The Viennese start-up Eloop wins Lucky Car as a strategic investor. 

There are currently about 200 Teslas available in Vienna for the e-car sharing program run by the local start-up Eloop. A year ago there were just about 100. Several rounds of financing within the past two years made this rapid fleet growth possible. Even though the start-up relies on the “cheapest” version, the Tesla Model 3, we all know that cheap is relative when it comes to Tesla. 

In addition to a number of VCs and the European Super Angels Club, investors include Bitpanda co-founder Christian Trummer and former Austrian national football team captain Andreas Ivanschitz. Now Eloop gained a new strategic investor: the workshop chain Lucky Car. 

Synergies for the win 

Although the amount of the present investment has not been disclosed, it is anticipated that this partnership focusses stronger on business synergies than on capital. “With its expertise, Lucky Car is a great strategic partner. With this cooperation, we want to increase our efficiency concerning workshop visits and get our cars back on the road as quickly as possible after maintenance and service or in case of repair. For reaching our goals, we need a strong workshop like Lucky Car on our side,” comments Eloop founder Leroy Hofer. 

Growing demand for workshops for e-cars 

Mitar Kos (Lucky Car Managing Director) says: “The need for workshops for e-cars will grow steadily in the coming years. We recognised this early and have therefore adjusted many of our branches accordingly. We now want to provide this knowledge and expertise to Eloop’s e-car fleet.” He also outlines the benefits that his company gains from the investment: “Lucky Car has positioned itself very strongly in the B2C sector in recent years. Due to our steady growth, we have recently gained quite a bit of capacity. That means that the B2B sector will also make up part of our clientele in the future. Here we can support companies with our dense national network, for example as an external fleet manager.” 

Eloop plans to expand into Germany and Austria with 600 electric automobiles

Lucky Car employs around 300 people at 41 locations in Austria. The business recently opened its first branch in Switzerland Eloop has also previously disclosed aggressive growth intentions, specifically to Germany. Additionally, the Austrian start–up plans to gradually increase the number of e-vehicles in its fleet to 600.