Former LeCamping Season 5 startup Tripndrive has raised €800K from ISAI, with participation by David Botvinik, Christophe Poupinel, and Antoine de Rochefort, the company announced this week. Launched in 2013, Tripndrive is fighting in a competitive car-sharing market; however, they’ve focused on Airport drop-off’s and pickup’s, grabbing departing traveller’s cars and renting them out to arriving tourists.
The concept itself is quite interesting – for car-owners, Tripndrive offers free airport parking, and for travelers, a standard car rental service. With respect to leading car-rental agencies – Europcar, Hertz, Enteprise, et al. – Tripndrive has less overhead (they don’t buy the cars, and they seemingly don’t pay car owners), and they can rent out at competitive prices using flexible parking arrangements.
Their lead investor, ISAI, notably was among the first investors in Blablacar, the ride-sharing giant which is currently dominating Europe, and, soon, the world. ISAI must be hoping that Tripndrive will have the same impact on the car rental market as Blablacar has had on the long-distance bus/train travel market.