Recently, the IPO (Initial Public Offering) market has become interesting to a large number of completely new investors who have not even been participants in the stock market. There is one big reason - profitability. The average return after the lock-up period is 40.5%, which corresponds to 162% annual in dollars (excluding commissions and personal income tax). In this article we will discuss the key details of Turo IPO: the history of the company, when is Turo IPO date, Turo IPO price and everything you should know to make a decision whether to invest in it or not.
Turo History
Do you know Airbnb? It’s a service where you can rent your housing for a short or long period of time to someone else. Airbnb connects both parties and charges a fee for its intermediary role. Well, Turo is the same but for cars.
It’s not a secret that the founder of RelayRides (original name of Turo), Shelby Clark, was partly inspired by Airbnb and also eBay. Back in 2010 RelayRides offered shared cars, but renting a car required installing an in-car device that enabled GPS monitoring, remote unlocking, and smart card entry. In 2012 it partnered with GM to develop a technology that enabled people to open GM cars just with their smartphones. A year later Turo chose in favor of in-person key exchange and canceled partnership with GM. That’s when it all started to accelerate and the company decided to move from Boston to San Francisco, where it’s the easiest for the start-up to get money.
By 2014 Turo attracted $52.5 million in funding from Canaan Partners, August Capital, Google Ventures, Shasta Ventures, and Trinity Ventures.
In 2015 the company changed its name from RelayRides to Turbo Turo to emphasize speed long term rentals as opposed to short ‘rides’.
The company continued to expand geographically and entered firstly Canada, followed by the United Kingdom. No hints for the Turo IPO at that time.
2019 saw a record in filed IPOs, it seemed that every self respecting startup had to go public that year (Zoom, Slack, Uber, Beyond Meat, etc). Turo, called “one of the hottest start ups” by Forbes, would be a perfect candidate for the IPO on the NYSE but the company wasn’t making enough money to be in black and make a strong come out. Instead of going through the IPO process, in July 2019 the company received a $250 million Series E from InterActiveCorp(IAC), which made it the largest investor in Turo. By the beginning of 2020, Turo’s total funding was over $500 million and the valuation at around $1 billion. Everyone was asking "When is Turo going public?” But then…
pandemic came.
Surely, COVID hit hard on Turo’s business which relies on travelling, but wise management and cuts on employees helped get through unlike some of the competitors. This May industry leader Hertz filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Does it mean that the market became less crowded - not sure. But Turo stood strong amid the storm and even reported its first ever profitable quarter (Q1 2021). As of Q1 2021 the company offered over 450,000 vehicles in over 5,500 cities world-wide.
All in all, positive news led to the rumors about Turo stock IPO.
Turo’s Public Listing Key Data and IPO Date
Current Turo IPO date and price are still to be announced.
IPO Date: TBA
Ticker: TURO
Exchange: NYSE
Share price: N/A
Valuation at IPO: N/A
CEO: Andre Haddad
Category: Commercial Services Stocks
Method: TBA
In fact, in August 2021 Turo filed for the IPO with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission. Turo IPO date is not disclosed to the broad market, not even the method, as well as the Turo IPO price and Turo IPO valuation.. Turo’s CEO Andre Haddad said they have yet to decide if Turo going public via traditional IPO, direct listing or SPAC.
The different between them is in the IPO process. Traditional IPO requires due diligence of the business, financial reports and S-1 form, underwriting Turo’s new securities, making roadshows, collecting pre-IPO applications, allocating, etc. It’s just traditional.
Direct listing, also Direct Public Offering (DPO), implies selling already existing shares, so no new shares will be created, thus, no underwriters needed. It’s the simplest way for Turo to become publicly traded. But there are some disadvantages to these method too.
The third option of Turo going public is via a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC). It is a way when a public company merges with a private company (like Turo) and thus, Turo becomes public. It has become popular recently. You have probably heard about BarkBox IPO, WeWork IPO and some other well-known companies.
Turo filed for the IPO in August, it’s November and everyone’s wondering ‘Is Turo publicly traded?’
We don’t know yet when is the Turo IPO date, but according to statistics, it’s unlikely to happen in winter. Since Turo filed for IPO in August, so the most probable option is early spring, when trading activity rises. But everything can happen until then and we are just waiting for Turo IPO news.
So What About Investing In It?
Let’s look at the probable Turo IPO 2021 and prospects of the business. I will start with concerns.
Concern №1. If and when Turo goes public, it will repeat Airbnb’s fate. And by this I mean after Airbnb stock jumped after IPO in 2020, but fell to the same levels as it came to the market. Rose of the news about restrictions-free travelling and fell again. All in all, the company is in a long sideways market. It goes down to fair value because the company is not profitable, but positive news drives stock up. A good thing here is that Turo is already profitable but will it continue? That’s my second concern.
Concern №2. Turo relies on the people who would like to take a car to go somewhere. Ecological agenda forces people to refuse from cars and choose bikes, scooters or public transport instead. Turo doesn’t own cars, it’s an intermediary. And if governments continue to rise taxes for cars or pose more parking restrictions, then more and more people will be selling their vehicles. On the contrary, sharing economy is also a trend supported by the people and governments, so Turo might find stable ground here.
All in all, we will have more food for thought when we find out Turo stock IPO date and price, because then we will see S-1 form and can better access company’s net worth and strategy.
FAQ
Is Turo a public company?
Not yet. The company has recently filed for an IPO with SEC, so it should take around 3-6 months until approval. The company is yet to decide on the way to go public between direct listing, traditional IPO or merger with SPAC.
How much does Turo worth?
Since the company hasn’t started trading Turo stocks and hasn’t released financial statements, we can only assume that its worth is equal to the money invested in it. From 2010 till 2021 Turo received more than $500 million in investments.
What is Turo’s business model?
Turo is a peer-to-peer car sharing service. It’s business model is to charge a fee from rentals that people agree on and upsell insurance.
.svg)
