Getaround, which offers a peer-to-peer car-sharing app, will reduce its field operations staff and the size of “several global teams” in an effort to cut costs, according to a Jan. 7 blog post written by company Founder and Chief Executive Sam Zaid.
Roughly 150 employees — a quarter of its staff — will lose their jobs at Getaround, The Information reported.
To date, the San Francisco-based startup has raised more than $400 million of venture funding. SoftBank is the company’s largest investor — injecting $300 million into Getaround in Aug. 2018.
The job cuts come two months after SoftBank drove subscription app Fair to lay off 40% of its workforce. Subsequent to Fair’s job cut announcement, Chief Financial Officer Tyler Painter was let go and Chief Executive Scott Painter resigned.
As of 2019, Getaround reported it has 5 million users in 300 cities worldwide and approximately 20,000 connected cars. The growth the startup has experienced has, in turn, “pressure-tested” the organization and led to “less efficient operations and increased costs,” Zaid wrote. SoftBank has stepped up “in a big way” to support the company’s decision to reduce its staff, he added.
Moving forward, the company will focus on investing in products and technology to balance growth and efficiency, Zaid noted. The job cuts will mostly impact Getaround’s North American operations where its vehicle-related businesses are focused.
Toyota Financial Services partnered with Getaround in 2016 to develop a new mobility services platform in San Francisco that aimed to help TFS consumers rent out their vehicles to raise funds for their monthly lease payments. The offering has been available to consumers since January 2017. TFS declined a request for comment.
Additionally, Getaround partnered with Uber in 2018 to offer Uber Rent, a program that enabled customers to instantly find and rent cars shared on Getaround using the Uber app.
It is uncertain how the job cuts might impact Getaround’s partnerships. Getaround did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
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