A Chat with Karim Kaddoura, Co-Founder at Car Rental App: Virtuo

Founded in 2015, Virtuo is renting a car, but not like you know it. You can seamlessly book and unlock a range of cars, all through your phone and the Virtuo digital key. Our app-based service means no queues, hassle, or paperwork. It allows you to pick up your car and escape the city 24/7. Virtuo has rapidly developed into a disruptive alternative that now offers the world’s first 100% contactless car rental service.

Users can have cars delivered to their door within 4-hours, unlock their vehicle, top up mileage and extend their rental, all through our app. We even use machine learning and computer vision to allow users to submit damage reports using the camera on their phone.
 
 

 

What do you think makes this company unique?

 
There are a few aspects to Virtuo that make it truly unique to the car rental industry.

Virtuo’s overall mission is to be a true alternative to car ownership. In Paris, there are 700,000 cars parked in the streets, with twice that in London, and realising this was like a lightbulb moment for us. This is a hugely inefficient use of land. My passion to provide customer this alternative service is all the more ironic given that my father is a car dealer who completely expected me to go into business with him one day.

The digital nature of our company is also a standout. Even if you initiate a process online, with most other rental companies there is usually still paperwork that needs to be filled out in person; and you need to go to a rental hub. Dropping off and collecting the car can be tedious and painstaking and added costs can creep in at any moment. With Virtuo, quick, easy, and convenient access to a car can be available in mere hours.
 

How has the company evolved over the last couple of years?

 
Virtuo, began as a Paris-based start-up back in 2015. Since then, we has opened in six European regions: France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, and the U.K. Our service is available in 54 cities across these countries. We have a range of 4,500+ cars, and +2,000,000 downloads.

We have also won a ran of awards over the last 6 years, including Best App on the app store 2016& 2018, BPI France, and 2021 French Tech Top 120.

Having raised €96M in fundraising in 2021 and with over 100,000 users, we are showing no signs of slowing down in 2023 and are ready to roll-out our app in more places than ever before.
 

What can we hope to see from your company in the future?

 
Since 2021 we’ve committed to a Net-Zero plan to remove as much carbon as we possibly can from our service. This is one of our main goals for Virtuo in the future, particularly that by 2025 we will have 50% of our fleet of cars be EVs and transition to a fully EV fleet by 2030.

Of course, we will also continue to expand across Europe, and become a prominent service to customers in more and more cities. A future without the existence of private car ownership is the ultimate long-term goal of our company.