Estonian electric car rental company Elmo Rent closed €2,6M round

Estonian electric car rental company Elmo Rent has closed a €2,6M round from lead investor Tallinn-based investment firm Highgoal Capital Management, Estonian companies Barolo Finants (building maintenance services and tax consulting, and accounting) and Saggis (commerce of non-durable goods), and Latvian venture capital fund FlyCap. The investment was given as a convertible loan.

Elmo Rent provides car short-term sharing services to private customers, car sharing/leasing services to business customers, vehicle fleet management services, an IT fleet management system, and remote car technology. In 2019, Elmo started to develop teledriving technology, which allows controlling vehicles remotely. After the customer has booked the vehicle, Elmo drivers can deliver it to him, operating the car from the remote center. The technology was licensed by the Transport Administration in Estonia in 2022. According to the company, it plans to start selling its teledriving technology in two foreign cities in the summer of 2023. Elmo Rent has recently founded a new company Elmo Remote Oü, which will operate separately from Elmo Rent and focus only on car-sharing services with teledriving technology.  Besides, soon Elmo Remote starts to raise venture investment. 

Remotely controlled cars are already in use in Tallinn and Tartu. Elmo Rent has 19K clients and 140 cars, and its shares are traded on the Nasdaq Tallinn alternative market First North. The company was founded in 2013 by the state company Kredex Foundation, and in 2017 was sold to Estonian entrepreneurs Enn Laansoo and Indrek Klaassen.

Elmo will use the investment to license remote control technology in foreign markets, increase the team, prepare new cars, and bring them to public roads.

Highgoal Capital Management is an international capital-based investment company that invests in early- and growth-stage technology companies in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The company has invested in Latvian fintech Nordigen, Estonian mobility startup Planet42, and Estonian on-demand transport company Bolt. The founder is Ragnar Meitern. It has offices in Tallinn and London.

FlyCap is a Latvian mezzanine fund with €21M investment capital with the focus on medium-sized companies in Latvia and Europe. It invests €1-2M in each company. Currently, it invests from Mezzanine Fund II AIF KS. The fund was established in 2013 by Girts Milgravis, Janis Liepins, and Janis Skutelis.