Ascendia Drive
Simply put, Ascendia is the Airbnb for motor vehicles with all the insurance barriers overcome, matching car hirers with car owners and changing the way we use cars forever.
Ascendia is a peer to peer car rental platform which will allow users to own their driving experience, without owning the car. The platform will allow drivers to find, review and rent cars they could or would not usually buy. It also allows owners to list and let out their cars, which may otherwise be sat on a driveway, costing money but not seeing much use. Now car owners can generate additional income on every hire.
Ascendia aims to disrupt the $60bn car hire industry which in the UK consisted of 10 million car rental transactions last year.
Car sharing is great for the environment and the economy whilst peer to peer sharing bridges the inequality gap and brings people together. Ascendia raises aspirations for those who previously could not afford certain models of cars or have no access to cars.
The Sharing Economy is a relatively new market but is quoted as potentially having the biggest impact on society since the Industrial Revolution. We feel that the Sharing Economy is already having a huge positive impact environmentally as sharing is sustainable, sharing is infinite and owning is finite. P2P hires will lead to less cars being on the road through reducing car ownership, which will be good for traffic, creating lower emissions which are of benefit to the environment. The Ascendia platform will promote ‘access over ownership’.
– Problems –
When hiring vehicles consumers are price sensitive and traditional car hire companies can be expensive to use. Traditional car hire companies do not always supply the exact desired model for hire and are often located far away from the hirer. Typical rental stock is often boring and does not create an experience that many people are looking for. Cars are unused for the majority of each day and are often a financial burden.
– The Solution – Ascendia Community –
Ascendia plans to solve the current problems by providing an online platform that will facilitate peer to peer car hire, matching car owners with members looking to hire a vehicle. We anticipate that this will result in market driven pricing, flexibility and variety.
For car owners: their vehicle becomes an income generating asset as Ascendia will offer owners a chance to make money by hiring out their car when it’s not being used and on average cars are only used for 1 hour a day. For example if a £25,000 second hand Range Rover was hired out 6 times a month at £130.00 a day, the owner could make an extra £5,616 a year.
For hirers: a superior driving experience at real value and a variety of cars to choose from which are located nearby. Ascendia aims to save people money when hiring, save them time when collecting their hired car and allow more choice to hire the exact model for the exact time period required. This will only be achieved because of the insurance policy that has been specifically created for Ascendia by Aon/Axa.
Working closely with Aon and Axa, Ascendia has overcome the previously insurmountable barrier of insuring high value aspirational vehicles, underwritten by a household name, in a bespoke agreement, enabling an early-mover advantage and we believe making it difficult for any new entrants.
Ascendia has a host of strategic partnerships for installing trust, for marketing and potential sales. Trust is a huge part of the sharing economy and peer to peer platforms and Ascendia has spent a lot of time ensuring every angle is covered and is already working with some big names:
Verification: GB Group / Veridu
Roadside Recovery: AA
Telematics: TrakM8
Ecommerce Profiling: eRated
Vehicle Repairs: IGC
Vehicle Maintenance: SMART Insurance
Vehicle Inspections: Pointsoftware
Launch Partner: Milton Keynes Council
Launch Support: Transport Catapult
In September the Government issued a Press release titled “Move to make UK global centre for sharing economy.” Ascendia took part in this review.
Seed investment is required to finance start-up costs which include working capital and marketing. Ascendia plans to soft launch their product, with a focus on getting ‘100 people to love them’ to help generate early growth and an increase in members.
Start-up costs include:
• Technology including purchase and implementation of the exclusive platform specifically built for peer to peer car hire. We believe that the purchase will not only save the company a lot of money but also dramatically reduce the time to market from 1+ years to as little as 4 months. A mobile phone application will also be developed to facilitate car hires on mobile devices, as well as:
• Sales and marketing
• Fundraising fees
• Office equipment
The main purpose of the technology is to be a showroom for the virtual fleet, allowing for interaction between car owners and hirers. Further funds will be spent on facilitating the transaction, integrating all the 3rd party plugins and including a review mechanism.