Carsnip, the free to list, car search engine that is backed by investors at tech giants Google, Microsoft and some of the early investors behind Pinterest, says it has now got 6,500 dealers on it’s platform and 650,000 cars listed for sale, more than twice the level it was expected to have reached at this point.

The Nottinghamshire based firm puts the rapid growth down partly to dissatisfaction amongst dealers with the record profits being posted by other sites which charge for listings and partly to Carsnip’s own technical developments. Big name dealers currently using the platform include Cambria and Imperial Car Supermarkets.

Talking about the business, Alastair Campbell, Carsnip CEO, said, “We’ve spent the second half of this year refining our software and perfecting our technology to the needs of dealers and that’s really paid off for us. We’re building a sustainable and genuine alternative to the old guard.

“The car listings model was broken, so we’ve fixed it. We’ve got more stock than anywhere else, we’re proudly open source and transparent. However having the most stock is only the first step. Soon we’ll see a huge increase in visitors, and just as we’ve surged forward to become the UK largest used car site, our future growth plans will be unique and ground breaking.”

Explaining why they got involved, Geoff Mawdsley, Digital Products Controller, Imperial Car Supermarkets said, “We signed up with Carsnip because we’re excited about what they can offer. Car buyers view the cars on our website, not Carsnip’s, which means we can do more of what we do best, selling the right car to the right person.”