Skip to main content

Car subscription service Cluno discloses €140M in debt financing

Cluno, the Munich startup providing what it calls a “car subscription” service, is disclosing that it has raised €140 million in debt financing.

Two asset-backed financing deals totalling €80 million were signed recently, adding to €60 million of debt previously secured — ie it’s not all entirely new money.

Separately, the company raised €25 million in equity-financing in a Series B round in February led by Valar Ventures, the U.S.-based venture capital firm founded by Peter Thiel. Others who participated are Acton Capital Partners and Atlantic Labs, which both backed the Cluno’s Series A round. It brought total equity raised by Cluno to €32 million.

Founded in 2017 by the same team behind easyautosale (which exited to Autoscout24 in 2015), Cluno offers an alternative to car ownership or a more restrictive lease by enabling you to subscribe to a car for an all-inclusive monthly fee.

Available in Germany only, you book your car online or via the Cluno app, with the monthly fee covering all costs except fuel. After a minimum term of six months, subscribers can return or switch their car with three months notice.

Convenience and choice is also part of the pitch. This sees bookings, as well as credit checks and signatures, all carried out paperlessly via the Cluno app. The startup offers multiple models from nine different car companies, including BMW, VW, Audi and Ford. Models span small cars to SUVs, including hybrid and electric vehicles.

Cluno tells me the new debt financing is dedicated to growing the company’s car subscription fleet “and serves as the basis for structures that are fit for capital markets”.

“The structured, asset-based financing via ‘Cluno FinTech 1 GmbH’ and ‘Cluno FinTech 2 GmbH’ is a highly profitable and at the same time insolvency-proof investment for banks. Cluno’s fully digital reporting and the resilient backup service structure contribute to reliability,” says Dr. Veronika von Heise-Rotenburg, CFO of Cluno in a statement.

Meanwhile, the previously raised equity is being used to grow the two-year-old Cluno, which currently counts 80 employees.

Adds Nico Polleti, co-founder and CEO of Cluno: “Car subscription has proved to be very successful as a mobility concept and is on the verge of entering the mass market. As innovation driver in a fast-paced industry, we want to take our business model to the next level as quickly as possible. Our goals are scaling and, in the long run, internationalization. Both the financial resources as well as the trust of the financial institutions are a crucial lever.”



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2mivne8
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Silent Revolution of On-Device AI: Why the Cloud Is No Longer King

Introduction For years, artificial intelligence has meant one thing: the cloud. Whether you’re asking ChatGPT a question, editing a photo with AI tools, or getting recommendations on Netflix — those decisions happen on distant servers, not your device. But that’s changing. Thanks to major advances in silicon, model compression, and memory architecture, AI is quietly migrating from giant data centres to the palm of your hand. Your phone, your laptop, your smartwatch — all are becoming AI engines in their own right. It’s a shift that redefines not just how AI works, but who controls it, how private it is, and what it can do for you. This article explores the rise of on-device AI — how it works, why it matters, and why the cloud’s days as the centre of the AI universe might be numbered. What Is On-Device AI? On-device AI refers to machine learning models that run locally on your smartphone, tablet, laptop, or edge device — without needing constant access to the cloud. In practi...
1 comment
Read more

Apple’s AI Push: Everything We Know About Apple Intelligence So Far

Apple’s WWDC 2025 confirmed what many suspected: Apple is finally making a serious leap into artificial intelligence. Dubbed “Apple Intelligence,” the suite of AI-powered tools, enhancements, and integrations marks the company’s biggest software evolution in a decade. But unlike competitors racing to plug AI into everything, Apple is taking a slower, more deliberate approach — one rooted in privacy, on-device processing, and ecosystem synergy. If you’re wondering what Apple Intelligence actually is, how it works, and what it means for your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, you’re in the right place. This article breaks it all down.   What Is Apple Intelligence? Let’s get the terminology clear first. Apple Intelligence isn’t a product — it’s a platform. It’s not just a chatbot. It’s a system-wide integration of generative AI, machine learning, and personal context awareness, embedded across Apple’s OS platforms. Think of it as a foundational AI layer stitched into iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and m...
Post a Comment
Read more

Billionaire clothing dynasty heiress launches Everybody & Everyone to make fashion sustainable

Veronica Chou’s family has made its fortune at the forefront of the fast fashion business through investments in companies like Michael Kors and Tommy Hilfiger . But now, the heiress to an estimated $2.1 billion fortune is launching her own company, Everybody & Everyone , to prove that the fashion industry can be both environmentally sustainable and profitable. There’s no argument about the negative impacts of the fashion industry on the environment. The textiles industry primarily uses non-renewable resources — on the order of 98 million tons per year. That includes the oil to make synthetic fibers, fertilizers to grow cotton, and toxic chemicals to dye, treat, and produce the textiles used to make clothes. The greenhouse gas footprint from textiles production was roughly 1.2 billion tons of CO2 equivalent in 2015 — more than all international flights and maritime shipments combined (and a lot of those maritime shipments and international flights were hauling clothes). The lit...
Post a Comment
Read more