Peer-to-peer car rental service RelayRides raised $25 million in Series B funding according to an announcement from the company on Tuesday. That's a big chunk of change, and one that almost doubles the funds raised in total by RelayRides to $44 million. The new funding was led by Canaan Partners and will be used to help the company transition into longer term and away from competing with companies like Zipcar for the hourly rental market. As part of the funding, general partner at Canaan Deepak Kamra will join the board of directors.
"With an installed base of more than 1 billion cars around the world, most of them remaining idle the vast majority of the time, we believe RelayRides is pursuing an enormous opportunity," Kamra said in the release. "We believe RelayRides has nailed the model for peer-to-peer car sharing and is uniquely positioned to have a huge impact on transportation."
RelayRides was founded out in San Francisco, but since it went national (and potentially global) a couple of years ago, there are now plenty of people in the D.C. area who put their cars on the shared marketplace for renting. And, as mentioned before, the idea is that people will rent the cars for more than a few hours or even a day. RelayRides is hoping to corner the market on the multiple-day, weekly and even monthly rental space. It's pretty straightforward, once you pick a car you want and the owner approves you, you meet up and get the keys, or, thanks to a partnership with GM and OnStar, you might not even need to meet in person. When the rental time is up, you return the car and everyone moves on as simple as that. It's basically like AirBnB that way, or like the more recent P2P setup for watercraft, Boatbound.
The other main reason RelayRides has gotten so much funding in a mostly uncertain market is because it has worked the airport angle, getting into 300 U.S. airports for people who want to rent a car directly from the owner while on a trip.
Normally these kinds of deals are of interest only to investors and competitors, but as part of celebrating the funding (and the Fourth of July), RelayRides will give $20 of the next rental for members if they use the code USA2014 on their account.
Image via RelayRides
