Posted on Feb 2, 2019 2021 at 6:00
Motorists know it well: it is important to maintain your vehicle properly if you want to avoid unpleasant surprises on the road. But changing an old or defective part is often a source of stress. “There is a problem of trust between mechanics and consumers. However, this confidence is gained with better information, ”is convinced Alexis Frerejean, the boss and founder of Vroomly.
This young growth has created a platform (Vroomly Booking) which allows you to compare the prices of garages near your home, to have information on the quality of the service provided thanks to a rating system, to obtain an online quote, then to reserve an available time slot.
Result: a motorist who has to change his brake pads knows in advance how much he will have to pay when recovering his vehicle. “Price is an important criterion on Vroomly but not the only one: 40% of customers will use the cheapest garage, but 30% closest to their home, and 30% the best rated,” says Alexis Frerejean.
The transparency map
By playing the transparency card, garage owners working with the start-up can improve their online presence and hope to attract new customers. For each repair, Vroomly receives a 10% commission. Founded in 2018, the young shoot quickly made a name for itself in the automotive sector. “We had 1,500 partner garage owners last March. We now have around 3,000, ”says Alexis Frerejean.
Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, synonymous with the closure of garage owners for long weeks, Vroomly claims to have enabled more than 10 million euros in workshop turnover in 2020 with its customers. And the company does not want to stop there: it announces that it has raised funds of 5 million euros from Via ID (Cyclofix, Heetch, Drivy), which is its historical investor.
These new resources should enable the young growth to convince new independent garage owners to join its network. Vroomly wants to have between 5,000 or 6,000 certified partners within a year. The young shoot will also expand its workforce. “We will go from a little over thirty employees to sixty in a year,” says the boss.
Marketplace for spare parts
At the same time, the company wants to continue to develop its new marketplace (Vroomly Parts), which allows mechanics to compare the price of spare parts and obtain them more quickly. “We are already bringing customers to garages, we now want to improve their profitability,” explains Alexis Frerejean. The stakes are high: the car maintenance market (parts and service) weighs 220 billion euros in the Old Continent but is not very digitized. Garages are in fact used to buying parts from the same suppliers.
After having started in France, the young shoot is also ready to cross borders. “We want to be SaaS for garage owners in Europe,” slips Alexis Frerejean. The young shoot is prospecting in several countries, and in particular in Spain, even if it does not have a launch date to communicate for the moment. It has not escaped him that, on the other side of the Pyrenees, 85% of garage owners are independent and that their online presence can be improved.