Car-sharing company Getaround cuts one-third of US workforce | TechCrunch
Getaround, a company that helps vehicle owners rent out their cars, trucks and SUVs to other peers, is cutting 30% of its North American workforce as part of a restructuring.
The company said in a statement it will restructure its workforce and operations to reduce costs in hopes of extending its cash runway and accelerating “its path to profitability.”
Getaround wouldn’t disclose the number of workers it currently employs in North America or in Europe, where it also operates. The company employed 283 full-time employees as of December 31, 2022, according to its most recent full-year earnings report. That figure has fluctuated since then due to a 10% workforce reduction in February 2023, which was also conducted to “achieve a leaner path to profitability,” and an acquisition of Hyrecar in May 2023.
Getaround said this latest restructuring will result in savings of about $7 million on an annualized run-rate basis. The company said it expects up to $1 million in restructuring costs in connection with the workforce reductions.
“Our focus on profitability and sustainable business growth necessitated this difficult workforce reduction program,” Getaround CEO Sam Zaid said in a statement. “We’ve made significant progress over the past year, including steady improvements in revenue growth and unit economics, as well as in overall adjusted EBITDA profile and operating efficiency. We launched a new artificial intelligence model (Trustscore AI) to improve the safety and economics of our marketplace, deployed a powerful new global app that unifies and enables seamless trip coordination across the U.S. and Europe, and expanded to gig carsharing, enabling gig workers across the U.S. to rent cars to drive for services like Uber and DoorDash. As the only truly global and digital carsharing marketplace, and as the leader in gig carsharing, we believe Getaround is increasingly well positioned for the future.”
Getaround has seen revenue growth, according to its third-quarter earnings report which revealed a 42% year-over-year increase. While progress has been made, profitability is still a ways off. In that same quarter, Getaround reported $42.9 million worth of operating expenses and a $27.3 million loss on a net GAAP basis. Even when using more generous profit calculations, Getaround was still unprofitable in the third quarter, with an adjusted EBITDA of -$11.3 million during the three-month period.
