Got a subscription for your TV, your music, what about your car?

You've got a subscription for your television, your music, what about your car?

Melbourne startup Carbar has raised $5.75 million to launch a car subscription service where customers own a car on a month-to-month basis with all costs including insurance and services paid for.

Co-founder Desmond Hang started Carbar three years ago with university friends Davie Saw, Richie Chen and Kenneth Teo.

"I love cars but I kind of hate the shopping experience," he says. "At this stage I felt that the current process in the market is broken. You have to often take a huge chunk of your time away to buy a car and get your car serviced so we are trying to alleviate all the stress of owning the vehicle. We describe Carbar as a vehicle-owning experience."

The four friends put in $150,000 to start Carbar which initially enabled customers to buy new or used cars online with a three-day test period to test out the car.

The startup turned over $10 million last year and has just under 1000 customers signed up but Hang says the real growth is coming from Carbar's subscription offering. Read more

Cara Waters - Brisbane Times - 3 Aug 2018