Europcar Group, the European leader in vehicle rental services announced today its 20% minority investment in SnappCar, a peer-to-peer car sharing startup. The new capital injection will enable SnappCar to take peer-to-peer car sharing to its next stage of development in Europe. With this investment, Europcar joins the consortium of existing shareholders AutoBinck Group and the Danish Startup Studio Founders who have extended their commitment to SnappCar. The total amount of the investment round is €10 million.
SnappCar was founded in 2011, is headquartered in Utrecht, and also has offices in Stockholm and Copenhagen. The company’s ambition is to decrease the numbers of owned cars by 5 million till 2022.
The three investors are now joining forces with a common ambition to help SnappCar expand geographically within Europe and further improve and innovate its platform usage and services for its members, by for example, introducing ‘keyless technology’, making it possible to open a car through the SnappCar app.
The Dutch startup SnappCar is the second largest international peer-to-peer car sharing player in Europe with more than 250.000 customers sharing over 30.000 cars available on its platform. Today SnappCar is available in the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden with the intention to expand to new markets.
The average car is idling for 23 hours per day. SnappCar believes inefficiency leads to waste and wants to make peer2peer car sharing generally accepted by millions of Europeans by enabling them to share their cars in an easy, reliable and fun way.
For Europcar Group, this minority investment is an opportunity to develop its mobility offer and enlarge its customer base. The Group believes peer2peer solution has a role to play in cities where it can complement the implementation of a car sharing scheme and in areas in which a car sharing solution is today still not economically sustainable. Peer-to-peer carsharing platforms have a strong need for car availability, and with an average fleet of around 214.000 vehicles in 2016, Europcar can play a significant role.
Victor van Tol, SnappCar’s Co-Founder and CEO explained: “We very much welcome Europcar as a shareholder and partner on our way to conquer Europe. Just like Autobinck Group, Europcar has tremendously valuable expertise and knowledge of the current mobility market. Together we can maximize SnappCar’s impact in Europe and, at the same time, further improve and innovate our platform and services for our members.”
