With rapid expansion across the country, Kyte is eyeing a future of rental teleoperation and fully autonomous vehicle delivery.
Photo: Kyte
Kyte has announced a $30 million Series A funding round led by Park West Asset Management and Sterling Road.
The on-demand car rental company launched in 2019 and is building infrastructure to support its goal of enabling teleoperation and fully autonomous vehicle delivery. Following a $9 million seed round in late 2020 and bringing total capital raised to more than $40 million, the new funding will be used for product development, geographic expansion, and growth across new product lines, their announcement said.
“We envision a world where people living in cities don’t own cars and streets aren’t clogged with parked cars; space is used for a better purpose, and the freedom of personal mobility is enabled by Kyte,” said Nikolaus Volk, co-founder of Kyte. “We’re building the infrastructure for an autonomous future where cars travel from fleet hubs to the people who need them, when and where they’re requested.”
Kyte is growing quickly, having launched its service in eight new cities in 2021 and currently operating in 10 major U.S. cities — namely Boston, Brooklyn, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. In the last few months, Kyte has been joined by a number of tech execs, including former engineering director from Uber ATG and Aurora, Nick Cobb, former VP from Bird, Chandra Morando, and additional leaders from UberEats, Expedia, Travis Kalanick’s CloudKitchens, Morgan Stanley, and others.
“Kyte is a magical experience compared to traditional car rentals; my family relies on it and that’s what first made me so excited about this investment,” said Ash Rust, managing partner of Sterling Road. “The Kyte team has a wealth of experience, which has been reflected in their incredible revenue growth over the last few years. We’re excited to support them now and long into the future.”
In addition to Park West Asset Management and Sterling Road — investors in unicorns including Goat, Epic Games, Clearco and ThredUp —, Kyte’s Series A round saw participation from new and existing investors, including DN Capital, Amplo, 1984 Ventures, FundersClub, Moving Capital, Rosecliff Ventures, Seraph Group, Unpopular Ventures, Urban Innovation Fund, and the founders of German transportation unicorn, FlixBus.