Five after its creation, Carfully reaches a new level. The West Indian startup, specialist in vehicle rental between individuals in the Overseas Territories has just raised half a million euros from the social investor IMPACT partners.
This is called, “putting butter in your spinach”. Carfully, a West Indian startup founded by Yoann Saint-Louis, Satyam Dorville and Jérôme Idylle has just completed a great operation: raising half a million euros (editor’s note, € 510,000). The three friends from Guadeloupe and Martinique had the idea in 2012 to set up in the Overseas Territories a company that would allow individuals to rent their personal vehicles to tourists. Five years later, via its online platform, Carfully connects 600 private owners in Martinique and Guadeloupe with tourists looking for rental vehicles.
If in France and in Europe, the model is proven, in the French Antilles, the challenge was sizeable. But over time, with a defined vision and perseverance, Carfully gradually found its place in the rental car market. Proof of this is the first fundraising carried out in 2016 which allows them to recover a little over € 120,000, via a crowdfunding campaign in which around thirty investors participate. Among them, owners registered on Carfully but also influential people like the professional basketball player from Martinique, Ronny Turiaf or even the CREO Group of Patrick Fabre, support of the start-up since its inception.
Create value and jobs in the medium term
This Tuesday, Carfully announced via a press release that it had raised half a million euros (€ 510,000, to be precise) from IMPACT Partenaires, a management company with a social vocation that supports companies generating remarkable social impacts (jobs , integration, handicap, apprenticeship) in particular in neighborhoods. “This fundraising is a positive sign for our local digital ecosystem in which Carfully is a very committed player. The confidence granted by a national investment fund such as IMPACT partners, makes it possible to prove that our local startups have potential and can act, thanks to the support of experts, on the creation of wealth and jobs ”, explains Yoann Saint-Louis, co-founder of Carfully.
Thanks to this new financing, the company plans to set up in Guyana and Reunion, then in certain Caribbean islands, while unveiling certain major projects that will be spread over the coming months. For Yannis Lambourdière, account manager at IMPACT Partners: “Carfully has an intelligent approach to its market which quickly convinced us. Its offer meets the specificities of the overseas departments, while redistributing income to local populations. “
In a press release, we learn that the West Indian startup has already created 8 jobs and donated more than € 500,000 to its owners since its creation. “The development project should ultimately allow the creation of around twenty additional jobs and redistribute more than € 2 million to owners by 2020”, also specifies the founders.
Since its launch, Carfully has allowed Guadeloupeans and Martinicans to rent their cars to individuals. The service generates a monthly income of several hundred euros for owners. A concept inspired by that produced on a larger scale by Drivy, which offers nearly 40,000 private cars for rent to a million members in France, Germany, Spain, Austria and Belgium.
Source: http: //www.mediaphore.com/2017/03/carfully-leve-510-000-euros-aupres-dimpact/
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