FORT WORTH — San Francisco-based startup Breeze hopes to build a fleet-management platform to increase its lease portfolio and “monetize those vehicles in efficient ways,” Co-Founder and Chief Executive Ned Ryan told attendees at Auto Finance Innovation Wednesday.
As the future of car ownership changes, monetization of the asset is key, but there is risk in vehicle movement, Ryan said. If an Uber or Lyft driver doesn’t drive for several days, he isn’t earning money, and the likelihood of that consumer paying Breeze is less, he added.
The question becomes, “How do we use data to make recommendations to our customers to better create products?” he said. One possible answer is to share the vehicle to reduce the cost of that lease.
“Those are things you only have the opportunity to do — and do intelligently — as a fleet owner,” he said. “There is a ton of technology that goes into building that, and that is what Breeze’s sole focus is going to be.”
Breeze leases Toyota Priuses to Uber and Lyft drivers in six cities nationwide.
