For nearly 15 years, Turo, the car rental app investigators say was used in the deadly attack in New Orleans and the vehicle explosion at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, quietly grew as an alternative to traditional rental services like Hertz and Enterprise.
The company was founded as RelayRides in 2010, and rebranded to Turo in 2015. Over 3.5 million people have booked a vehicle through Turo in the past year, according to a company filing. As of September, the app had 350,000 vehicle listings in more than 16,000 cities.
Now Turo, which last year was considering an initial public offering on Wall Street, is facing uncomfortable attention as the sole and perhaps coincidental link between the two incidents.
The app functions similarly to Airbnb, where “hosts” can put their cars on the Turo marketplace to be rented by users.
For some users, the app is a cheaper alternative to rental fleet companies found at airports, with many vehicles available for under $50 a day. Others use the app to rent novelty cars for higher prices, like classic automobiles, high-end sports cars or Tesla Cybertrucks, such as the one used in the explosion in Las Vegas.
Much like traditional rental services, Turo customers are required to upload their drivers license, home address and payment information to create an account.
Hosts on Turo range from people who rent out their personal vehicle to make a side income to users who list over a dozen vehicles and rent them on Turo as a full-time job.
The owner of the truck used in the New Orleans attack, who did not want his name used, told The New York Times that he had been renting five vehicles on Turo as a second income stream, but planned to quit using the service after the incident.
In a statement Wednesday, the company said it was “heartbroken by the violence perpetrated in New Orleans and Las Vegas,” and was actively partnering with law enforcement for both incidents.
“We do not believe that either renter involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat,” the company said.
Investigators have so far found no definitive connection between the New Orleans attack and the explosion of the Tesla in Las Vegas, but law officials said they continue to look for links between the incidents.
Turo was founded in Boston by its former chief executive, Shelby Clark, and later relocated to San Francisco, where it is based. Its initial investors were Google Ventures, August Capital and Shasta Ventures, and the company has so far raised $500 million in funding, according to company statements.
Mr. Clark left the company in 2013 to pursue venture capital investments and practice wellness and meditation in Costa Rica, according to his social media accounts. The current chief executive is Andre Haddad, a former executive at the online marketplace eBay.
Turo had $880 million in revenue in 2023 and reported a $14.7 million profit. For the first nine months of 2024, it brought in $722 million with a $19 million profit, according to regulatory filings.
Turo has for years been rumored to go public, and filed paperwork for an initial public offering in 2022. In September, it partnered with Uber to let its customers rent vehicles from the Uber app.
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