Turo is an American

peer-to-peer carsharing Peer-to-peer carsharing (also known as person-to-person carsharing and peer-to-peer car rental) is the process whereby existing car owners make their vehicles available for others to rent for short periods of time. The concept Peer-to-peer carsh ...

company based in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, United States. The company allows private car owners to rent out their vehicles via an online and mobile interface in over 56 countries. In July 2019, the American holding company IAC invested $250 million in Turo, a deal that valued the company at more than $1 billion. As of 2020, the website has 14 million members and 450,000 vehicles listed operating in over 56 countries. On January 1, 2021, the ''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' reported that Turo CEO Andre Haddad planned to take the company public in 2021, either through a traditional

IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

or some alternative method. The company will be listed on the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed ...

on the ticker symbol TURO from their S-1 filing and plans for the IPO to take place in 2022.

History

RelayRides was launched in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

in June 2010. The

peer-to-peer Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network. They are said to form a peer-to-peer ...

car-sharing concept was inspired by similar online marketplaces such as

Airbnb Airbnb, Inc. ( ), based in San Francisco, California, operates an online marketplace focused on short-term homestays and experiences. The company acts as a broker and charges a commission from each booking. The company was founded in 2008 b ...

and

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became ...

. In late 2010, the company expanded to

, where it is now headquartered. In 2012, it launched nationwide in the U.S. Initially, renting a car through RelayRides required installing an in-car device that enabled GPS monitoring, remote unlocking, and smart card entry, similar to

Zipcar Zipcar is an American car-sharing company and a subsidiary of Avis Budget Group. Zipcar provides vehicle reservations to its members, billable by the minute, hour or day; members may have to pay a monthly or annual membership fee in addition ...

. In 2012, Turo partnered with major automaker General Motors and their

OnStar OnStar Corporation is a subsidiary of General Motors that provides subscription-based communications, in-vehicle security, emergency services, turn-by-turn navigation, and remote diagnostics systems throughout the United States, Canada, China, ...

division with the goal of enabling renters to unlock GM cars with their mobile phones without installing additional technology. In 2013, however, RelayRides discontinued both its in-car device and its Onstar technology integration in favor of in-person key exchange. Between 2010 and 2015, RelayRides received $52.5 million in funding from Canaan Partners,

August Capital August Capital, legally August Capital Master Management Company, LLC, is a venture capital firm founded by David Marquardt and John Johnston in 1995. It is focused on information technology and is based in Menlo Park, California. Company Aug ...

Google Ventures GV is a venture capital investment arm of Alphabet Inc., founded by Bill Maris, that provides seed, venture, and growth stage funding to technology companies. Founded as Google Ventures in 2009, the firm has operated independently of Google, Alph ...

Shasta Ventures Shasta Ventures is an early-stage venture capital investment firm located in Silicon Valley that invests in enterprise and technology consumer startups. It is located on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park. Funds Shasta's second fund of US$250 milli ...

, and Trinity Ventures. In November 2014, RelayRides changed its name to Turo in order, the company said, to reflect the company's shift away from short-term to long-term rentals.

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included it among 14 "hottest on-demand startups" in 2015, with a valuation of $311 million. In June 2018, Turo announced plans to offer a new in-car device allowing GPS monitoring and remote unlocking through the Turo app. In 2016 and 2017, Turo launched in three Canadian provinces:

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, and

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

. Also in 2016, Turo launched in the United Kingdom. In July 2019, InterActiveCorp (IAC) invested $250 million in venture capital funding. The investment made IAC Turo's largest shareholder. As of 2021, there have been over 350,000 vehicles listed on Turo, operating in over 56 countries. While Turo has a good neighbor policy in place, the company has been accused of being a bad neighbor as the app can crowd out street parking in busy urban areas.

Forbidding car owners from listing their cars on other platforms

In 2019, Turo updated their terms of service to prevent hosts from sharing their car on any other car-sharing services. Turo declared that "failure to abide by this condition may result in fines, penalties, denial of a physical damage claim, removal of the vehicle from the Services, account closure, or other action, in Turo’s sole discretion." The change was formally implemented on July 15, 2019. Avoiding claims that this could be "failure to deal" or reduction in competition, they stated that their service "tends" to perform badly when dealing with other companies' booking software.

Unlicensed insurance activity in the state of New York

In May 2013, the

New York State Department of Financial Services The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS or NYSDFS) is the department of the Government of New York (state), New York state government responsible for regulating financial services and products, including those subject to the Consol ...

issued a consumer alert, warning that RelayRides misrepresented insurance coverage for users of its program. New York issued a

cease-and-desist A cease and desist letter is a document sent to an individual or business to stop alleged illegal activity. The phrase "cease and desist" is a legal doublet, made up of two near-synonyms. The letter may warn that, if the recipient does not disc ...

letter ordering RelayRides to stop operations, and RelayRides suspended operations in the state. RelayRides was fined $200,000 for false advertising for engaging in unlicensed insurance activity, and other violations.

Services

Unlike traditional car-rental services, Turo does not own or maintain any cars. The company offers a

platform Platform may refer to: Technology * Computing platform, a framework on which applications may be run * Platform game, a genre of video games * Car platform, a set of components shared by several vehicle models * Weapons platform, a system or ...

on which car owners can rent their cars. Turo claims that its rental costs are lower compared to traditional car rental services. People who wish to rent their cars can register their cars online to be rented by other Turo members. The car owner states when and where the car will be available. A Turo member who wants to rent a car reserves a specific time slot for the car online. Turo takes 10 to 40 percent of rental income, depending on the insurance coverage it provides the car owner. Turo does not require renters to have personal coverage if the renter books a trip with a protection plan provided by Turo. Turo provides up to $750,000 in third party liability insurance from Travelers Insurance in the United States, up to $2 million in Canada, and up to £20 million in the UK, with 5 plans varying in vehicle protection. On June 28, 2022, a California Appellate Court found that Turo is not a car rental company at all. Their reasoning was that Turo is merely an online platform that helps car owners find people to rent from them. This will have two legal effects: first, the protections afforded to car rental companies will not be extended to Turo, second, services like

Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), packa ...

will try to leverage this case so that they are no longer deemed to be a transportation company.

References

External links