Getaround has just spent USD $300m buying Drivy, France’s leading car-sharing company in Europe. The purchase makes Getaround the world’s leading car-sharing platform, covering more than 300 cities in the United States and Europe with 5 million users.
Getaround was the first to engage in connected car-sharing using technology to locate and unlock vehicles through phones without physical vehicle keys transfer between owner and renter. Their system is based on the provision of private vehicles not in immediate use by their owner, and rented for an hour or a day—sort of like Airbnb for cars. In some cases, the app can also give access to professional fleets.
Getaround and Drivy share the same strategies for extending the car-sharing network through connected technology, related services such as insurance, and roadside assistance. The two companies complement each other geographically, with 170 cities in the United States for Getarount and 140 European cities for Drivy and for the pooling of their estimated fleet of 62,000 vehicles which according to Transportation Sustainability Research Center in California, could equate to 620,000 fewer vehicles on the roads.
