Getaround couldn’t have timed their debut at TechCrunch Disrupt New York in May any better. Rumors around Airbnb’s huge growth and new funding round were already swirling. And whether Getaround liked it or not, they were being dubbed the “Airbnb of car rentals.”
Like hotels, the car rental market is huge. And ripe for P2P disruption. Some people, like me at first, thought no one would hand their car over to strangers. But just like Airbnb, that’s wrong. Lots of people want to rent their car out. On average car owners get $325 per month renting the car out (and gas is paid by renters). The top 25% of owners get $910/month on average.
Many owners who don’t use their cars that often rent it through Getaround to make their monthly payments.
The average rental cost is $9/hour. There are higher end cars, too, like this Audi A4 for $11/hour, and this 2010 BMW 328i fro $15/hour or $60/day. The picture above is the owner of that BMW holding up his monthly check from Getaround.
Getaround is now handling over 15,000 hours of rentals per month, and they’re only available in San Francisco (more cities next year). Soon they’ll end field testing of the keyless carkit that will greatly ease the renting process, and it will become available on lots more cars.
And the growth. It’s still relatively small, but the company is growing by up to 50% per month right now. The model is proving out, and they’re preparing to raise a much larger round of financing to fuel growth (look for news on that soon).
I invested in Getaround shortly after they won TechCrunch Disrupt, and it’s looking to be one of the stars of the portfolio. More like this one, please.
Uncrunched 