Drover, the European leader in car subscriptions, raises £20.5 million with new and existing investors

Drover, the European leader in car subscriptions, announces a £20.5 million investment co-led by new investors Target Global, RTP Global and Autotech Ventures. Additional new investors are Channel 4 Ventures and Rider Global. Existing investors Cherry Ventures, BP Ventures, Partech, Version One and Forward Partners also participated in the round.

Drover is a mobility-as-a-service platform that provides flexible, all-in car subscriptions through a two-sided marketplace model, connecting professional fleet owners to individual drivers. 

For one flat monthly payment, Drover customers can get a car with everything included, for a duration of one month to two years, without the need to take on debt. Instead of steep upfront payments, lengthy credit checks, and hours spent in dealerships, Drover has created a frictionless, fully digital transaction process: users simply create a profile, upload a photo of their driver’s licence, browse a selection of cars tailored to their location and budget, then personalise their subscription package based on their preferred term time, mileage and insurance options, and checkout with the same convenience people use when buying everything else online. Drover then delivers the car to their door in as little as 72 hours, customers pay monthly throughout their subscription, and Drover takes the car back at the end of the term. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the shift towards a ‘digital-first’ mentality in the automotive industry and is fundamentally changing the way cars are consumed and sold. Drover has delivered record results in its consumer business during a period when traditional car sales had nearly halted completely. While in May only 13,000 new personal cars were registered in the UK, down 89% from last year, Drover more than doubled the number of new subscriptions sold compared to a year ago - finishing Q2 with a record high in revenue. 

Felix Leuschner, Drover’s founder and CEO, commented: 

“The car market is one of the last retail categories that has yet to shift online, with online penetration of car sales being still below 1%, while 20% of all UK retail sales are now online. Drover’s digital ‘cars-as-a-service’ model is the right approach to truly build the ‘Amazon of Cars’ as it lends itself much better to an online model than does the long-term commitment, high ticket size type transaction of buying a car with cash or on finance. As a result, the last few years have seen Drover evolve and grow into a serious contender in the UK car retailing market. 

The Drover team has been agile through COVID-19 and that has enabled us to continue to show fantastic growth in a challenging time. The need for a simpler, more flexible model for car ownership is only accelerating and we’re proud to be leading that journey in the UK and France and in hopefully many more markets in the future.”

To learn more, find the press release here.