Rental car startup Kyte has officially shut down, nearly a year after laying off staff and pulling back from most U.S. cities. The company sold its customer list to peer-to-peer rental platform Turo in July before entering receivership in California, according to a creditor notice.
Kyte’s financial troubles came to a head earlier this year when it defaulted on loans, prompting its top lender to repossess and liquidate the company’s fleet. Despite efforts by the board to secure financing, the startup failed to attract new capital and voted to wind down operations.
Customers who prepaid for trips before the shutdown say they are still waiting on refunds, some for hundreds of dollars. While a few have managed to recover money through credit card chargebacks, many are still stuck. CEO Nikolaus Volk acknowledged that chargebacks may be the fastest way to get refunded.
Founded in 2019, Kyte differentiated itself by delivering rental cars directly to customers’ homes, controlling its own fleet rather than relying on peer-to-peer models. It expanded to 14 markets, raised over $300 million, and once positioned itself as a challenger to giants like Hertz.
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But growth stalled in 2024. Kyte scaled back to New York City and San Francisco in a bid for profitability, after struggling in markets like Atlanta, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. The shutdown highlights broader challenges in the mobility sector: Getaround shuttered U.S. operations earlier this year, and other ventures like Autonomy also faltered.
Kyte’s collapse underscores the difficulty of building a sustainable rental startup in a capital-intensive, fiercely competitive industry.
