local law. As attention remains fixed on unemployment figures, informality continues to expand beneath the surface. It is this hidden cohort of workers, contributing economically without security or rights, that represents the real crisis in the global labour market. Solving it will require coordinated action from policymakers and businesses alike, and a commitment to building workforce models that are not only innovative, but sustainable and fair.
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The company was founded in 2022 to transform the used electric car market

As Cardino’s services extend further across Europe, its commitment to innovation and sustainability in the automotive sector remains steadfast. Plans for 2024 include expanding consumer services to France, on the seller side, and enhancing the platform’s features, such as the introduction of a proprietary online battery range check to set new benchmarks in the EV market.

Cardino was founded in Berlin in 2022 with a vision to revolutionize the used electric car market. Our goal is to remove all unnecessary difficulties in buying and selling cars for both used car dealers and sellers. Together, we aim to connect sellers and buyers across Europe and ensure used electric cars find new owners at fair prices through a smooth, digital process.

DEPO Ventures is an investment group focused on early stage startups in the CEE region, backed by a community of angel investors. With the third angel fund in the pipeline, their portfolio includes more than 40 investments. Notable projects include the global blockchain platform Tatum, an innovative solution for heart monitoring from home via Kardi AI, the mobile guide SmartGuide or the groundbreaking logistics platform Ringil. The investment group also leads the international syndicate DEPO Angels, which connects investors with quality startups and simplifies the investment process. DEPO Venture’s vision is to teach entrepreneurs and high net worth individuals that investing in startups should be a natural part of any qualified investor’s portfolio.

2024-06-11

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