| 2004 |
COTW (CarsOnTheWeb) is founded as a company in Belgium. All the hard work pays off towards the end of the year: we sell our first vehicle in December, 2004. |
| 2005 | In January, we organise our first online auction in Belgium. Many more are soon to follow. |
| 2006 | Wir sprechen Deutsch! We branch out by establishing COTW Germany. We win the Trends ICT Award for the Most Promising Small or Medium Enterprise. |
| 2007 | An exciting year for us: we establish COTW France and follow it up with COTW Italy. |
| 2008 | We sell our 10,000th car. |
| 2009 | COTW outgrows its home. But we have a new one waiting for us at Grijpenlaan in Tienen. We celebrate the change of scenery by investigating the possibilities of auctioning Dutch leasing vehicles. |
| 2010 | ING Activator Fund and Ark Angels Fun invest in our company. Extra cash is always welcome. But the vote of confidence is even more satisfying. |
| 2011 |
Our experimentation with Dutch vehicles pays off. We are able to establish our status as an important partner for vehicle exports. |
| 2012 | We celebrate our 15,000th auction. Reaching this number is made a lot easier with our total sales for the year: in 2012, we sell more than 28,000 vehicles. That’s a rate of over 76 vehicles a day. A recognisable increase on our humble beginnings! |
| 2013 | Newly established COTW Netherlands begins auctioning vehicles. |
| 2014 | Our 30,000th auction. And in December we celebrate our 10th year in business with 10 days of celebration. |
| 2015 |
We make sure we are keeping up with technology. Our new mobile website features improved search capabilities and the account page. We start auctioning the first vehicles from the Balkan region and Poland. |
| 2016 |
Vortex Capital Partners and ABN AMRO Participaties acquire a majority stake in COTW. |
| 2017 |
We sell our 42.000th car. Also, the COTW mobile app sees the light of day. |
| 2018 | - COTW acquires German network for car trade GWLISTE.DE - COTW and KAR Auction Services announced a definitive agreement for KAR to acquire COTW. |
| 2019 | KAR Finalizes Acquisition of COTW (January ‘19) |
| 2020 |
A challenging yet successful year: We performed well thanks to good buyer demand, even with lower inventory available on the European market |
| 2021 |
Despite the many challenges - think of the chip and magnesium shortages which resulted in low inventory - we achieved good results in 2021 and paved the path for growth in 2022. |
