Luxe
TypePrivately held company
Founded2013
FoundersCurtis Lee, Craig Martin
Defunct2017[1]
FateAcquired
SuccessorVolvo Cars
HeadquartersSan Francisco (HQ)
Number of locations
6 cities
Area served
United States
Key people
Curtis Lee (CEO, founder)
ProductsParking spaces, car services
ServicesOn-demand parking and car services marketplace
Websitewww.luxe.com

5ecret 5tar Inc,[2] doing business as Luxe, was a business that developed, marketed and operated the Luxe mobile app, an on-demand parking and car services mobile application. Using Luxe, customers could submit a request to have their car parked, fueled, washed, charged, serviced or driven home by the company's valets. Luxe was acquired by Volvo Cars in September 2017.[3]

Overview

Luxe was founded as Luxe Valet in 2013, by Curtis Lee and Craig Martin, former colleagues at Zynga. The app and service was launched the following October. Luxe is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

In the 12 months between the first two rounds of funding, the company grew to 6 business markets San Francisco, Seattle, New York City,[4] Austin, Chicago and Los Angeles. The company works with parking lot operators. By April 2016, the company further expanded to other cities in the United States.[5] The company also entered a relationship with Tesla Motors whereby Luxe would have exclusive access to dedicated Tesla charging stations for its customers.[6]

The New York Times compared the service to Uber, Lyft and Amazon Prime for its ease of use and transformative impact on urban dwellers.[7][8]

In April 2017, Luxe announced that it was ceasing valet operations in its remaining markets.[9] The company was acquired by Volvo five months later.[10]

Funding

Luxe received its seed round funding of $5.5 million in October 2014, Series A funding of $20 million in February 2015 and a round of $50 million in April 2016 led by The Hertz Corporation.[11][12]

Media coverage

Luxe has been featured in Techcrunch, Bloomberg,[13] Business Insider,[14] Washington Post[15] and others.

References

  1. ↑ "The Future of Luxe". 8 September 2017.
  2. ↑ "Cabos Luxe apps iOS City Guides Luxe City".
  3. ↑ "Volvo acquires car valet startup Luxe to boost its digital services business". 8 September 2017.
  4. ↑ John Bonazzo (14 August 2015). "Valet App Luxe Wants To Take The Pain Out Of New York City Parking". Observer. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
  5. ↑ Dan Norton (21 December 2015). "Valet app Luxe to cease Philadelphia operations... at least temporarily". Bizjournals. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
  6. ↑ Adnan Farooqui (20 January 2016). "On-Demand Valet Luxe Will Now Park And Charge Your Tesla". Ubergizmo. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
  7. ↑ Manjoo, Farhad (17 November 2014). "Luxe Valet App Eliminates the Headache of Finding a Parking Spot". Bits Blog. Retrieved 2016-06-14.
  8. ↑ Ingrid Lunden (20 January 2016). "Luxe Is Partnering With Tesla, Will Charge Cars As It Valet Parks Them". Techcrunch. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
  9. ↑ "Luxe to end door-to-door valet service, will launch 'new service' this summer". 27 April 2017.
  10. ↑ "Volvo acquires car valet startup Luxe to boost its digital services business". 8 September 2017.
  11. ↑ Prateek Jose (11 April 2016). "Valet Parking App Luxe Lands $50 Million in Funding". Snapmunk. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
  12. ↑ "The Daily Startup: Luxe Valet Parks $50 Million Round Led by Hertz". The Wall Street Journal. 8 April 2016. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
  13. ↑ Ellen Huet and Jing Cao (14 March 2016). "On-Demand Valet Parking Seemed Like Such a Great Idea. It Wasn't". Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
  14. ↑ Maya Kosoff (22 July 2015). "Luxe, a startup that fixes the worst thing about city driving, just launched in New York City". Business Insider. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
  15. ↑ "Need parking? Oil change? Gas? There's an app for that". Washington Post. 5 December 2015. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
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