Drover attracts £20.5m investment to help scale UK car subscription services

London-based car subscription company Drover is aiming to scale up its business in the UK and France after attracting £20.5 million from new investors.

The investment has been 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 said it will invest further into its technology platform and into nationwide marketing campaigns "to turn Drover into a leading car retail brand".

Drover is an app-based service that connects customers with new and used car stock from partners like rental companies, dealer groups and leasing companies for a fixed monthly rental price, with insurance, servicing, maintenance, MoT, breakdown cover and road tax included.

Customers can upgrade, downgrade or cancel their contract after giving a month’s notice at no extra cost.

Drover says it can deliver vehicles to customers' doors within 72 hours, customers pay monthly throughout their subscription, and Drover takes the car back at the end of the term.

Jaguar, Land Rover, Citroen, DS, Peugeot, Volkswagen and Lexus have all launched Drover subscription packages in partnership with the company.

Felix Leuschner, Drover’s founder and CEO, said: “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.”