Grover Stands Out through Renting High-Tech Items

The Berlin-based platform announced a €37 million funding round led by Circularity Capital. This start-up proposes subscriptions for renting high-tech products, and flexible payment options. With this roundtable, they are aiming for international reach.

Grover as launched in 2015. They stand out as an alternative to online financing solutions. With 40 employees, they now record +20% in monthly sales figures. This company is only established in Germany, but intends to consolidate their local implantation and reach out for international markets with new “Pay as You Go” subscriptions.

They feature two main offers: a monthly subscription, “Grover Mix”, allowing customers to pay fixed monthly instalments to rent different kinds of items and have these products replaced at any time (long-term rental); and monthly, quarterly or yearly subscriptions for lease-purchase options. Also, Grover’s financing solutions are available with retail partners too through their “rent with Grover” button.

Grover introduced an offer called “Startup Get Grover” for businesses, too: this option would allow them to pay for IT equipment to be used by their employees.

Comments – Rental options gaining even more traction

Offers like these provide customers with flexibility in terms of choosing the payment options most relevant in their case. They can pay for their subscription via credit or debit, and even opt for PayPal. Just as well, they can upgrade their IT equipment regularly and still keep an eye on their expenses. Yet, such options do come with some constraints: the item has to be returned in good working conditions or they might have to pay 50% max of the initial rental cost if severely damaged. Cdiscount already proposes a long-term rental service for thousands of items, including high-tech products.

Many players have been testing subscription offers, especially in the car industry: BMW, Volvo or Cadillac, for instance. Likewise these subscriptions can be compared to long-term rental services, and are likely to apply to other items, as well (bikes, for example).