On LinkedIn, Kyte co-founder Ludwig Schoenack announced that on-demand car rental platform Kyte is “passing the keys” to car-sharing marketplace Turo.
Turo said it is acquiring “select assets” from Kyte, but the specific terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“While it’s not the most ambitious outcome we once dreamed of—it’s a partner we’ve long respected,” Schoenack wrote on LinkedIn. “The real story of Kyte is the people. Builders and operators—all of whom I’m sure will go to do great things well beyond this chapter, and that makes me incredibly proud.”
Turo said that the two companies have “taken different approaches to mobility” but share a goal to provide alternatives to the traditional car rental market.
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Turo’s peer-to-peer model allows users to rent a car through hosts who’ve made their vehicles bookable. Kyte offers an app for customers to book cars for days, weeks or months at a time, selecting a time and location for a delivery driver (called a “Kyte Surfer”) to deliver the car.
“When we started Kyte, we set out with a bold idea: to make access to cars as seamless as ordering an Uber,” Schoenack wrote.
“What followed was a wild ride: building an incredibly complex operating engine, world class technology, delivering magical experiences to customers all over the country and assembling what I believe to be one of the most talent-dense teams in tech.”
Founded in 2009, Turo is headquartered in San Francisco and currently operates in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and France. The company offers a selection of over 1,600 makes and models.
Kyte previously received significant funding, raising $30 million in Series A funding in 2021 and $60 million in Series B funding the following year. However, the company later secured $200 million in credit financing in March 2022 and an additional $250 million in March 2024.
Last October, the company suspended operations in all of its major U.S. markets aside from San Francisco and New York City and slashed its workforce by approximately 40% to 50%. Kyte CEO Nikolaus Volk told TechCrunch that the move was intended to help the company reach profitability over an 18-month period.