Alex Chesterman
British internet entrepreneur (born 1970)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alexander Edward Chesterman OBE (born 9 January 1970)[1] is a British Internet entrepreneur. He is co-founder of ScreenSelect, and is the founder and former CEO of online used car platform Cazoo.[2]
Career
Chesterman served as the executive vice president of Planet Hollywood until 1998.[3] He founded ScreenSelect (later LoveFilm), which was subsequently sold to Amazon for £200 million.[4][5][6]
In 2007, he founded Zoopla, a property website.[3][7] In June 2014, he floated Zoopla, which was later renamed to ZPG, on the London Stock Exchange for nearly £1bn.[8] In 2018, ZPG was sold to US private equity group Silver Lake for £2.2bn.[9][10] He served as chief executive officer until the end of September 2018, when he stepped down but remained on the board.[11]
He is considered to be one of the UK's most active tech angel investors and mentors.[12] He has backed early stage digital startups, including: Farewill, Graze, Secret Escapes, SportPursuit, UniPlaces, CarWow, Swoon, and Farmdrop. He was named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2013.[13] He was awarded an OBE for services to digital entrepreneurship in 2016.[14] In 2017, Chesterman was named on Debrett's 500.[15]
In December 2018, Chesterman announced a funding round of over £30m for his next venture, Cazoo.[16][17] He then went on to raise another round of £50m pre-launch for Cazoo.[18] As of 2020, he raised a total of £180m for Cazoo.[19][20][21]
In 2021, Chesterman led investment rounds in checking and digital onboarding platform Thirdfort and DIY and refurbishment platform Lick.[22][23]
Chesterman stepped aside as Cazoo's chief executive in January 2023 and left the company the following December. Five months later, in May 2024, Cazoo collapsed into administration.[24]
Personal life
Chesterman attended St Paul's School, London and has a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from University College London.[1][3] He is married and has two sons.[1]
In July 2016, Chesterman was said to be behind a legal challenge to stop Brexit should the British government not allow Parliament to vote on the deal.[25] He donated £300,000 to the Liberal Democrats in the 2019 United Kingdom general election.[26]
In 2021, his net worth was estimated by the Sunday Times Rich List as £750 million.[27]