Getaround, the San Francisco-based peer-to-peer car rental service, announced it had secured $300 M in its fourth funding round, bringing the total investments in the company to $403 M. Getaround’s mission is to allow car owners to rent out their vehicles to strangers when they’re not using them, similarly to the way Airbnb lets people host guests in their spare rooms or properties.
How does the concept work? Getaround has designed a lock/unlock and tracking technology that essentially makes all cars sharable. Installation is required for most cars and costs $99 followed by a $20 monthly fee to cover the monitoring expenses. Once up and running, Getaround Connect can earn you thousands of dollars per year in passive income when your car is not needed.
Company’s investors include SoftBank, a major player in the space with material share in Uber and Didi, as well as world’s largest auto manufacturer – Toyota, which offers a pre-installed Getaround device. On top, Getaround has secured deals with brands like Audi and Ford to further incentivize people to share their cars.
SORTIS view: The space is getting even more saturated with Turo, Uber and automakers like GM and BMW launching car-sharing services. While each of these names is adding their own twist to the concept, it is clear we are in a process of transportation revolution that could happen sooner than the mass consumer is expecting.
