Next47, the corporate venturing unit formed by industrial product and appliance manufacturer Siemens, led a funding round for US-based automotive leasing service Fair yesterday sized at about $50m according to TechCrunch.
Carmaker BMW also took part in the round, along with CreditEase FinTech Investment Fund, a strategic investment fund formed by online lending platform CreditEase, as well as Millennium Technology Value Partners, 137 Ventures, G Squared and Upfront Ventures.
Fair itself announced it had raised funding, and disclosed the investors but not the size of the round. Sources close to the company told TechCrunch that Fair has now raised about $100m altogether, from which the site estimated the size of the latest round.
Fair operates a flexible vehicle leasing service that enables users to drive any car they want and pay for it on a leasing basis. They have the option of purchasing the car outright or walking away at any time.
The company acquired the vehicles and leases of Xchange Leasing, the leasing service established by ride hailing service Uber, last week for an undisclosed sum. Part of the latest funding will support its acquisition of on-demand car rental platform Skurt, again for an undisclosed amount.
US-based Skurt had raised $11.3m in funding from BMW’s corporate venturing unit, BMW i Ventures, as well as Upfront Ventures, Cross Culture Ventures, Expansion VC, Greycroft Partners and angel investors such as ex-basketball player Magic Johnson across two rounds.
BMW i Ventures and car dealership owner Penske Automotive Group were among the investors that provided an undisclosed amount of equity funding for Fair in October 2017, at the same time as the company secured up to $1bn in debt financing.
Venture capital firm Javelin Venture Partners had led a $16m seed round for the company that included CRV, Foundation Capital, Moonshots Capital and Sherpa Capital, and which was disclosed when it emerged from stealth in September 2017.
Next47 partner TJ Rylander said: “It is clear that consumption models for personal transportation are changing rapidly and subscription-based pricing models are on the rise across all industries.
“Fair is at the forefront of marrying these two trends and making car ownership much more attractive for today’s consumers while opening up new market opportunities for manufacturers and dealers.”