Online leasing could be the future as Vehiculum secures further investment

18 October 2017

Vehicle leasing firm Vehiculum has revealed funding of around €2 million as it looks to solidify its online leasing and e-commerce business.

The company launched a funding round, in which venture capitalists Coparion, the insurance group SchneiderGolling and the Russian investor Oskar Hartmann participated. The new investment pushes the company’s total funding to almost €3 million. The money will be used by the company to improve its online platforms and establish itself as a market leading website for vehicle sales. Vehiculum believes that by 2030, every second car will be procured by online leasing rather than outright purchases.

′We want to make autoleasing as simple as possible – with a swipe, with one click, everything is done, just as you know from Amazon,’ Vehiculum founder and CEO Lukas Steinhilber told AutomobilWoche. ′We know that the competition is ready and that the market will be rolled up in the near future. We want to be already there then and have positioned ourselves.’

Vehiculum wants to increase its staff numbers from 20 to 50, as well as developing a bank-independent online shop for vehicle leasing – initially for business customers, but with plans to roll out to private buyers in the future.

′The future of car trading is not lead-generation but e-commerce, which is why we are already translating transactions directly from our website, as opposed to other leasing exchanges,’ adds Melchior Bauer, co-founder of Vehiculum. ′Users will be able to conclude a leasing contract through us with just a few clicks, just as they complete their mobile or electricity contract online.’

The online platform scans offers from hundreds of leasing providers in Germany and offers a real-time price comparison, which the founders believe cuts the effort in doing this from ten hours to around five minutes, giving business managers information in an easily comparable web page. ′Leasing essentially offers what customers expect in Netflix and Spotify times: planned monthly costs, use instead of ownership and minimal residual value risk,’ says Steinhilber.

Thanks to the network of the SchneiderGolling Group, Vehiculum is now offering an all-round insurance from liability and hardship to the leasing contract. ′A tailor-made insurance product is the next logical step on the way to the digital one-stop shop for car leasing, and our car insurance can be booked with just one click and is much cheaper than the market standard,’ concludes Bauer.