Partnerships ‘More Productive’ Than Equity Investments, Getaround CFO Says

LAS VEGAS — While equity investments are beneficial for startups, “arms-length” transactions or strategic partnerships that rely on factors other than equity return are often “more productive,” Getaround’s Chief Financial Officer Adam Kosmicki said at the 2017 Auto Finance Summit.

“The expected value of [that equity investment] can often be a lot lower than investing internally in business,” he said. “As the CFO of a startup, I value the cycle of innovation that comes with ‘skin in the game,’ as much as anybody, but I genuinely believe that there is a more productive way — depending on the scale of the institution — to start engagement by having an arms-length transaction or strategic partnership that is not reliant on equity return.”

Getaround, a peer-to-peer carsharing platform that raised $45 million of funding in April, is partnered with Toyota Financial Services to allow consumers to rent out their vehicles in order to generate income to make monthly lease payments.

For more coverage from the 2017 Auto Finance Summit, click here.