History
WeBuyCars was founded in 2001, by brothers Faan and Dirk van der Walt. The company was initially located in Pretoria East. [1] [4]
In 2010, the company had grown to the point where it established its own warehouse in Pretoria, with space for around 100 vehicles. A few months later, the group bought the plot next door to gain more space for trading. [1]
After facilitating all sales themselves from the company's inception, in 2012, the founders hired their first vehicle buyers. More buyers were appointed, this time in Cape Town, in 2014. Other major South African cities followed not long after. [1]
WeBuyCars opened branches in Cape Town and Durban in 2016 and 2017 respectively. 2017 also saw the opening of the company's Car Supermarket in Midstream, with storage for 1,100 vehicles. In March of the same year, the founders sold a significant amount of their shares to Fledge Capital. Fledge provided expertise to help WeBuyCars modernize, and rapidly grow its operations. [1] [4]
In 2018, the company opened its second warehouse, which was located in Cape Town. In December 2018, WeBuyCars opened a warehouse in Johannesburg South. [1]
Also in 2018, the company was still tracking its inventory and sales using Google Sheets. [4]
In 2019, the company opened a new warehouse in Gqeberha, as well as its second warehouse in Durban. In December 2019, WeBuyCars reached 1,000 employees. In the same month, the company opened a new purpose-built showroom in Cape Town. [1]
In 2020, JSE-listed Transaction Capital bought a non-controlling 49.9% shareholding in WeBuyCars for R1.8 billion. This stake later increased to 74.9%, with the remaining 25.1% held by the family trusts of WeBuyCars' founders. [4]
In July 2020, WeBuyCars launched public auctions on its website. The company also began issuing a Dekra report for pre-owned vehicles with all the cars it sold. [1]
WeBuyCars opened a new super-showroom in Johannesburg, in December 2021. After purchasing the former Ticketpro Dome from the Sasol Pension Fund, the WeBuyCars Dome became one of the largest pre-owned vehicle salesrooms in the world. The Dome has a capacity of around 2,000 vehicles, including an underground test area for aquatic vehicles. [5] [6]
In early 2024, Traction Capital announced its intention to unbundle WeBuyCars, and list it separately on the JSE (South Africa's main stock exchange). The transition was completed later that year. [4]
In June 2025, WeBuyCars announced that it was considering selling new vehicles. The company stated that numerous vehicle manufacturers had reached out to enquire about supplying the company with new vehicles to sell. [7] The following month, the company stated that around 30% of people who sell vehicles to WeBuyCars subsequently purchase brand new vehicles - a service that the company did not yet offer, but was actively investigating. [8]
In July 2025, the company announced that it had began using an AI system, called Blue, to purchase vehicles without any human intervention. Blue is a collection of machine learning models that contains all the proprietary information and pricing models of WeBuyCars. It then uses this info to conduct valuations autonomously. At the time of reporting, Blue had already bought 2,800 vehicles autonomously. [4] [9]
In the same month, the company announced its intention to almost double its monthly average car purchases, and double its number of buying stations across South Africa, by 2028. WeBuyCars further stated its intention to add to its operations a 550-vehicle facility in Vereeniging, a 1,300-vehicle facility in Cape Town, and a 1,300-vehicle facility in Pretoria. [4]
Operations
WeBuyCars has operations across all 9 of South Africa's provinces. The company sells pre-owned cars, motorbikes, caravans, trailers, and boats. [3] It also facilitates trade-ins, vehicle finance, and vehicle insurance. [3]
The company operates 3 vehicle sales formats - branches, pods, and customer visits. Larger format branches are more like traditional vehicle showrooms. Pods are smaller format locations, situated in areas like shopping mall car parks. Furthermore, WeBuyCars travels to customers' locations and is able to purchase vehicles on the spot, should the client prefer this method. [10]
WeBuyCars also has a super-showroom, in the form of the WeBuyCars Dome in Johannesburg. The facility can house around 2,000 vehicles, operates 7 days a week, and features an underground test area for boats and jet skis. [5] [6]
The company partners with major South African bank, Capitec, to enable customers to open loans at 9 of its vehicle warehouses. [4]
As of mid-2025, the company had a total of 25 branches and 99 pods across South Africa, with most located in the Western Cape and Gauteng. [10]
At the time, 50% of its vehicles were sold to cash purchasers, 25% to vehicle finance purchasers, and 25% to pre-owned dealers who were buying vehicles for their stock. [6]
Also in mid-2025, the company reported that it averaged 15,390 vehicle purchases, and 15,232 vehicle sales per month, an increase of 12.9% and 13.5% respectively, compared to the same metrics the previous year. [4]
R13.13 billion (2025) [2] 