Grover, the Germany-based operator of a pay-as-you-go subscription service for consumer products, has raised €37m ($43.3m) in debt and equity financing from investors including for consumer electronics producer Samsung, TechCrunch reported today.
The equity portion consisted of $14m in series A funding from backers including Samsung unit Samsung Next and financial services firms Varengold Bank and Commerzbank, the latter through its Main Incubator unit.
Venture capital firm Circularity Capital led the round, which also featured Global Founders Capital (GFC), Hannover Innovation Fund, KRW Schindler Investments, Seedcamp and German state-backed fund Coparion. The participants in the debt portion were not specified.
Founded in 2015 as ByeBuy, Grover enables consumers to rent gadgets monthly, quarterly or yearly. Users can also pay a fixed monthly fee to gain the right to swap items at any time, or choose to buy a product after renting it.
Users are notified when their payments are about to reach 130% of an item’s retail price and are then given the option to purchase it for €1. Grover has also trialled a business-to-business service that lets companies rent products such as laptops for employees.
The company has partnered a range of electronics retailers to offer rental as an online checkout option. Grover then either purchases the product and loans it to the user or, if it has enough of the item in stock already, gives the retailer a share of future subscription income.
The money will enable Grover to further build its market share in Germany and restart international expansion plans. It had previously withdrawn from the UK and halted a soft launch in the US.
The round follows a $1.1m seed round for the company in 2015 that included Main Incubator, GFC, Hannover Innovation Fund, KRW Schindler Investments and Seedcamp.