UAE-based car-rental platform Udrive has raised $1.3 million from 186 investors via crowdfunding platform, Eureeca. The investment is part of the startup’s ongoing Series A round.

Founded out of the UAE in 2017, Udrive, claims to have around 180,000 registered users across Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, and Ajman. The company recently completed a million trips, with user growth expected to double in 2021 as new users increased by 20 per cent in the last six months.

With the new capital injection, the company will be able to boost the fleet of cars in the UAE as well as set the stage for its expansion into Saudi Arabia and Turkey as part of the company’s drive back into growth mode.

“In October, we decided that now was the time to continue our Series A funding round with Eureeca, a plan that originated in January 2020. As a regulated funding vehicle, Eureeca was able to give investors, many of whom are our customers, greater levels of confidence in investing in our business. Thanks to this funding, the future of the company looks incredibly positive,” said Hasib Khan, Udrive CEO and founder.

Since its launch in 2013, Eureeca is designed to host investors of all profiles, from casual retail and active angel investors to institutional investment firms such venture capital funds - all of which are looking to buy equity in growth-oriented businesses of the future. It now counts over 30,000 active investors from 70 countries on its platform with an average investment size of $5,800.

“Institutional investors were keen to participate on this raise prior to going live and the demand has been compounded in the last 48 hours by the appetite from their customers and everyday investors to own equity in one of the Middle East’s most exciting growth companies. It also highlights the maturity of our platform and our ability to work with companies and facilitate raises of anything between $1 million – $5 million and beyond,” said Sam Quawasmi, co-CEO and co-founder of Eureeca.

“Despite the challenges of Covid-19, Eureeca continued to successfully fund companies from the UAE, Malaysia, UK and Holland in the midst of the crisis, underscoring Eureeca, and the business model as recession proof. As a result of our success, we have seen a 400 per cent increase in applications, including larger businesses looking to raise seven-figure raises, which is subsequently piquing the interest of institutional investors,” he added.