Drover

Drover, a British company founded in late 2015 by Felix Leuschner and Matt Varughese, operated as a mobility-as-a-service platform centered on vehicle subscriptions. The founders identified a gap in the market, observing that while mobility solutions for getting from one point to another were numerous, the car ownership model itself had seen little change. Leuschner, a serial entrepreneur, had prior experience as CEO of the fashion platform Sylistpick and the virtual goods market Gamegoods.

The company's core offering was a flexible alternative to traditional car ownership and leasing. Drover provided an online marketplace where users could subscribe to a car for a single, all-inclusive monthly fee. This fee covered the vehicle, insurance, maintenance, road tax, and breakdown cover, with only fuel as an additional cost for the user. A key feature was its flexibility; subscriptions could range from one month to two years, and users had the option to swap, upgrade, downgrade, or cancel their service. Drover's business model did not involve owning the vehicles itself. Instead, it partnered with vehicle suppliers, manufacturers, dealers, and fleet companies, such as BMW Group, and applied a commission on top of the subscription price.

The platform served both individual consumers and private-hire drivers, like those on the Uber platform, aiming to bridge the gap between short-term rentals and long-term leases. For its fleet partners, Drover offered a suite of management tools, including telematics integration, predictive maintenance, and payment processing. The company secured significant funding, including a £2 million pre-seed investment followed by a £5.5 million round in March 2018 from investors like BP Ventures and Partech Ventures. By July 2020, it had raised a total of over £20.5 million. A significant milestone occurred in December 2020 when the online car retailer Cazoo acquired Drover for an amount reported to be around £65 million. Following the acquisition, the Drover brand was absorbed into Cazoo's platform in mid-2021 to accelerate Cazoo's entry into the car subscription market. However, in June 2022, Cazoo announced the closure of its car subscription service as part of a cost-cutting initiative.

Keywords: car subscription, mobility-as-a-service, automotive marketplace, vehicle leasing, fleet management, all-inclusive subscription, online car retail, Cazoo acquisition, Felix Leuschner, asset-light business model