CarLotz started buying and selling shares Friday on the Nasdaq change below the “LOTZ” ticker image, changing into the newest on-line used-vehicle firm to go public.

CarLotz, which focuses on used-vehicle consignment, announced last year it might change into a publicly traded firm by finishing a reverse merger with Acamar Companions Acquisition Corp., a special-purpose acquisition firm. It is the identical technique Shift Applied sciences used to go public last October.

Shares in the company fell 4.1 p.c to $11.80 in early buying and selling on Wall Avenue.

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

“I feel it is going to do nice issues for our skill to supply autos,” he stated. “I am additionally actually enthusiastic about dramatically enhancing the model consciousness that we now have.”

Bor added that the corporate had traditionally been “overly environment friendly” with its advertising spend. “Nonetheless at the moment, 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 extra hubs per quarter going ahead: Areas 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, patrons and different events, CarLotz seeks to break down all the things right into a unified platform.

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

Nonetheless, the corporate has pleasant relationships with wholesale public sale corporations, Bor has stated, and KAR International, the father or mother firm of public sale big ADESA, is a minority shareholder in CarLotz.

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