Will Getaround Expand Toyota Lease Incentive Program With $45MM Funding?

Getaround plans to open up its peer-to-peer carsharing platform to five additional markets this year, including potentially New York, thanks — in part — to the $45 million it raised in Series C funding, Auto Finance News has learned.

The expansions will mark 2017 as Getaround’s biggest expansion year, Jacqueline Tanzella, director of marketing communications at Getaround, told Auto Finance News.

The funding round was led by Braemar Energy Ventures, with participation from Toyota Motor Corp. and China’s SAIC Motor, as well as existing investors Triangle Peak Partners and Menlo Ventures.

With this investment, Getaround appears poised to expand not just its platform into additional states, but perhaps even bring its lease incentive program with Toyota Financial Services out of pilot mode.

While Toyota Financial is not specifically mentioned, the funding will provide Getaround “with additional resources to strengthen its partnerships with leading global OEMs,” according to the release, as well as provide Getaround with funding needed to expand into additional North American markets.

Getaround declined to comment.

Back in January, Getaround teamed up with Toyota Financial Services to create a new mobility services platform, in an effort to help consumers more efficiently rent out their vehicle in order to make lease payments. The program — which is available in San Francisco — is still in pilot, Tanzella said earlier this month.

Tanzella declined to offer a projection date for when the keyless carsharing program would be launched in other markets. “We are still seeing how it’s working here, working closely with Toyota on the nuances of pilot,” she said.

Additionally, Getaround has maintained its strategy of partnering with big transportation players globally, with an eye towards making it easier for consumers to gain instant access to self-driving vehicles, according to a company press release.

“By turning any vehicle on the road today into a connected car on Getaround, we have created the only marketplace to instantly share cars,” Sam Zaid, Getaround’s founder and chief executive, said in the release. “We’ve already seen this become an important part of how people access vehicles, and we are confident that it will be fundamental to the way cars are used in the future as they become increasingly connected and autonomous.”

Getaround, which was founded in 2011, utilizes proprietary technology which combines GPS, Bluetooth LE, and keyless remote technology to allow renters to unlock the car from their mobile phones. Headquartered in San Francisco, Getaround is available to owners and renters in San Francisco, Portland, Chicago, Washington D.C., and now the tri-state are of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

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