May 23, 2013, 6:26am PDT

Rental startup Flightcar lands in Boston, eyes more airports

Flightcar, co-founded by CEO Rujul Zaparde, is opening its second car-sharing location at Boston's Logan International Airport in time for Memorial Day weekend.

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Cromwell Schubarth: Senior Technology Reporter- Silicon Valley Business Journal; Email | Twitter | Google+

Vehicle-sharing startup Flightcar is opening its second location, Boston, just in time for Memorial Day weekend and plans to be at up to five airports by year's end.
But CEO Rujul Zaparde told me this week that he and teen co-founders Kevin Petrovic and Shri Ganeshram will take their time about expansion.
They raised $5.5 million in venture money last month from Andreessen Horowitz, First Round Capital, General Catalyst Partners and angels including Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky, but are in no hurry.
"We want to make sure that each location is running smoothly before we move on to another," he said. "We haven't even decided on where the next one will be yet."
Flightcar was one of the hits of the most recent Y Combinator class of startups. It rents the cars of departing air passengers to people who are arriving. This provides a much cheaper alternative for incoming travelers to tradition car rental agencies and a way to make money rather than pay for airport parking for those going away.
Since it launched at San Francisco International Airport, the San Mateo company has been used about 1,000 times for rentals, with only a few scratches and a couple of minor accidents so far and no thefts, Zaparde told me.
Three years of driving records of renters are checked and anyone with major infractions or more than two minor accidents or speeding violations aren't allowed to use the service. Teen drivers must have at least two years of experience behind the wheel. In case of an accident, Flightcar provides up to $1 million in insurance.
Despite those safeguards, Zaparde told me that about 80 percent of travelers totally reject the idea of renting out their cars.

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Cromwell Schubarth is the Senior Technology Reporter at the Business Journal. His phone number is 408.299.1823.

Industries:

Technology, Travel

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