Getaround, the leading American car-sharing company, has announced the acquisition of Drivy, the leading car-sharing platform in Europe, for $300m.
By combining the strengths and geographic footprint of the two companies, the combined companies form a global leader in carsharing, with a community of more than 5 million users sharing 62,000 vehicles, including 11,000 connected and self-service vehicles in 300 cities in the United States and Europe.
We’re excited to join forces with Drivy to get closer to our goal: a world where all vehicles are connected and shared
Thanks to the hard work of our team, Drivy has become the largest carsharing platform in Europe. By replacing the private car in major cities, carsharing meets the demand for instant and flexible transportation options while making cities more sustainable by ridding them of unnecessary vehicles and helping to reduce congestion and pollution. Having connected technology, a seamless user experience and a dense fleet is key to making shared car use more convenient than owning your own vehicle. Getaround is the perfect partner to achieve this goal, as our companies are similar yet complementary in many aspects of our business, such as geography or fleet acquisition. I look forward to seeing what we can accomplish together.
Getaround is the leading U.S. carsharing company that allows users to instantly locate and unlock cars using their smartphones, making carsharing accessible to as many people as possible at any time of the day. Based in San Francisco, Getaround has thousands of cars available in 140 major cities across the United States. Getaround’s investors include SoftBank, Menlo Ventures, Braemar Energy Ventures, Asset Plus, Triangle Peak Partners, SPARX Group, Toyota Motor Corporation, Cox Automotive Inc. and SAIC Capital.
Drivy, founded in 2010 by Paulin Dementhon, is Europe’s leading car-sharing platform, with more than 2.5 million users and 55,000 shared cars in 6 countries. The Drivy app allows city dwellers to find a car down the street, open it with their smartphone and use it for a few hours or days.
The start-up, which has 130 employees in its offices in Paris, London, Barcelona and Berlin, has raised €47 million from major investment funds and VCs in the Technology and Mobility sector: Alven, Index Ventures, Via ID, Cathay Innovation, BpiFrance, NGP Capital and Wind Capital.
Via ID is pleased to remain a shareholder of this world leader in a subject it has supported since 2011 and which is clearly one of the key solutions for smart cities.