Audi Expands into Car Rental Space with Silvercar Investment

Getting a good rental at your destination when you travel is like winning the lottery. Silvercar car rental service transformed the car rental business in the United States by eliminating long lines, counters, paperwork and the uncertainty. The company has an exclusive stock of fully loaded Audis at airports across the United States, which can be pre-booked using a smartphone app. The use of one luxury model eliminates the uncertainty factor while the app makes renting a car super easy. In the past six months, Silvercar’s seamless service offering caught the eye of Audi. Now, the German brand has announced that it will be investing in Silvercar by being one of the leading investors in the company’s recent USD 28 million Series C equity issuance.

Founded in 2012, within a short period of time, Silvercar has exhibited rapid growth with its effective blend of technology, assets and operations and serves some of the busiest airports in the United States including Los Angeles, Austin, Orlando, Denver, Chicago and New York. The brand has gone from strength to strength, with 2015 being a record year in which its business tripled. Silvercar was also recognized as North America’s “Leading Car Rental Company” by the World Travel Awards in December.

The company will use the Audi investment to expand into new markets and ramp up its aairport car rental business. The two companies also plan to work together on the Audi Shared Fleet program which companies can use to loan cars to their employees on corporate campuses.

This infusion of funds is the largest such investment for Silvercar and as an outcome of the deal, Audi of America chief Scott Keogh will join the Silvercar board of directors. Speaking about the investment he said that Silvercar represented not only the future of the car rental industry, but also delivered a vision for the future of mobility. He added that Audi plans on using Silvercar’s expertise in innovation and technology to merge mobility with connectivity for today’s consumers.This new investment is part of Audi’s drive to explore new and successful mobility business models as personal transportation continues to evolve rapidly on a global scale.

“Audi’s confidence in Silvercar allows us to extend our reach even further, and bring forth the concept of shared mobility into many more markets, applications and product offerings,” said Silvercar CEO, Luke Schneider. “It is our goal to accelerate the expansion of our successful airport business in order to integrate these new mobility products into the market as soon as possible.”