Driving trust. How 4Mobility reduced fraud and strengthened its car rental platform

4Mobility is a digital car rental platform listed on the NewConnect stock exchange, providing on-demand access to a fleet of premium vehicles through a mobile app. The service combines the convenience of app-based access with the reliability of traditional car rental.

As the urban mobility market changed, many car-sharing operators stepped away from the sector due to growing challenges around fraud, misuse, and accountability.

Instead of retreating, 4Mobility adapted by evolving its business model and investing in stronger security and identity verification processes.

The mobility market looks very different today than it did a few years ago. 4Mobility has also changed its approach. How did your business model evolve?

We’ve definitely gone through a few big changes over the years. When we started, we operated as a typical car-sharing company. People could rent a car by the minute, similar to how scooter sharing works today.

Over time, we realized that model wasn’t the right fit for us anymore. We moved toward what we call “smart rental”. It’s closer to a traditional car rental, but fully digital. Instead of focusing on very short trips, we focus more on longer and more predictable rentals.

The idea was to keep the convenience of an app-based service but combine it with the stability of a classic rental model.

Your team has said that moving away from minute-based rentals was a strategic decision. What pushed you in that direction?

Fraud was the biggest issue.

The minute-based model can be very anonymous. That’s convenient for users, but it also makes it easier for people to misuse the service or use someone else’s identity. We were spending more and more time dealing with things like account takeovers or drivers using accounts that didn’t belong to them.

At some point we realized that if we wanted to protect our cars and the brand, we needed a different approach. That’s why we started focusing on longer rentals and more reliable customers.

Before introducing automated verification, how did you verify users?

At first, we handled it ourselves. We built an internal system where users would send photos of their documents, and our team would review them. Our staff was very good at spotting issues, and in many cases it worked. But manual verification has its limits, especially when your business starts to grow.

When you have premium vehicles in the fleet, even a single fraudulent rental can cause serious losses. We knew we needed a more systematic and automated solution.

4Mobility became one of the first companies in this segment to introduce a full KYC process. What changed after you implemented it?

The difference was huge.

With automated verification, we were able to move away from manual checks and introduce biometric verification and document validation. That allowed us to catch suspicious accounts before they ever reached a car.

It had a real impact on fraud levels. We saw a clear drop in problematic users. And if you look at the broader market, some companies operating in this space eventually decided to close their car-sharing services.

For us, improving the verification process was an important step in making our business more sustainable.

When you started looking for a verification partner, what were the most important criteria?

We reviewed a lot of options on the market. We spoke with several providers and tested different tools. The main problem was that many of them were quite rigid. They offered a fixed process that didn’t really match how our platform works.

Once you decided to move forward, how did the implementation process look from your side?

It was actually very smooth. Once we agreed on the scope and the approach, the technical integration moved quite quickly. Our teams worked closely together, and because the system was designed to be flexible, it was relatively easy to fit it into our existing platform.

You also use ad-hoc verification in some cases. How does that work in practice?

Today we use two main approaches. The first one is the full verification during account registration. That’s the standard flow for most customers.

But sometimes we have situations where we don’t want to store a lot of user data in our system, or where the customer prefers a quicker process. In those cases we can run verification on the spot when they request a car.

It allows us to confirm the person’s identity immediately without forcing them through a longer registration process.

From the customer’s perspective it’s quick and simple, and for us it still gives full confidence about who is using the vehicle.

How did customers react to the automated verification process?

Very positively. With manual checks, users sometimes had to wait for our team to review their documents. Now the verification usually happens in minutes.

For legitimate customers it actually makes things easier. They get access to the service faster, and at the same time they know the platform is secure.

As a final question, looking at the mobility industry more broadly, what do you think companies still get wrong when it comes to user verification?

Many companies still rely heavily on manual checks. Someone reviews documents by hand, maybe compares photos, and that’s basically the whole process. It can work at a small scale, but once the business grows it becomes difficult to manage. It’s slower, and it’s easier for suspicious accounts to slip through.

As a final question, looking at the mobility industry more broadly, what do you think companies still get wrong when it comes to user verification?

Many companies still rely heavily on manual checks. Someone reviews documents by hand, maybe compares photos, and that’s basically the whole process. It can work at a small scale, but once the business grows it becomes difficult to manage. It’s slower, and it’s easier for suspicious accounts to slip through.

Thank you very much for your time today. We’re looking forward to seeing how 4Mobility continues to develop this year!