CarGurus names Matthew Mandel as CFO from October 2026

The Nasdaq-listed automotive marketplace has appointed the former Fleetio CFO and COO to lead financial strategy as it expands its dealer software platform.

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A bright, naturally lit conference room features a long wooden table set with water bottles, glasses, and notebooks, surrounded by grey ergonomic office chairs, with large windows overlooking a city view and a wall-mounted screen.

CarGurus (Nasdaq: CARG) has appointed Matthew Mandel as chief financial officer, with the role taking effect on 19 October 2026. Mandel will report to chief executive Jason Trevisan and take responsibility for financial strategy and operations, corporate development, and leadership operations. Trevisan has served as interim principal financial officer since March 2025, following a vacancy in the position.

Mandel joins from Fleetio, a fleet maintenance and optimisation software platform, where he held the combined CFO and COO role from November 2023. Before that, he served as COO and then co-chief executive at Cometeer, a beverage technology company, with oversight of finance, strategy, and operations. Earlier in his career he led Wayfair's North American transportation and home delivery business and worked as an investment professional at Advent International and Bain Capital. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a bachelor's degree from Duke University.

Trevisan said Mandel's experience across "large-scale and hypergrowth organisations" translates directly to CarGurus' current priorities: expanding dealer-facing software and data intelligence tools, and building what the company describes as an AI-led consumer shopping experience. Mandel acknowledged the company's product roadmap as a key draw, saying it was "especially compelling to support the company's evolution as it invests in platform growth across the dealer workflow and consumer journey."

Strategic context

The appointment reflects CarGurus' stated ambition to shift from a pure automotive listings marketplace toward a multi-product software and data platform serving dealerships. The company already offers inventory pricing tools and marketing solutions to dealers alongside its consumer-facing search product, competing in a space that includes Cox Automotive, CDK Global, and a growing number of vertical SaaS startups targeting the franchise dealer segment.

Bringing in a CFO with operational and COO experience alongside pure finance credentials is consistent with that platform pivot. A CFO who has run day-to-day operations at high-growth software businesses is arguably better positioned to oversee product investment prioritisation and margin management than one drawn from a purely capital-markets background. CarGurus also operates internationally, with marketplace presences in the US, UK, and Canada, adding currency, regulatory, and go-to-market complexity to the brief.

Market backdrop

The automotive software market has attracted significant investor attention as dealership groups look to technology to offset margin pressure from electric vehicle transition costs, tightening used-car spreads, and rising floorplan finance rates. The sector is consolidating: CDK Global was taken private by Brookfield Business Partners in 2022, while Cox Automotive continues to expand its Dealertrack and VinSolutions suite.

CarGurus faces the same macroeconomic headwinds as its peers, but its position as the most-visited automotive shopping site in the US by traffic, according to Similarweb data for Q2 2026, provides a meaningful data asset for the dealer intelligence products Trevisan is prioritising. Mandel's mandate will likely include demonstrating that the platform's advertising and software revenue streams can grow together without cannibalising either audience or dealer relationships. Investors will look for updated margin and capital-allocation guidance once the new CFO is in seat.

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