It opted for a traditional IPO rather than a SPAC.
Turo, the peer-to-peer car-sharing service, has filed for its initial public offering, the latest transportation-related startup to sell its shares on a public stock exchange. The company proposes to sell $100 million of stock, but that figure could change as Turo gets closer to its public debut.
, Turo claims it has 85,000 active hosts , 161,000 active vehicles, and 1.3 million active guests over the period of 12 months ending September 30th, 2021.Unlike many transportation-related startups in recent years, the San Francisco-based company is opting for an old-fashioned IPO rather than merging with a special acquisition company, or SPAC. Turo also stands out because it’s not specifically tied to electric or autonomous vehicles, which have mostly fueled the recent SPAC and IPO craze.
The company plans on offering some of its shares exclusively to its users, both renters and owners, in a move similar to what Uber did when it offered specially priced shares to some of its drivers. Turo says it plans to offer 5 percent of its stock to “eligible hosts and guests on our platform and certain individuals identified by our officers and directors.”
“Rental car companies reduced their fleet sizes in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and have been unable to quickly rebuild their fleets due to constraints in automobile manufacturing capacity,” Turo says. “In light of these conditions, more consumers turned to peer-to-peer car sharing for their vehicle needs.”sued by the city of San Francisco in 2018