Virtuo, the French car-hire startup, which is mobile-only, had been growing rapidly in Europe before COVID-19 arrived. With the average European taking ten trips a year, from a long summer holiday to weekends away, the contactless service was positioning itself to be a high-end and high-convenience alternative to traditional car-hire.
High-quality, high-convenience car rental
The company’s pitch is simple: “We want to be the best option for long-distance mobility,” Michael Altom, Virtuo’s COO, explains. “For the A-to-B in a city, you have lots of options: bike, Über, tube, walk, but for longer distances, there is nothing better than the car.”
However, the costs of car ownership, both financial and environmental, are increasingly unattractive to younger generations. At the same time, traditional counter-based rental options lack the ease-of-use they expect....