FlightCar

FlightCar was a San Francisco-based peer-to-peer car-sharing marketplace that operated at airports. Departing travelers parked their vehicles for free at FlightCar lots near the airport; instead of sitting idle, those cars were rented to arriving travelers, with owners paid according to the mileage renters drove. The company positioned itself between a rental car company and a parking operator, describing itself as "the Airbnb of car rentals at airports" and as the first peer-to-peer car-sharing service to operate at airports.

Vehicles had to meet eligibility criteria — no more than 150,000 miles and not older than 14 years. Rentals averaged roughly $25 to $30 per day, which sources reported as about half or less than the daily economy rate of incumbent agencies at San Jose Airport. Owners earned 5 to 20 cents per mile driven; renters were limited to 225 miles, above which a 45-cents-per-mile surcharge applied, of which 40 cents went to the owner. Each rental carried a $1 million liability policy covering damage or injury caused to third parties, and FlightCar covered repairs to the owner's vehicle so that personal auto insurance was not used. Cars were cleaned before and after rental, and FlightCar handled airport delivery and pickup.

The service launched in February 2013 at San Francisco International Airport and expanded to Boston and Los Angeles, then Seattle-Tacoma and San Jose, reaching 12 airports at its peak: AUS, BOS, DEN, DFW, EWR, IAD, LAX, OAK, SAN, SEA, SJC and SFO. In July 2016 the company closed all locations and its technology platform was acquired by Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America.

Founding story

Accounts in the sources describe three young founders — Rujul Zaparde, Kevin Petrovic and Shri Ganeshram — who dropped out of Harvard, Princeton and MIT respectively to start the company, with the concept derived from applying an Airbnb-style sharing model to cars sitting idle in airport parking lots. Zaparde and Petrovic had previously co-founded a non-profit, Drinking Water for India, that built wells in rural India. At the time of the 2014 Series A, aged 19 and 20, they were described in the company's own release as the youngest entrepreneurs to have raised $20 million in venture capital.

Business model

Two-sided marketplace: FlightCar aggregated supply from departing travelers who left their personal vehicles at airport-adjacent lots in exchange for free parking, and matched that supply with arriving travelers seeking rentals. FlightCar operated the lots, cleaning, airport shuttling and insurance layer, and mediated all transactions.

FlightCar collected the rental fee from renters and paid owners a mileage-based share — reported at 5 to 20 cents per mile driven — retaining the remainder. Excess-mileage surcharges of 45 cents per mile were split, with 40 cents going to the owner.

Traction

Reported traction grew from three locations and over 30,000 members in September 2014 to 10 airports and 50,000 members by February 2015, and 12 airports by 2016. One secondary source cites early figures of more than 1,500 rentals and 1,400 cars listed within the first year. Headcount reached 51.

Latest developments

On July 15, 2016 FlightCar announced it had closed all 12 airport locations and stopped taking new reservations, with stations winding down over the following weeks. Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America acquired the technology platform for an undisclosed price, folding it into its business innovation division. Co-founders subsequently moved on to other ventures — Zaparde to Y Combinator as a visiting partner and then Zip, and Ganeshram to Eaze and later Awning.