Used Equipment Guide has raised a multi-million-dollar seed round at a valuation exceeding $10 million. Led by HOLT Ventures, the venture capital arm of the largest Caterpillar dealer in the U.S., the oversubscribed round includes investments from a consortium of heavy-equipment and truck dealers, including Rush Enterprises, Doggett Equipment Services Group, NC Machinery, Tractor & Equipment Company, Carter Machinery, Empire Southwest, Warren Equipment Company, Fabick CAT and Yancey Bros. These investors are among the oldest and largest dealers of such brands as Caterpillar, Peterbilt, John Deere, Freightliner, International Trucks, Link-Belt Cranes and Toyota Industrial Equipment, according to an announcement.
Used Equipment Guide is a vertical search engine that enables buyers and sellers to search millions of used equipment and truck listings from more than 3,000 industry websites valued at over $50 billion. The company’s mission is to create liquidity in the heavy equipment and truck marketplace by connecting buyers with online resources that sellers have been using for decades to market their available inventory.
The Used Equipment Guide website provides search tools that enable buyers to locate low-volume, highly specialized items, research market prices and leave seller reviews. The website features free buyer tools including email alerts, seller reviews, a market price calculator and heatmaps. Sellers can claim their profile to manage their reviews and promote their brand with targeted advertising.
The company is led by Jeremy Balog, founder and CEO, and David Lilly, chief operating officer. Balog is the founder of dieseljobs.com, a niche job board for trucks and equipment, and Lilly is a co-founder of AutoTrader.com, an automotive marketplace.
“We have extensive experience in the online classifieds industry and the incumbent listing sites in our industry already do an outstanding job with online listings, print distribution and inventory management tools,” says Balog. “However, the problem in our industry is that there are so many companies that excel at providing services to sellers that it has fragmented the market, making it more difficult for buyers to find the right equipment efficiently, requiring them to visit multiple websites to see all available inventory. Our goal is to help buyers navigate this fragmented market more effectively, which helps sellers sell more trucks and equipment faster without disrupting or disintermediating the incumbent listing sites—we don’t compete by hosting listings, nor will we ever. This triple-win strategy is how we were able to secure investment from some of the biggest names in the industry.”