German rental start-up gets $8m funding

German rental and tech start-up Flexcavo has received a further US$8.0 million in funding following the seed financing of $7.5 million last year.

Based in Berlin, Germany, Flexcavo was founded in 2020 by Benedict Aicher, a former McKinsey consultant, and Leonhard Fricke, a Harvard and MIT-educated data scientist.

From left, Flexcavo's founders Benedict Aicher and Leonhard Fricke (Photo: Flexcavo.)

The business is building a bricks and mortar rental business with machines from Wacker Neuson and JCB, and also providing contractors with technology to help them manage mixed fleets of rented and owned equipment.

In a model similar to that pioneered by EquipmentShare in the USA, Flexcavo will provide apps and software linked to telematics systems fitted to its rental fleet as well as to a contractor’s own equipment.

The new asset-backed funding is led by Vereinigte Volks- und Raiffeisenbank eG, while akf bank is lending the company capital for new machinery and equipment from JCB. Wacker Neuson’s in-house finance arm is also investing in the expansion of Flexcavo’s fleet.

The funds will be used to equip the company’s newly opened rental branch in Maisach near Munich. Over 150 new JCB and Wacker Neuson machines will be added to the 4,500m² site.

Since its formation less than two years ago, the company’s employee numbers have grown to more than 40, and rental locations in Rosenheim and Munich currently have more than 100 Wacker Neuson machines.

Wacker Neuson machines at Flexcavo’s depot in Maisach, Munich. (Photo: Flexcavo.)

Its operating system, FlexcavoOS, is already being used by construction companies, such as Peter Gross Bau, a Saarbrucken-based contractor with more than 1000 employees.

Volker Steen, Key Account Manager at Wacker Neuson, said; “In Flexcavo, we have found an ambitious and professionally positioned partner with whom we are looking forward to working side by side over the next few years. Our ambitions matched right from the start.”

Dr Frank Henes, CEO of akf bank, added; “Both the issue of sustainability through more efficient use of the machinery on the construction site and the professional implementation of an asset-as-a-service model by a young, innovative company with a dynamic management team convinced us.”