Carmaker Volvo has paid an undisclosed sum to acquire the assets of Luxe, a US-based on-demand valet parking service backed by car rental firm Hertz and internet technology group Alphabet.
Founded in 2014, Luxe operated an app-based service that allowed users to organise valet parking as well as a range of other services including washing, refuelling and oil changes.
Luxe was valued at $140m as of its April 2016 series B round according to Pitchbook, but a source close to the deal told TechCrunch that Volvo likely paid “pennies on the dollar” for the company.
The acquisition follows more than $75m of funding, $50m of which came in the series B round, which was led by Hertz and backed by Redpoint Ventures and Venrock, the two venture capital firms that co-led the company’s $20m series A round the previous year.
GV, the Alphabet subsidiary then known as Google Ventures, had participated in Luxe’s $5.5m seed round in 2014 alongside Redpoint, Sherpa Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Upfront Ventures, Foundation Capital, BoxGroup, Slow Ventures, Data Collective, Eniac Ventures and Rothenberg Ventures.
The Luxe team will join Volvo’s existing Silicon Valley team and will boost its mobility offering while also providing technology that can help with routing, logistics planning or the prediction of journey arrival times.
Atif Rafiq, chief digital officer of Volvo Cars, said: “Our vision is a future in which technology simplifies life so you never have to stop at a petrol station, go to a car wash or even take your car in for service ever again.
“The acquisition of Luxe is a step towards realising that ambition. I look forward to working closely with the highly talented team at Luxe who created its advanced technology from the ground up.”