Young, Smart and Swiss - A Profile
A portrait of Léa Miggiano - CMO of Carvolution
Dear Insider,
Today we bring you a short profile of one of Switzerland’s strongest startup founders - Léa Miggiano, CMO at Carvolution.
While Switzerland is known for its excellent public transport system, the advantages of having one’s own vehicle cannot be underestimated. But not everyone can afford their own four wheels - and not everyone wants to make an “all-in commitment” to owning a car for the long term.
Miggiano and her team recognized this challenge - and took advantage.
Turns out it was a smart move…
🚗 The fast lane
Little might have indicated that Léa Miggiano would end up being the face of a popular and rapidly growing Swiss startup.
After studying business administration at the University of St. Gallen, Miggiano worked in several entry-level positions across various industries - before helping to found Carvolution in early 2018 at the age of 23.
For a typical Swiss person, it was the road “less taken.”
Borrowing the classic subscription model from the examples of Netflix, Spotify and others, Miggiano and her co-founders, Olivier Kofler, Bernhard Drüner und Luis Wittwer, set out to bring the same set up to the mobility market in Switzerland.
Their first big break was a 50 million CHF investment from Swiss insurance giant Die Mobilar.
As recently as this month, Miggiano and Carvolution have taken a strong step forward with an additional 200 million CHF investment from Barclays and Waterfall Asset Management.
🥇 Front and center
As Chief Marketing Officer, Miggiano stands squarely in the spotlight for her company.
In 2021, she was honored by the Swiss Economic Forum (SEF) as their choice for Young Entrepreneur of the Year. She used the occasion to point out - correctly - that such an honor highlights what an important role women can play in the global economy.
Miggiano’s contribution to the success of Carvolution goes beyond collecting awards however.
As the face of the company she helped found, Miggiano has initiated and led a literal “roadshow” to bring the Carvolution brand and business model to clients all over Switzerland.
As she explained in an interview with Blick - when it comes to cars, a physical connection with your car is important. And so, although customers of Carvolution can sign up digitally, many of them prefer to “touch and feel” their car in person.
She also figures prominently in the company’s ongoing ad campaigns - both on television and online print.
💡Insider analysis
Few young companies in Switzerland - and Europe for that matter - have been so successful at finding product-market fit and opening up a new industry vertical at the same time.
To her credit, Léa Miggiano and her co-founders believed - as all founders must - that something seemingly impossible could actually work. To apply the subscription model to a capital and inventory-intensive business like car “leasing”, rather than a digital product platform like Spotify or enterprise SaaS is indeed a courageous step.
But Miggiano has proven that it can be done. Not surprisingly, the subscription model proves to be a winner for recurring revenues - a key metric that venture capitalists love to see.
Now with Carvolution’s latest financing round, the advantages of that step come into focus.
It definitely pays to be smart and Swiss.
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