Image credits: Grover
Berlin-based Grover, a consumer-tech subscription platform, announced on Wednesday that it has raised €270M in debt financing from M&G, an international asset manager.
Grover says the new capital will help expand its product inventory to serve existing customers, including Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, and Austria.
The announcement comes five months after raising €302M in equity (€100M) and debt (€201M) funding in a Series C round at unicorn valuation. To date, the German company has raised €800M in debt funding in Europe and $250M in the USA.
Besides the funding, the company also appointed former media executive Joanna Coles, former Klarna Board member Sarah McPhee, former Snap CFO Lara Sweet, and Colleen DeCourcy, Chief Creative Officer of Snap, to its board.
Grover: What you need to know
Founded in 2015 by Michael Cassau, Grover is a technology rental platform that enables people to subscribe to tech products monthly instead of buying them.
With a subscription, subscribers can access over 5,000 tech products, including smartphones, laptops, Virtual Reality (VR) gear, wearables, and smart home appliances, on a flexible monthly rental basis.
The company’s service allows users to keep, switch, buy, or return products, depending on their needs and budget. Grover’s products are returned, refurbished, and recirculated until the end of their usable life.
Rentals are available in the US, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, and Spain through GROVER.com. In Germany, the rentals are available through Grover’s online and offline partner network, including the retail electronics group MediaMarktSaturn.
Grover has rented out more than 1M devices since July 2022. According to proprietary data, the company’s tech subscription model has curbed the purchase of 134,000 new devices between 2015 and 2020, saving 210 tonnes of e-waste from landfill.
The German company says it has experienced significant growth of more than 100 per cent YoY and has seen its customer base grow by more than 50 per cent since the beginning of 2022.
Michael Cassau, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Grover, says, “Technology is a basic human right. Grover is advancing the world to digital fluency so people will benefit from the experiences that the right technology in the right hands can deliver. In the last months, we’ve seen the tech rental movement gaining further momentum as consumers turn to more flexible and sustainable solutions amid increasing living costs. The fresh capital allows us to meet this growing demand in existing and new markets. M&G is one of the largest and most reputable asset managers globally and a leader in ESG investing, making them the ideal strategic partner for our circular business model. The partnership will be valuable to help us develop an impact metric.”
Investor
M&G plc is an international savings and investments business, managing money for around 5M retail customers and over 800 institutional clients in 28 markets. As of 30 June 2022, M&G plc had £348.9B of assets under management and administration.
Will Nicoll, CIO of Private & Alternative Assets, M&G, says, “Grover’s focus on developing sustainable ways to access technology is changing consumer habits for the better. By providing financing through an Asset-Backed Security, we are helping Grover expand its reach while seeking to provide our pension fund and institutional clients with attractive cashflows.”
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