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Car-Sharing Service Turo Files for IPO Showing Revenue Jump

Car-Sharing Service Turo Files for IPO Showing Revenue Jump

Car-sharing business Turo Inc. filed for an initial public offering, revealing its revenue as well as its losses accelerated during the coronavirus pandemic.

The San Francisco-based company said in August that it had submitted its IPO registration to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In its public filing Monday, Turo listed the size of the offering as $100 million, a placeholder that will change when terms of the share sale are set.

Turo, which competes with Getaround Inc., works by connecting car owners with short-term renters, functioning as an Airbnb for cars. By offering short duration trips from a few hours, to multiple days and weeks, Turo also seeks to compete with traditional rental car companies, operating in more than 5,500 cities in the U.S., the U.K. and Canada.

A listing by Turo could be one of the first big tech-related IPOs of 2022, resuming last year’s parade of such offerings. Tech and internet companies that went public in 2021 accounted for more than a third of the record of almost $170 billion raised on U.S. exchanges, not including blank-check companies, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Slow Start

Due in part to market volatility, listings have gotten off to a slow start this year, with only five raising about $512 million so far, the data show. That’s set to change Wednesday with private equity firm TPG Inc. seeking to raise as much as $1.05 billion in its IPO.

Turo saw its revenue more than triple for the nine months ended Sept. 30, compared with a year earlier, according to its filing. Turo had a net loss of $129 million on net revenue of $330 million for that period last year, compared with a loss of $52 million on revenue of $108 million for the first nine months of 2020.

“As shelter-in-place orders started to be lifted in the second half of 2020, we began experiencing use of our platform above pre-Covid-19 levels,” Turo said in its filing. “The Covid-19 pandemic has transformed consumer behaviors by elevating the desire for private transportation options instead of public or shared transportation options.”

Previous Valuation

Turo’s largest investors include IAC/InterActiveCorp, August Capital, Canaan Partners, G Squared, Shasta Ventures and GV and their affiliates, the filing shows.

The company has raised almost $500 million, dating back to 2009, according to data provider PitchBook. The company’s last known valuation was $1.2 billion in 2019, according to PitchBook.

The offering is being led by Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase & Co. Turo plans for its shares to trade on the the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TURO.

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.