Grover takes on more debt funding, this time to the tune of €270 million

Berlin-based all-things-tech rental platform Grover has raised yet another pile of cash, this time to the tune of €270 million via M&G. The new capital is aimed at supporting the company’s strong year-over-year growth pattern and will be used to further bolster the company’s available inventory, specifically serving would-be customers in existing marketing including Germany, Spain, Netherlands, and Austria. With this raise, Grover has raised over €2.2 billion, the overwhelming majority of which is in debt funding from some 29 investors over 18 funding rounds 

Not even 6 months since Grover achieved unicorn status, a valuation the company still holds today, and announced in combination with a $330 million in equity ($110 million) and debt funding ($220 million) Series C round, Grover is now back at it with another hefty load of cash dolled out on loan. 

However this shouldn’t come as a surprise, as the business, and its subsequent valuation has been built on borrowed money; at the end of November of last year, Grover dropped a $250 million loan from London-based Fasanara Capital on us, only to be superseded by a $1 billion debt and equity round earlier in July, both of which pointed to expansion in “new markets”.

With belts tightening around the world, it would appear that Grover is looking a bit more inward, specifically citing that this newest round of capital will be used to buy more stuff for people to rent in Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Austria, and “new European markets”.

While rising costs of living are in fact a good thing for Grover, according to the company, they’ve seen, “growth of more than 100% year on year” and has seen its customer base “grow by more than 50% since the beginning of 2022”, with demand particularly strong in Western Europe and the U.S. If these “new European markets” are to be the focus, the winds are clearly blowing east, which could spell trouble for Polish competitor Plenti, for example.

Given the state of global economic affairs, as I write to you from the United Kingdom, securing an additional quarter billion Euros in funding atop an already borrowed €1.9 billion is clearly a strong vote of confidence in Grover’s business model, as are the company’s recent additions of board members including former media executive and current CEO at Northern Star Acquisition Company Joanna Coles, former Klarna Board member Sarah McPhee, former Snap CFO Lara Sweet, and Colleen DeCourcy, Chief Creative Officer of Snap.

On M&G’s decision to invest, the firm’s Will Nicoll commented, “Grover’s focus on developing sustainable ways to access technology is changing consumer habits for the better. By providing financing through the form of an Asset Backed Security , we are helping Grover to expand its reach, while seeking to provide our pension fund and institutional clients with attractive cashflows."

I’ll be digging deeper into the nuts and bolts behind Grover in our Big Deal feature that runs on Tuesday of next week.