CarLotz started buying and selling shares Friday on the Nasdaq alternate below the “LOTZ” ticker image, turning into the most recent on-line used-vehicle firm to go public.

CarLotz, which focuses on used-vehicle consignment, introduced final 12 months it could develop into a publicly traded firm by finishing a reverse merger with Acamar Companions Acquisition Corp., a special-purpose acquisition firm. It is the identical methodology Shift Applied sciences used to go public final October.

Shares within the firm closed Friday’s buying and selling down 3.1 % to $11.92..

CarLotz CEO Michael Bor informed Automotive Information final week that going public ought to assist increase the corporate’s profile and visibility.

“I believe it’ll do nice issues for our capability to supply automobiles,” he stated. “I am additionally actually enthusiastic about dramatically enhancing the model consciousness that we’ve.”

Bor added that the corporate had traditionally been “overly environment friendly” with its advertising spend. “Nonetheless right now, even in markets the place we have been working, individuals haven’t heard of us.”

CarLotz relies in Richmond, Va., and has eight hub areas in Virginia, North Carolina, Texas, Florida and Illinois. The corporate plans to increase with three to 4 further hubs per quarter going ahead: Places in Seattle and Orlando are set to open subsequent month.

Bor, a former funding banker, has stated CarLotz must be seen much less as a service provider that buys low and sells excessive and extra as a service that streamlines the used-vehicle promoting course of. Whereas opponents take care of auctions, wholesalers, consumers and different events, CarLotz seeks to break down every part right into a unified platform.

The corporate sells retail automobiles, however the bulk of its enterprise — and the fastest-growing half — is gross sales it brokers on behalf of company companions comparable to fleet administration firms, leasing firms, banks, credit score unions, sellers, automakers and others.

Nonetheless, the corporate has pleasant relationships with wholesale public sale firms, Bor has stated, and KAR World, the dad or mum firm of public sale big ADESA, is a minority shareholder in CarLotz.

CarLotz’s reverse merger was funded by a mixture of $311 million cash-in-trust from Acamar Companions and $125 million of personal funding in public fairness proceeds.