Carify: Over 1000 cars are on the road

On-site appointment with Sergio Studer. The 30-year-old is sitting in an office building in Zurich, with no cars to be seen for miles around, no fleet of vehicles, no crowded underground parking garage. Yet Carify is a veritable competitor to car subscription providers such as Carvolution, BMW Abo, Clyde (Amag), Sixt unlimited and others.

Cooperation with the car trade
Sergio Studer: "Unlike other providers, however, we don't have our own vehicles; instead, we work with the Swiss garage trade and enable them to offer their cars on a subscription basis. We provide the technical infrastructure as well as the services."

Emotionally charged business
In September 2019, the idea was born. Sergio Studer actually comes from the business world, had capital from selling shares in a successful start up and was looking for a new emotionally charged business to build.

Petrolhead-wise, Studer decided to redefine the topic of car subscriptions together with colleagues, having had a lot of fun at events such as Fredy Barth's trackdays.

Customer pays only his monthly contributions
This is how Carify works: Dealers have access to the platform and can place their cars virtually on the website. Customers choose a car and book the subscription. It starts at one month.

At Clarify, for example, you can find anything from the Mitsubishi Space Star 1.0 Pure for 399 francs a month to the Mercedes-Benz S 560 4Matic for 4359 francs a month.

The whole process from redemption to delivery (do seniors and students), service, tire change, insurance is taken care of by Carify, the customer only pays his monthly fees.

New negotiations with the "lions
"We tried out a lot," Sergio Studer recalls of the early days, when they also applied the team for the TV format "Die Höhle der Löwen" on Vox.

Filming took place in February 2020, and three "lions" showed interest and wanted to join. But then Corona came along.

And where others had to fear for their business, Carify could hardly save itself from inquiries. So much so that they are now renegotiating with the "lions," the financing round agreed back then is actually not needed now in the form it was then.

In the end, investors would put up nearly a million to lift Carify to the next round.

Sergio Studer: "We would like to remain independent as long as possible. But we are still in talks."

Either way, it's going to be exciting.

Over 500 models are available on the platform
The future is bright: 500 plus cars are on the platform, and the trend is rising. Carify now employs 20 people (by the way, the proportion of women is 50:50!). An impact in the direction of the industry would be desirable.

Carify solves the problem of oversupply at dealers. They are happy to have their cars - they still belong to them, the owner has a location entry - off the lot. New models are pushing in from behind. Lots of new models that need to be taken off....

Tip: On flexdrive.ch you can find a comparison of all providers in Switzerland.

Photos: Dörte Welti, zVg
carify.com
vox.com