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Scottish vehicle rental platform Coastr picks up £1.4M funding; eyes to launch more products in 2022

Coastr
Image credits: Coastr

Coastr is an Edinburgh-based all-in-one vehicle rental management platform, which enables independent vehicle rental businesses to become fully digitised. Today, the startup picked up £1.4 million funding from a London investor GroVentive.

Ambitious plans for 2022

The proceeds from the investment round will be used by Coastr to launch additional products into the market in 2022, including on-demand fleet insurance, integrated vehicle financing and connectivity to market aggregators and booking platforms. The company also plans to launch its own branded mobility services platform, working with rental partners to utilise networks and spare capacity.

Coastr CEO and founder Biswajit Kundu Roy, a University of Strathclyde graduate, previously from Royal Bank of Scotland, said: “We are empowering vehicle hire operators by helping them transform their businesses through data-driven decision-making and delivering a truly digital experience to their customers. At the same time, our goal is to help them become more competitive and switch to more sustainable business models like adopting Electric Vehicles and contactless rentals.”

Bruno Pannetier, Chief Investment Officer at GroVentive, said: “We are excited to have provided such significant investment into an extremely exciting business and we are looking forward to supporting Biswajit and his team on their high-growth plans over the next few years.”

Connected vehicle technologies

Coastr was founded by a former Technology Strategist at PwC, Biswajit Kundu Roy in 2018. Its cloud-based “all-in-one” vehicle rental management platform enables independent vehicle rental businesses to compete with the major players in the market, deliver benefits including cost savings, higher fleet utilisation, and revenue maximisation. Also, it will let them overcome barriers to growth by accessing cheaper insurance and financing.

The software uses AI and connected vehicle technologies including telematics and direct integrations with manufacturers via partners such as CalAmp and Smartcar to deliver innovations like keyless entry, remote vehicle immobilisation, and real-time usage monitoring to enable complete control over fleets.

Formerly known as Nuvven, Coastr’s vision is to connect the mobility ecosystem for vehicle rentals. It has partnerships in place with Volkswagen Financial Services (VWFS) and existing customers include UK van rental company Herd Hire Group and its industry partners include Stripe, Sage, and Elavon.

While Coastr is targeting the UK and Europe in two years, its technology is also being trialled outside Europe. Headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland, Coastr has opened a second office in Bangalore, India, earlier this year where it plans to grow its operational and technology teams. Over the last twelve months, the company has experienced a fivefold increase in its customer base while doubling headcount to 35 member team.

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