The Virtuo care-hire service this month opened two stations in Brussels and Zaventem, its first outside of France, the French start-up announced on Friday. Virtuo describes itself as a “100% mobile” car rental service. Everything, from booking a car to returning it and the damage report, is done through an application that was designated Best App for 2016 by Apple.
The company was established in France in 2015 and raised start-up capital to the tune of 1.7 million euros from private investors, including French entrepreneur Xavier Niel, founder of Illiad-Free and joint owner of Le Monde. The service was launched in April 2016 ahead of a second capital raising, this time for 7.5 million euros from the Balderton Capital investment fund, in September 2017.
The opening of the two stations in Belgium, at the Bruxelles-Midi train station and Brussels Airport in Zaventem, marks the start of a new phase for the French company, which has 18 stations in France and 25 employees, and says it has 50,000 users.
The company said that, Brussels, with its proximity to and synergies with France, its economic importance and its geographical centrality to the hub of great European exchanges, Brussels features as the most natural first step of Virtuo’s international expansion. Virtuo is also looking at London as part of its expansion.
The Brussels Times
