Companies instead of private customers – Getaway takes off with a new business model
The car sharing start-up Getaway failed in the TV show “Die Höhle der Löwen”. The business model was restructured. Now the Berlin company has been able to attract well-known clients and is already profitable.
AWhen founder Edgar Scholler presented his start-up Getaway on the TV show “Die Höhle der Löwen” four years ago, he had to go home empty-handed. The company, founded in 2015, wanted to build a platform for car sharing between private individuals.
Scholler has developed an app for this to enable a keyless handover between the car owner and tenant. In the meantime, several thousand users are said to have been on the platform and around 700 vehicles were available for rental, he says today in an interview with Gründerszene.
After appearing on the TV show, it was quiet about the start-up. Under the radar, the Berlin-based company has built up a white label service over several years and has now attracted well-known customers.
“We stopped the P2P business about two and a half years ago,” says Scholler of “Gründerszene”. In other words: Instead of continuing to offer car services to private customers, Getaway has switched to B2B business. The start-up builds sharing apps for its customers and helps with fleet management, which they in turn publish under their own names.
The reason for the pivot was Sixt’s entry into the sharing business in 2018, says Scholler. The entire car rental industry was under pressure to digitize its own offer. So does Sixt competitor Europcar. Europcar was involved in the car sharing service Car2Go together with Daimler, but Europcar surrendered its shares to Daimler.
After the deal, the Car2Go brand was merged with BMW’s Drive Now sharing offer to form Share Now. Europcar then knocked on Getaway to have a new sharing platform built. The group with its brands Ubeeqo and Buchbinder is now a customer of the start-up.
Profitable car sharing without a lot of risk capital
“Our strength lies in the fact that we know the end customers’ problems,” says Scholler. A cool brand alone is not enough. “Our mission is only fulfilled when the product is profitable.” Another customer is the Berlin van rental company Robben & Wientjes. Getaway developed a sharing app for the company.
“If you convince a B2B car owner, there are several hundred sharing cars,” says Scholler. The 19-employee company Getaway According to its own information, currently looks after a high three-digit number of customer vehicles. And profitably.
“After the pivot, we didn’t need another round of financing and we don’t need any more donors,” says Scholler. According to its own statements, the company had raised around 1.2 million euros in capital after appearing on “Die Höhle der Löwen”.
According to the commercial register, the investment arm of the energy company Innogy Ventures as well as the family office Viva Forever and the construction company Riva AG have entered. Founder Scholler still holds over 80 percent.
“We have further projects from existing customers on the agenda as well as new customers in the pipeline,” announced Scholler. Another profitable player in the white label business is the Hamburg start-up Wunder Mobility. Among other things, the Hamburg-based company has set up the sharing platform for the recently sold e-scooter provider Emmy and the Miles car sharing service.
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