A Vilnius startup has secured €1.2 million to fix what it calls a broken link in European travel: thousands of independently owned rental cars sitting idle while travelers demand a faster, fully digital booking experience. Sigvi, which builds AI revenue infrastructure for the car rental industry, closed the pre-seed round with Helsinki’s Superhero Capital taking the lead.
The timing matters. Travel across Europe continues to surge, yet the rental experience still depends on counters, paper forms, and fragmented small operators who struggle to match the reach of global brands. Sigvi positions itself as the connective tissue, pulling vehicles from independent fleet managers and private owners into a single system that runs all operations from pricing to maintenance.
CEO and co-founder Vytis Šliažas framed the contrast directly. Travelers now expect to reserve a car with the same ease they book a room, he argued, while quality vehicles remain underused simply because their owners lack distribution technology. The company’s AI engine handles dynamic pricing, bookings, keyless round-the-clock access, automated damage inspections, predictive service scheduling, and customer support.
Cost and condition form the other half of the pitch. Sigvi says its managed vehicles typically undercut major international rental chains by roughly 30 percent, with pickup points that skip the counter and the queue. The startup partners with the Kemi service center network, where every car undergoes regular inspections starting from its first rental preparation. Parts get replaced more often than manufacturers recommend, and tires rotate seasonally: summer rubber in warm months, winter rubber when temperatures drop.
On sustainability, the platform deliberately avoids buying new fleets. Instead, it activates second-cycle vehicles already on the road. That model, the company claims, squeezes more value from existing cars rather than adding fresh production demand.
Sigvi began operating in Poland in June 2026 and now manages over 200 vehicles. Superhero Capital partner Gytenis Galkis described the play as targeting a structural inefficiency inside an enormous market, adding that the firm sees a direct path for Sigvi to become the digital backbone for independent car rental across Europe.
The fresh capital will fund AI platform development and an ambitious scaling target: expanding the managed network to 2,000 vehicles within two years.
