Automotive manufacturer Volvo has begun talks to acquire the assets and intellectual property of Luxe, the US-based on-demand valet parking service backed by car rental service Hertz, The Information reported yesterday.
Luxe has built a platform that enables users to book valet parking as well as other car services such as washing and refuelling. It had raised about $75m in funding but shut down the service in April this year after failing to make the business model work economically.
Curtis Lee, Luxe’s CEO, has said the company still has plenty of cash and is working on something new. On-demand ride platform Uber was reportedly in talks to acquire some of its technology and engineering team in June this year, but it is unclear whether the deal was closed.
Hertz invested in Luxe as part of its $50m series B round, which closed in April 2016, alongside Redpoint Ventures and Venrock, the venture capital firms that co-led the company’s $20m series A round the year before.
Luxe had initially raised $5.5m in seed capital from GV, then known as Google Ventures, Redpoint, Sherpa Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Upfront Ventures, Foundation Capital, BoxGroup, Slow Ventures, Data Collective, Eniac Ventures and Rothenberg Ventures in 2014.