French rental marketplace raises €12m

French rental portal Tracktor has raised €12 million to fund further development of its technology and to prepare for an expansion in Europe next year.

Founded in 2017, Tracktor has developed an online rental platform that allows contractors to source prices and availability on equipment from 400 French rental companies. Its claim is that contractors can book equipment “in 3 clicks” anywhere in France.

Idir Ait Si Amer (right), co-founder and CEO of Tracktor, with co-founder and COO Julien Mousseau. (Photo: Tracktor)

The company said its portal is already used by 3500 small and medium sized contractors in France. It expects revenues to treble this year.

The new investment will help the company develop a mobile app and a management tool to help contractors centralise all their rental activity and digitalise their internal processes.

“The goal is to become the standard for renting in France and to prepare its international expansion in Europe starting in 2023”, said the company.

The new funds have been raised from AXA Venture Partners (AVP), Bpifrance through its Digital Venture fund, and historic investors Kerala Ventures, BTP Capital Investissement, and entrepreneurs Pierre Kosciusko-Morizet, Pierre Krings, Xavier Niel and Pascal Casanova.

Idir Ait Si Amer, co-founder and CEO of Tracktor, said; “We chose AXA Venture Partners and Bpifrance for this round because we share the same vision and ambition: to become the one-stop-shop of construction equipment rental with the industry’s best customer experience thanks to our tech and product.” Si Amer’s co-founder is Julien Mousseau, the COO.

François Robinet, Managing Partner of AXA Venture Partners, said that Covid had been a huge accelerator in the adoption of digital solutions for individuals as well as businesses; “We think that the coming years will see the emergence of a lot of B2B marketplaces. In this context, by establishing a marketplace for heavy equipment rental, we believe Tracktor can deeply transform this market for the construction industry.

“We were convinced by Idir and Julien’s vision and believe that they are the right ones to execute it in France and abroad.”