What is Getaround? Getaround Review

Basic Introduction

Getaround is headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 2009 and provides car rental and sharing services from private car owners to other individual users. Getaround is also supported by Japan's SoftBank Group. Its current business mainly serves the US market, and also covers some overseas regions through other brands.

Business Model

The company originally launched its car-sharing service in 2011, relying on private car owners to provide rental vehicles for a fee of between $500 and $1,000 per month, depending on how often the rentals were provided.

Development

In May 2017, the company announced a partnership with Uber Drivers to provide part-time drivers with rental cars anytime, anywhere. After nearly a year of cooperation, in April 2018, Uber announced a full partnership with Getaround, opening the "UBER RENT" window on the user side and connecting to Getaround's platform sharing function.

In April 2019, Getaround acquired its Europe-based competitor Drivy, which was the car-sharing platform with the largest market share in Europe at the time.

Financing

In August 2012, the first round of financing was US$13.9 million, with a valuation of US$44.57 million.

In November 2014, it raised $24 million and was valued at $96 million.

In April 2017, it raised US$45 million with a valuation of US$170 million, led by Braemar Energy Ventures, followed by Toyota Motor Corporation, China SAIC Motor Corporation and other companies.

In April 2018, it raised $22.05 million and was valued at $622 million.

In November 2018, it raised US$300 million with a valuation of US$840 million. This round was led by SoftBank Vision Fund, followed by Toyota and other internal investors (including SAIC, Asset Plus, etc.).

In October 2020, Getaround, a Silicon Valley P2P car rental startup, announced that it had received $140 million in Series E funding. The round was led by People Fund, with participation from SoftBank Vision Fund and others.

References

• 1. Getaround, a private car rental platform, plans to raise $200 million with a valuation of 1.7 billion: Tencent Technology [cited on 2019-09-05T16:00:00.000Z]