Kite, who charged himself as “Hertz’s best competitor” will be closed

Car rental startup Kyte was shut down almost a year after cutting staff and leaving most U.S. cities. The company sold its client list to TURO in July, then turned right and entered the form of a California receivership, following California notice.

According to the notification, Kite fell behind on some of his loans earlier this year. As a result, the company’s top lender reclaimed Kite’s vehicle fleet and settled it.

Kyte’s board of directors “sought a variety of capital solutions” to keep the company alive, the notice said. However, the company was unable to prepare funding, and the board voted to defeat Kite.

While Kyte handed the customer list to TURO, many users who had pre-booked trips before the shutdown complained that they were waiting for a refund of hundreds of dollars.

Some people who spoke to TechCrunch said they were able to allow credit card companies to perform chargebacks, but others had no luck. Kyte CEO Nikolaus Volk told TechCrunch in a message that Charge-Backs could be the quickest way for customers to get their money back.

Founded in 2019, Kyte offers on-demand car rentals and delivers them directly to clients’ homes. It controls its own vehicle and has become a little more like a peer-to-peer product for players like Turo. Kyte has grown into 14 markets, raising more than $300 million in funding over the course of its lifetime and began billing it as “Hertz’s best competitor.”

Last year, Volk told TechCrunch. Kite struggled to generate free cash flow in markets such as Atlanta, Chicago, Boston and Washington, DC Volk said his team explored selling the business but decided to focus on reaching profits in two of the biggest markets, San Francisco and New York City.

Startups in this sector are not the only startups to encounter trouble, especially in the US. Another peer-to-peer vehicle rental service, GetAround, closed its US business this February, focusing on European businesses. Truecar founder Scott Painter pivoted away from his vehicle subscription in 2024 after struggling to build a business called Autonomy.