Felix leads €10m round for Heetch

Felix recently held a final close for its second vehicle, Felix Capital Fund II, on its hard-cap of $150m. Alven Capital and Via ID have also taken part in the round, which will fund the company's international expansion plans. Heetch intends to launch in London within a matter of months and plans to generate 50% of its revenues from international markets by 2019, according to a statement.

The latest investment comes six months after the startup was forced to suspend its app when the company and its founders were convicted in court of enabling users to illegally operate taxi cabs.

Following a trial in December 2016, a Paris tribunal found Heetch and its founders, Teddy Pellerin and Mathieu Jacob, guilty of being accessory to the illegal operation of taxis on 2 March 2017.

The business and its founders were fined a total of €440,000. The prosecution had also called for Pellerin and Jacob to be banned from running a business for two years, although the court ultimately did not follow suit.

Heetch has since relaunched in its current guise as a ride-hailing and carpooling platform, with the company launching a model called Le Base, which limits drivers to providing one short-distance trip on a predetermined route per night. In France, ride-sharing is legal as long as drivers solicit passengers and do not charge a fare but merely suggest a contribution to vehicle maintenance and fuel costs. Heetch has also launched a separate service for professional drivers called Le Pro.

London has itself been at the centre of ongoing disputes surrounding the emergence of ride-sharing and private vehicle hiring startups in recent weeks. In September, Uber was told by the city's transport body Transport for London (TFL) that it would not have its operating licence renewed in the city on the basis that it was not a fit and proper private car hire operator. The US giant is reportedly due to take part in talks with TFL in the coming days in an effort to reverse the ban.

Previous funding
French VC Kima Ventures provided a round of early-stage funding to Heetch in 2015.

Company
Established in 2013, Heetch is a ride-hailing and carpooling app specifically targeted at late-night rides, through which users can use their own car to transport other users. The app then suggests a recommended monetary contribution to the trip that passengers can pay to the driver. The company is headquartered in Paris and operates in a total of six French cities, with an additional presence in Belgium, Sweden and Italy.

According to a statement, the company handles more than 70,000 rides per week and works alongside 5,000 professional drivers.

People
Felix Capital – Frederic Court (managing partner).

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• Topics
• Expansion
• France
• Consumer
• France
• Venture
• Felix Capital