Turo Upcoming IPO: When will the car sharing app hit the accelerator?

After more than three years since the car sharing app Turo initially submitted its confidentially filed Form S-1with the SEC to go public¹, the company has yet to move forward with an initial public offering. Despite there being no official Turo IPO date, Turo’s IPO plans appear to still be on the table, as the company continues to update its Form S-1 with quarterly financial results.

Turo IPO filing details

Turo first confidentially filed its Form S-1 on August 6, 2021, with the intention to list on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker TURO.² Since then, Turo has amended its S-1 multiple times, most recently with a August 8, 2024 filing that included the company's Q2 2024 financial results.³

These frequent filing updates potentially indicate that Turo still plans to go public. As TechCrunch noted in March 2024, Turo "would not file regular S-1/A filings if a public offering was not a key priority."⁴

The main underwriters for the Turo IPO include Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Allen & Company, and Citigroup.⁵

Turo IPO valuation

Turo has not publicly set an intended IPO valuation, although Renaissance Capital projects that the Turo IPO itself could raise approximately $300 million.⁶ However, since the IPO stock price and number of shares on offer remain to be seen, Turo's expected valuation at the time of its IPO remains unknown.

Turo's last-known valuation from primary funding rounds is $1.24 billion, based on its Series E in 2020.⁷ At that time, Turo's stock price per share was $10.14, but trading data on Forge's private marketplace shows that the stock price has jumped as high as $19.50 based on trades facilitated by Forge.⁸

Turo's stock price on Forge is down year to date, in contrast to positive returns for the Forge Private Market Index, as the chart below shows.⁹

Turo tentative IPO date

At this time, there is no publicly announced Turo IPO date. However, it remains to be seen if and when Turo's IPO plans will come to fruition.

As TechCrunch reported in March 2024, part of the delay could be due to Turo's slowing growth rate, or the company could be waiting for a friendlier IPO environment.¹⁰

Turo: Company background

Turo is a car sharing rental platform that enables car owners to rent their vehicles to other users on a short-term basis. In other words, Turo is like Airbnb for cars.

The company started in 2009 under the name RelayRides¹¹ before rebranding as Turo in 2015.¹² The founder, Shelby Clark, came up with the idea while biking two miles through snow in Boston to pick up a rental car.¹³

In 2013, Clark stepped down from his day-to-day role at the company¹⁴; he then left its board in 2019, according to his LinkedIn.¹⁵

Since 2011, however, Turo has maintained the same CEO — Andre Haddad, who previously co-founded an online marketplace that was acquired by eBay.¹⁶

Turo's growth opportunities and risks

Turo's most recent Form S-1 filing in August 2024 reveals that the company has grown its annual net revenue from $141.7 million in 2019 to $879.7 million in 2023. Turo’s net revenue in the first half of 2024 increased nearly 11% over the same period a year prior.

However, as noted by TechCrunch, the growth rate has been decelerating, which could explain why Turo's IPO plans have been slow to materialize.¹⁷

Turo first became profitable in 2022, posting annual net income of $154.7 million, but that shrank to $14.7 million in 2023. For the first six months of 2024, Turo had net income of just over $10 million, which surpasssed the $22.2 million loss in the same period the year before. However, Turo’s gross margin has been shrinking in recent years, going from 52.1% in the first half of 2023 to most recently falling to 44.8% for the first half of 2024.¹⁸

That said, Turo has an estimated large total addressable market of $172 billion, according to its most recent Form S-1 filing. Its growth strategy involves aspects such as investing in sales and marketing to grow its supply of vehicles listed on the platform across different vehicle categories and use cases, as well as expanding to more international markets (the company is currently in the US, Canada, UK, France, and Australia).

And according to P&S Intelligence, the global car sharing market is expected to grow at a 5.6% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2030.¹⁹ In comparison, the ride-hailing market, which includes companies like Uber, has a projected CAGR of 6.1% through 2030, according to P&S Intelligence.²⁰

Meanwhile, Turo and the overall car sharing market poses several risks to investors. As Turo notes in its most recent Form S-1, some of the top risks include issues around consumer spending patterns, regulation, insurance, and more.

As Turo adds, the company has a history of net losses and anticipates increased operating expenses in the future; issues like the success of international expansion and the cost of working with third parties like insurance providers and travel search platforms could also affect Turo's future success.

Competition is another risk. One of its main competitors, Getaround, went public via a SPAC in 2022 but the stock price quickly crashed²¹ and NYSE has started the process to delist Getaround from the NYSE for failing to maintain a sufficient average global market capitalization.²² As TechCrunch reported, however, that could be reflective of the SPAC environment, not necessarily the car sharing market.²³

Turo's funding history and Private Market valuation

Turo funding totals from primary fundraising rounds amount to over $456 million, according to Forge Data.²⁴

Its Series A took place in 2011, when it raised over $5 million at an $11.8 million post-money valuation. In 2020, its Series E and E-1 raised over $280 million, bringing the company's post-money valuation above $1 billion.²⁵

Over the years, Turo has gained investment from a variety of investment firms and companies, such as IAC, Daimler, Kleiner Perkins, Manhattan Venture Partners, Allen & Co, and more.²⁶

Looking ahead

While no date has been set for a Turo IPO, future amendments to its Form S-1 might reveal more details. Check back here or take a look at Forge’s upcoming IPO calendar to stay in the loop about a possible Turo IPO and other pending public offerings. If you’re interested in investing in private companies like Turo before they go public, read more about pre-IPO investing or register on Forge Markets today to get started with trading pre-IPO shares.