Peer-to-peer car lending platform service, Getaround, is expanding to the District. The San Francisco, Calif.-based startup’s carsharing and ride services are available in D.C. as of today.
"For us, D.C. was was a no brainer. Washington is an innovative city with high urban density, a young, innovative population and excellent public transportation infrastructure. As we’ve seen in San Francisco, this is a great recipe for Getaround’s success," Jessica Scorpio, founder of Getaround, told DC Inno.
With user-ready vehicle listings currently available in San Diego, Chicago, Austin and Portland, D.C. represents the company’s first East Coast market move. The expansion follows Getaround’s recent shift to an entirely automated, on-demand car sharing reservation system — enabling users to both reserve and rent a vehicle listed by an owned without the need from a meetup. As Getaround enters D.C., they will be a new competitor to Zipcar.
Founded in 2011, Getaround’s platform functions like a cross between Uber, Airbnb and ZipCar. Once logged into the mobile application, users are able to view a proximity-based list of available vehicles. These vehicles, ranging in hourly rent rates and model, are listed by car owners. The owner, renter and automobile, itself, are judged by a user generated rating system similar to Uber.
“Getaround is the only car sharing company that allows D.C. residents to rent anything from a Prius to a Tesla with the touch of their phone, while empowering car owners to earn hundreds of dollars each month off of their underutilized vehicles,” the company said in a statement.
The way car owners list their vehicles via Getaround is similar, at least in experience, to how Airbnb enables users to easily list an offering for a specific time period. Once a potential user has decided to rent a specific vehicle in their vicinity, the owner is prompted with a notification on whether to accept or decline the user’s request. Owners decide their vehicle’s hourly rent rate and pickup/drop-off locations. When a user approaches said vehicle they use a keyless remote technology, called Getaround Connect, to unlock the vehicle directly from their smartphone.
Getaround is seeking to surpass Zipcar on both users and "rides" in D.C. during the next year.
Based on Getaround's growth in San Francisco, "we expect to surpass the number of Zipcar’s in DC in the next year," Scorpio said. "When we launched our on-demand experience in San Francisco last year, the response was overwhelming and we knew right away it was where we should focus our efforts. In that year, our supply of cars in San Francisco grew 10x, growth we expect to repeat, if not exceed in Washington."
The ridesharing startup says that it already has more than 4,000 users in the D.C. area, and 30 privately owned cars currently available through its mobile application.
“We received thousands of pre-launch sign ups in the D.C. area - this community told us they were ready for a new way to get around and we listened. We’re excited to be part of the city’s innovative transportation network, and to be empowering more Washingtonians to live car free,” said Scorpio.
Getaround last raised a venture capital round in November 2014 to the tune of $24 million Series B led Cox Enterprises, TechCrunch reported.
