Turo has cut 15% of its workforce, a drastic move coming just weeks after the car-sharing platform found itself at the center of two high-profile violent incidents involving vehicles booked through its service.
The San Francisco-based company, often described as an “Airbnb for cars,” had approximately 1,000 employees and 340,000 vehicle listings as of March, according to a company blog post. Roughly 150 workers now face layoffs. Bloomberg first reported the reductions, and CEO Andre Haddad confirmed the decision through a spokesperson.
“Due to ongoing economic uncertainty and in order to strengthen our position for long-term growth, Turo has built the very difficult decision to reduce the size of our team by approximately 15%,” Haddad wrote.
Haddad expressed gratitude toward departing employees and said the company would assist them through the transition. However, he declined to answer questions about severance packages.
The CEO maintained that Turo “remains in a strong financial position” and said the team would press forward, “united in our mission to put the world’s 1.5 billion cars to better utilize.”
Founded in 2009 and headquartered on Sutter Street in downtown San Francisco, Turo has faced a rocky beginning to the year. The New Orleans Bourbon Street truck attack that killed 14 people and the Cybertruck explosion outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas both involved vehicles rented through the platform. The company said neither renter had a criminal history that would have appeared in a background check.
Meanwhile, Turo posted profits in 2022, 2023, and the first nine months of 2024, according to regulatory filings. The company had previously filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering, which would have allowed employees to sell their shares. But Turo withdrew those plans in February, with Haddad writing that the shift was “consistent with the public interest and the protection of investors.”
As a result, more than an eighth of the company’s staff now faces unemployment. By Thursday afternoon, several laid-off workers had already posted farewell messages and “#OpenToWork” updates on LinkedIn.
