SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Getaround, the leading peer-to-peer car sharing service, today announced it has closed $13.9 million Series A financing to continue to expand into receptive markets and develop new product features and technology. This round is led by Menlo Ventures with additional participation from notable investors including Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, A-Grade Investments and Innovation Endeavors, the venture arm of Eric Schmidt. Today’s news coincides with the launch of Getaway, the first service of its kind from a peer-to-peer car sharing company, giving owners a new way to unlock the value of a car under the Getaround brand by renting their car full-time—with Getaround managing the rental process.
"Getaround is helping to define the future of social and collaborative commerce using underutilized assets in a peer-to-peer model that is disruptive to the multi-billion dollar car rental market," said Shervin Pishevar, technology entrepreneur and managing director at Menlo Ventures."Menlo Ventures is thrilled about leading the investment in Getaround, and helping to build a global brand that becomes the number one car rental service in the world. I believe in the company so much, I put both my Porsche Cayenne and Toyota Prius on Getaround, and made $2,000 just last month."
The Getaround marketplace gives people a chance to share their cars with others nearby, offsetting the cost of car ownership. Since launching in San Francisco in early 2011, Getaround has seen significant momentum including expanding into Austin, San Diego and Portland, and signing up over 10,000 active and potential Getaround owners nationwide. Each shared vehicle can take up to 13 cars off of the road, cutting over 165 pounds of carbon emissions. Getaround was selected to receive $1.725 million in federal funding to launch peer-to-peer car sharing and study the impact in Portland, a known environmentally conscious city.
“We founded Getaround with the goal to positively impact the lives of one billion people and to solve our car overpopulation problem,” said Sam Zaid, CEO and founder of Getaround. “We’re proud of this significant milestone for the company, and humbled that this group of investors believe in our mission of disrupting the transportation industry as much as we do. While we’ve been laser focused on growing Getaround in four cities, we’re excited to bring car sharing to even more people with this funding.”
Participating investors include Collaborative Fund, Sean O’Sullivan of SOSventures, Correlation Ventures, Sam Shank, CEO of HotelTonight, David Sacks, CEO of Yammer, Bobby Yazdani, CEO of Saba Software, Matias de Tezanos, Founder of Hoteles.com, Dan Martell, Founder of Clarity.fm, Juan Diego Calle, CEO of .CO and numerous others.
Renters or owners can share today by signing up for free at www.getaround.com. With insurance and rigorous driver screenings included in the price, Getaround works around the clock to ensure a safe and trusted community. Getaround offers a broad variety of cars to rent, and enables people to share resources, taking unneeded cars off the road and reducing traffic and auto emissions by changing consumer driving behavior.
About Getaround
Getaround empowers people to safely share cars by the hour, day, or week through a trusted online marketplace. By providing the Getaround Carkit, in-car technology designed in-house, as well as complete insurance up to $1,000,000 backed by Berkshire Hathaway, Getaround helps to create a seamless and fun sharing experience. Getaround is free to join, and for as little as $3 an hour, members can conveniently rent nearby cars and save money on auto payments, insurance and maintenance. Owners share cars ranging from a Toyota to a Tesla, offsetting the high cost of car ownership, while making a positive impact on the environment. Visit getaround.com for more information.
About Menlo Ventures
Menlo Ventures provides capital for seed through growth technology companies in the consumer and enterprise sectors. For decades, the firm’s market-driven research analysis has led to the identification of and successful exits in innovative technology markets. Notable research-areas of investment include Mobile (Siri, MobiTV, TeleNav), Enterprise storage (3Par), Communications (Acme Packet, Cavium Networks), and Consumer (Carbonite, Roku). Founded in 1976, Menlo’s portfolio includes 70 public companies and more than 100 mergers and acquisitions. Throughout our history, Menlo’s deep network of portfolio entrepreneurs, angels and advisors are a key resource made available to all of our family of investments. Menlo Ventures has $4 billion under management and is currently investing Menlo Ventures XI, a $400M fund with $20m allocated to our Menlo Talent Fund for fast seed funding. For more information, visit www.menlovc.com.