E-loue has acquired an American rival as the French online rental platform moves to expand internationally.
The purchase of Rental-Compare will enable E-loue (which means E-rent) to operate in the United States. E-loue also plans to launch operations in Denmark, Russia and Israel. By acquiring several other rental platforms in France, the company is expanding its offerings in that country as well.
The Los Angeles-based Rental-Compare is one of the largest rental websites in the United States, publishing more than 500,000 listings. The company focuses on event and equipment rentals and features listings by 1,000 equipment rental companies.
Founded by Benoit Wojciechowski and Alexandre Woog in 2009, the French platform has more than 100,000 active users who can offer seldom-used items for rent or rent from others.
Revenue from transactions, subscriptions
The French platform has grown as more and more people and businesses participate in the sharing economy in which transportation services such as Uber and traveler accommodation platforms such as Airbnb are also flourishing.
E-loue users can rent equipment and goods, including cameras, game consoles, sports gear, clothing and garden tools.
E-loue charges a commission of 20 percent on transactions and participating rental companies also pay a subscription fee. Woog said the company had revenues of 5 million Euros in 2014.
New platform launches in Denmark
E-loue launched its international expansion in Denmark in January and said it would also expand to Israel and Russia.
Valéry Lepinette, chief executive officer of E-loue in Denmark, said the company chose Denmark because the country has a high penetration of Internet users and a green mindset that encourages renting and re-using over purchasing items that will not be heavily used.
A new operation in Copenhagen will serve Denmark and southern Sweden.
Woog said the company is also seeking investors to develop a platform in Israel.
Acquisitions spur French expansion
The company also expanded in France, with acquisitions of other rental platforms in 2014 and 2015.
In July, E-loue announced it had acquired TocLoc, a three-year-old equipment rental company based in Lille.
Previously, E-loue had acquired MamanLou, a platform for renting baby equipment and maternity clothes in Orleans; Paris-based Sejourning, a housing rental platform; and Contact NGO, a Toulouse-based platform for renting campers.
The company also developed niche platforms such as Dressbooking, which facilitates rentals of bridal gowns and other high-end clothing that tends to be worn once or infrequently.
Wide range of goods available
The company touts its generalist approach to facilitating rentals of a variety of goods as opposed to specializing in a single niche.
It also emphasizes the practicality of renting compared to buying an item that won’t get much use. For example, a car is not in use 95 percent of time, a drill is actually used for an average of 12 minutes during its lifetime, and 87 percent of household goods are never used, according to a company blog post.
CEO Woog said the acquisition of specialized niche sites is designed to broaden its user base to 2.5 million people in France alone, including 150,000 active users.
Plans for 20 niche areas
“These thematic sites strengthen our communities around specific interests, and improves our ranking on the Web,” Woog said. By 2017, he plans to have rental platforms for 20 key areas, making the company “essential in all sectors of the sharing economy.”
Woog, who holds French-Israeli citizenship, is a fencing champion who has been a member of the national fencing teams of each country.
Woog, 31, and his co-founder, Wojciechowski, who is chief technical officer of E-loue, met as students a decade ago at Telecom Sud Paris, which provides training in web development and engineering.
After a few years as a stock trader, Woog decided to start E-loue, launching in 2009.
Tapping into the sharing economy
The pair initially raised investments of 500,000 Euros to create the E-loue platform and then attracted another round of investment of 2 million Euros in 2014.
It turned out the time was right as the sharing economy was becoming a reality, spurred by technical activity that sharply reduced the cost of transactions and by the cost-consciousness of consumers in the wake of the recession.
“With the economic crisis, attitudes have changed. The French have realized that use can replace possession of the property, which is symptomatic of the immense potential of the sharing economy,” Woog said.