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OTC Pink Current: GETR | |
Industry | Carsharing |
Founded | September 9, 2009 San Francisco, California, U.S. |
Founders | Sam Zaid Jessica Scorpio Elliot Kroo |
Headquarters | San Francisco, California, U.S. |
Area served | Urban areas of Boston, Chicago, San Francisco Bay Area, New Jersey, Portland, Seattle, Philadelphia, Miami, Atlanta, San Diego, Los Angeles, Denver, and Washington, D.C. Globally, Getaround is in France, Germany, Spain, Austria, Belgium, the U.K., Norway, and the Netherlands. |
Services | Carsharing |
Number of employees | 550 [1] |
Website | getaround |
Getaround is an online car sharing or peer-to-peer carsharing service that connects drivers who need to reserve cars with car owners who share their cars in exchange for payment.
Getaround launched to the public on May 24, 2011, at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference. The company operates in Boston, Chicago, San Francisco Bay Area, New Jersey, Portland, Seattle, Philadelphia, Miami, Orlando, Atlanta, San Diego, Los Angeles, Denver, and Washington D.C. [2]
Getaround was founded in 2009 by Sam Zaid, Jessica Scorpio, and Elliot Kroo. In May 2011, Getaround won the TechCrunch Disrupt New York competition. [3] In 2012, Getaround began serving Portland, Oregon with the aid of a $1.725 million grant from the Federal Highway Administration. [4]
In November 2016, Getaround reached an agreement with City CarShare to take over its fleet, parking spaces and member base. [5]
In August 2018, Getaround raised $300 million in fundings from Softbank. [6]
In April 2019, Getaround absorbed the carsharing platform Drivy for $300 million [7] [8] and rebranded as Getaround six months later. [9]
In May 2022, Getaround announced an agreement to merge with a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) to start selling shares of the organization on the New York Stock Exchange. Listed as ‘GETR’, the company would have a equity value of $1.2 billion. [10]
In January 2020, The Information reported the company planned to lay off approximately 150 staff members or about 25 percent of its workforce. [11] Bloomberg reported in March 2020 that demand had dropped due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and that the company was short on cash and looking for a buyer. [12]
Getaround’s 2022 SPAC merger valued the company at $1.2 billion, but the company's stock soon fell, and by 2024 the company's market cap was roughly $24 million. In February 2024, Getaround laid off 30 percent of its staff, this after the company vacated its San Francisco headquarters in 2023. [13] In July 2024, the company's stock was delisted from the NYSE and transferred to the OTC Markets. [14]
Criminals have used Getaround, along with other peer-to-peer car rental services such as Turo, for illegal activities. In February 2020, the Washington Post reported that thieves were finding available cars using the Getaround mobile app, which displayed the exact locations of vehicles for rent. Victims have reported that thieves could break into a car, destroy the Getaround Connect device that is intended to immobilize the car and report its position, and take the keys that had been locked inside the vehicle. [15] Of the 787 cars stolen in the District of Columbia between October 1, 2019, and February 4, 2020, the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia estimated that 49 of the thefts involved car rental apps such as Getaround. [16] In July 2021, the Attorney General for the District of Columbia announced a settlement with Getaround that required Getaround to pay the district $950,000, to pay restitution to users whose vehicles had been damaged or stolen, and to make other changes to its platform. [17]
In February 2020, NBC News interviewed eight Getaround users whose cars had been stolen, damaged, seized by police as evidence, or otherwise misused. Many of the owners were not fully compensated by Getaround's insurance for their losses. A former Getaround employee told NBC News that the company has known since 2017 that its GPS tracking devices were not tamper-proof. [18]
Uber Technologies, Inc., commonly referred to as Uber, is an American multinational transportation company that provides ride-hailing services, courier services, food delivery, and freight transport. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and operates in approximately 70 countries and 10,500 cities worldwide. It is the largest ridesharing company worldwide with over 150 million monthly active users and 6 million active drivers and couriers. It facilitates an average of 28 million trips per day and has facilitated 47 billion trips since its inception in 2010. In 2023, the company had a take rate of 28.7% for mobility services and 18.3% for food delivery.
Carsharing or car sharing or car clubs (UK) is a model of car rental where people rent cars for short periods of time, often by the hour. It differs from traditional car rental in that the owners of the cars are often private individuals themselves, and the car sharing facilitator is generally distinct from the car owner. Car sharing is part of a larger trend of shared mobility.
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Turo Inc. is an American peer-to-peer carsharing company based in San Francisco, United States. The company allows private car owners to rent out their vehicles via an online and mobile interface in four countries and new corporate owners to rent out their cars in France in addition to the four previous countries.
Peer-to-peer carsharing is the process whereby existing car owners make their vehicles available for others to rent for short periods of time.
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Jessica Scorpio is the founder and Former Chief Marketing Officer at Getaround, a peer-to-peer carsharing company. Scorpio previously founded IDEAL, a non-profit network for entrepreneurs and young leaders.
Uber Carshare is an Australian company that facilitates peer-to-peer car rental, a system by which individuals may rent privately owned vehicles on an hourly or daily basis to other registered users of the service. Established in 2012 as Car Next Door, it currently operates in all Australian capital cities as well as the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Newcastle.
City Carshare was a carsharing program that operated in the San Francisco Bay Area, starting in 2001. It rented vehicles by the hour. In November 2016, the company effectively ceased operations, when Getaround, a for-profit, carsharing company, took over City CarShare's fleet, parking spaces, and member base.
Bolt is an Estonian mobility company that offers ride-hailing, micromobility rental, food and grocery delivery, and carsharing services. The company is headquartered in Tallinn and operates in over 500 cities in more than 45 countries in Europe, Africa, Western Asia and Latin America. The company has more than 150 million customers and more than 3 million driver and courier partners. The company has plans for an initial public offering in 2025.
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GIG Car Share is a carsharing service in parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, and Seattle, created by "A3 Ventures". The company operates a fleet of Toyota Prius Hybrid vehicles and all-electric Chevrolet Bolts. It offers one-way point-to-point rentals.
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