Outdoorsy, a peer-to-peer RV marketplace, raised $25 million in Series B funding in mid-February.
The startup, based in San Francisco, allows individuals to rent out their RVs to other consumers when the vehicles are not in use.
“[RVs are an] idle asset, under-used, very expensive, and hard to sell,” co-founder Jeff Cavins told Powersports Finance. “Most users find themselves upside-down in equity, and most people stop using them after a year or two.”
There are 18 million RVs in the U.S., he said, and more than 35 million people look to rent an RV each year — 38% of them millennials. Additionally, there are fewer than 100,000 commercially owned RVs available from traditional rental services.
Outdoorsy has 256,000 users, and the company is growing by 21,000 users a month, Cavins said. RV owners on Outdoorsy’s platform set their own prices, retaining between 80% and 94% of the total based on their “trust” ranking score on the site and on how many vehicles they are renting.
Separately, Outdoorsy is launching an insurance product on March 1 and is developing a mobile app slated to launch in May, Cavins said. The company is currently expanding into a second headquarters, as well as into Canada and Australia.
