Dive Brief:
- Houston, Texas-based Vroom tapped its principal accounting officer Agnieszka Zakowicz to take the company’s finance reins, replacing CFO Robert Krakowiak, who also will step down from the post as well as from his roles serving as treasurer and principal financial officer. Both moves will be effective May 17, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Tuesday.
- Prior to joining the company in 2019, Zakowicz, 52, was a director in the capital markets and accounting advisory practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers for 18 years. At Vroom she previously served as vice president of SEC reporting and accounting policy as well as senior director of accounting policy. Under a new employment agreement, Zakowicz will receive an annual base salary of $375,000, according to the filing.
- The leadership change comes about four months after Vroom announced that it was discontinuing its high-profile e-commerce platform for buying and selling used vehicles in order to preserve liquidity, continue to serve its third-party customers and focus on its remaining businesses after it said it was unable to raise additional capital needed to fund its operations.
Dive Insight:
After Vroom went public early in 2020, its market value soared into the billions. Its shares slumped, however, after it said it would close its e-commerce business and cut most of its related staff, according to a January report in The Wall Street Journal. As of Wednesday afternoon its market cap stood at about $22.69 million.
The company has sought to cut operating expenses and pivot to focus on its remaining businesses, including its automotive finance company and CarStory, which provides AI-powered analytics and digital services for automotive retail.
But it has been struggling financially for some time. In its 10-K filing in March the company, noting that it has not been profitable since its inception in 2012, reported it incurred net losses of $365.5 million and $451.9 million for the years ended 2023 and 2022 respectively.
Vroom isn’t the only online car seller to face headwinds. Tempe, Arizona-based online car seller Carvana, which became popular during the pandemic, posted its first profit in February but had previously struggled to clear its inventory of used cars it bought at elevated prices, Reuters reported on Feb. 23.
On Monday, Vroom also announced it appointed Krakowiak as a member and vice chair of the company’s board, according to the SEC filing. Krokowiak has held the CFO seat since September 2021, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Subject in part to his execution of a release of claims, he will be eligible for cash severance and COBRA continuation benefits, according to the SEC filing outlining his departure. In 2023, Krakowiak’s compensation totaled $1.25 million, consisting largely of stock awards totaling $704,000 and $552,692 in base salary, according to the company’s April proxy filing. That’s down from 2022 when Krakowiak’s compensation totaled $2.1 million.
The company, which did not immediately respond to requests for comment, is scheduled to report its first quarter earnings results after the market closes Thursday.
