Skurt

Skurt was an on-demand car rental company headquartered in Culver City, Los Angeles, that let users book a rental car through a mobile app and have it delivered to their location, with pickup when the rental ended. Rather than owning a fleet, Skurt aggregated vehicles from independent car rental and leasing companies, as well as excess inventory from dealerships and automakers, and offered those cars and prices through its app. Its rental partners ranged from local operators with roughly 200 cars to larger independent companies with more than 2,000 cars, giving Skurt access to over 5,000 vehicles in Los Angeles as of late 2015.

The service launched around Los Angeles International Airport and later operated in Los Angeles, San Diego and Miami. Pricing started at about $21 a day for a midsized sedan, with no deposit and no underage fees; drivers had to be over 21, and rental insurance could be purchased inside the app. Skurt's platform supported digital initiation and monitoring of customer car deliveries from a central dashboard, real-time notifications, fleet location tracking and communication throughout the delivery process.

In February 2018, flexible car-ownership company Fair announced it had acquired Skurt. Fair said it would use Skurt's platform to scale vehicle delivery and pickup and to manage its wider fleet as it expanded beyond California; Skurt's standalone service was shut down and its technology and team folded into Fair. Terms were not disclosed.

Founding story

Skurt was co-founded by Harry Hurst, Josh Mangel and Aaron Peck. Hurst, who previously ran a headhunting business and is originally from London, described the company as targeting the archaic and consolidated car rental process by delivering vehicles directly to customers. Built In Los Angeles described the company as founded just over a year before its April 2017 Series A announcement.

Business model

Skurt operated an app-based marketplace rather than owning vehicles, sourcing cars through agreements with independent car rental and leasing companies and from excess dealer and automaker inventory, then delivering them to customers and collecting them afterwards.

Customers paid daily rental rates booked through the app, starting at approximately $21 per day for a midsized sedan, with optional rental insurance purchasable in-app and no deposit or underage fees.

Traction

By October 2015 Skurt had access to more than 5,000 cars in Los Angeles through rental partners and was live at LAX. By early 2017 it was operating in Los Angeles, San Diego and Miami, and it was named to Built In LA's list of 50 startups to watch in 2017.

Latest developments

Fair announced the acquisition of Skurt in February 2018 alongside a funding round of around $50 million led by next47. Skurt's service was discontinued and its technology and team were integrated into Fair, which planned to use the platform to expand vehicle delivery nationwide.