Getaround’s Q3 earnings delight investors, but the company isn’t out of the woods yet

Peer-to-peer carsharing company Getaround has filed its first earnings report since going public a year ago via a SPAC combination. The company’s third-quarter earnings report details a company seeing quick revenue growth, but not enough top line yet to cover its expenses. 

Getaround reported gross bookings of $69 million in the third-quarter, resulting in $23.8 million in revenue for the period, up from the $16.7 million in the same period last year. During the first nine months of 2023, Getaround’s revenue came to $54 million. 

However, while Getaround’s 42% year-over-year revenue growth reported for the third-quarter period is being well received by investors who have sent its shares up 75% in after-hours trading as of the time of writing, the company is not yet out of the woods.

Getaround had $42.9 million worth of operating expenses in the third-quarter, and $128 million across the first three quarters of the year, both figures greatly surpassing its gross profit in both periods. Still, Getaround is making some progress on the profitability front. In the third quarter, the company lost $27.3 million on a net GAAP basis, 16% better than what it reported in Q3 2022. Using more generous profit calculations, Getaround was still unprofitable in its most recent quarter, reporting adjusted EBITDA of -$11.3 million during the three-month period, albeit a 43% improvement from its year-ago tally.

For the full-year 2023, Getaround is aiming for gross booking value in the range of $200 million to $205 million. The company didn’t share its revenue goals for the year, but its Q3 revenues reflect an annualized run-rate of over $95 million. Getaround expects an adjusted EBITDA loss in the range of $68 million to $70 million in 2023. 

Getaround closed the third-quarter with $22.1 million in cash and cash equivalents. That figure is off sharply from the $64.3 million it reported in cash and equivalents at the end of Q3 2022. The company did get some good news in the form of a $3 million infusion from Mudrick Capital, which has an existing $15 million note with the company that was expanded to offer Getaround a bit more room to breathe.

Getaround’s stock closed regular trading Thursday at around $0.17 before it released its third-quarter data.

Rebuilding

Getaround is working to get its cost basis in order, including the company laying off 10% of its staff in February to cut $25 million to $30 million worth of expenses annually in an attempt to reach sustainability. The layoffs came a day after Getaround was issued a delisting notice from the New York Stock Exchange because its share price was trading too low. 

Today after its massive share-price gains in the wake of its earnings report, Getaround remains worth substantially less than $1 per share, meaning that it is still in danger of being delisted; some SPAC combinations have executed reverse stock splits to bolster their per-share price back over the one hundred cent mark.

Getaround has received other delisting notices for failing to timely file yearly and quarterly reports. The company did not file its 2022 annual report, and has only just filed its third-quarter earnings report. Getaround has not yet filed its first and second-quarter earnings. The company says it required additional time to complete an audit, which it has now completed. 

“We believe the reasons we were out of compliance, including a complex go-public transaction, are now behind us,” Sam Zaid, Getaround’s CEO, told TechCrunch. Zaid did not comment on whether Getaround would be seeking a reverse stock split to bring its share price up.

The carsharing company also acquired the assets of startup HyreCar in May, which in the short term has added to Getaround’s operating cost basis. Getaround hopes the scale provided by the acquisition will help accelerate its path to profitability.  

This article has been updated with more information from Getaround’s CEO.