The Helvetia Venture Fund invests in FAAREN, a car subscription company based in Germany

The Helvetia Venture Fund is participating in the current financing round for FAAREN. The German start-up's software solution enables companies in the automotive industry to launch car subscription offerings within hours. FAAREN provides software but does not have its own vehicle fleet, thus pursuing a capital-efficient asset-light business model.

18.05.2021 | Media releases

The Helvetia Venture Fund is participating in FAAREN's latest round of financing in order to invest in Germany's first car subscription marketplace. With its customizable white-label software, the start-up allows car dealers to offer their vehicles to customers on the basis of a subscription model the dealers themselves are free to define. Via its own website, FAAREN also offers its partners a marketplace for car subscriptions, helping them reach a broader target market with their offerings. This provides car dealers with an opportunity to tap a new business area quickly and easily, while still maintaining direct contact with their customers.

FlixBus founders (SEK Ventures GmbH) and other private investors are taking part in the financing round alongside the Helvetia Venture Fund. FAAREN will use the proceeds from the financing round to expand its marketing activities and continue evolving its product and software development.

Car subscription models on the up and up
The investment marks Helvetia's entry into the highly attractive car subscription market, which has gained a lot of momentum, especially in recent months. The focus of interest is primarily on consumers' constantly evolving behaviour when it comes to mobility. "Demand for car subscriptions is increasing unabated. This investment grants us access to the world of future mobility", explains Philipp Stieg, Head of Business Development at Helvetia Germany. The Helvetia Venture Fund's investment in FAAREN dovetails perfectly with the helvetia 20.25 strategy, under which Helvetia also plans to systematically exploit new opportunities. "Thanks to the Helvetia Venture Fund's investment, we can look forward to a promising partnership going forward – one that will take our highly scalable software solution to the next level in terms of growth. It will enable us not only to invest in product development and marketing, but also to offer market access to new partners from other segments, such as manufacturers, insurers, banks and car rental firms", says Daniel Garnitz, CEO and co-founder of FAAREN.

Contact information

Analysts
Susanne Tengler
Head of Investor Relations

Phone: +41 58 280 57 79
investor.relations@helvetia.ch

Media
Jonas Grossniklaus
Head of Media Relations

Phone: +41 58 280 50 33
media.relations@helvetia.ch

Downloads & Links

Press photo FAAREN (JPG)

Media release (PDF)

Media releases overview

About Helvetia

The Helvetia Venture Fund invests in start-ups from the insurtech segment and in young companies whose business models provide a link to or support Helvetia's insurance business. The fund is a subsidiary of Helvetia Swiss Insurance Company Ltd and is domiciled in Luxembourg. It focusses on start-ups from throughout Europe and places an emphasis on those countries in which Helvetia operates, namely Switzerland as well as Germany, France, Italy, Austria and Spain. The total volume stands at CHF 55 million.

www.helvetia.vc

About the Helvetia Group

In over 160 years, the Helvetia Group has grown from a number of Swiss and foreign insurance companies into a successful international insurance group. Helvetia is one of the leading all-line insurers in its home market of Switzerland. With the countries Germany, Italy, Austria and Spain, which have been combined to form the Market Area Europe, the company has a second strong pillar. With its Specialty Markets market area, Helvetia is also present in France and in selected regions worldwide. Some of its investment and financing activities are managed through subsidiaries and fund companies in Luxembourg. The Group is headquartered in St.Gallen, Switzerland.

Helvetia is active in the life and non-life business, and also offers customised specialty lines and reinsurance cover. Its business activities focus on retail customers as well as small and medium-sized companies and larger corporates. With some 11,600 employees, the company provides services to more than 7 million customers. With a business volume of CHF 9.71 billion, Helvetia generated an IFRS result after tax of CHF 281.7 million in financial year 2020. The registered shares of Helvetia Holding are traded on the SIX Swiss Exchange under the symbol HELN.

Cautionary note

This document was prepared by Helvetia Group and may not be copied, altered, offered, sold or otherwise distributed to any other person by any recipient without the consent of Helvetia Group. The German version of this document is decisive and binding. Versions of the document in other languages are made available purely for information purposes. Although all reasonable effort has been made to ensure that the facts stated herein are correct and the opinions contained herein are fair and reasonable, where any information and statistics are quoted from any external source such information or statistics should not be interpreted as having been adopted or endorsed as accurate by Helvetia Group. Neither Helvetia Group nor any of its directors, officers, employees and advisors nor any other person shall have any liability whatsoever for loss howsoever arising, directly or indirectly, from any use of this information. The facts and information contained in this document are as up to date as is reasonably possible but may be subject to revision in the future. Neither Helvetia Group nor any of its directors, officers, employees or advisors nor any other person makes any representation or warranty, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained in this document.

This document may contain projections or other forward-looking statements related to Helvetia Group which by their very nature involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, and there is a risk that predictions, forecasts, projections and other outcomes described or implied in forward-looking statements will not be achieved. We caution you that a number of important factors could cause results to differ materially from the plans, objectives, expectations, estimates and intentions expressed in such forward-looking statements. These factors include: (1) changes in general economic conditions, in particular in the markets in which we operate; (2) the performance of financial markets; (3) changes in interest rates; (4) changes in currency exchange rates; (5) changes in laws and regulations, including accounting policies or practices; (6) risks associated with implementing our business strategies; (7) the frequency, magnitude and general development of insured events; (8) mortality and morbidity rates; (9) policy renewal and lapse rates as well as (10), the realisation of economies of scale as well as synergies. We caution you that the foregoing list of important factors is not exhaustive; when evaluating forward-looking statements, you should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties. All forward-looking statements are based on information available to Helvetia Group on the date of its publication and Helvetia Group assumes no obligation to update such statements unless otherwise required by applicable law.