With Turo Withdrawal, A Slim IPO Pipeline Gets Thinner

Summary

Article by Joanna Glasner dated February 14, 2025, reporting that peer-to-peer car rental platform Turo withdrew plans for a public offering. It says the securities filing gave no reason other than that Turo "does not wish to conduct a public offering of securities at this time," and that the withdrawal followed two New Year's Day attacks in which vehicles rented on its platform were used. The article says Turo had submitted an updated IPO prospectus in November that disclosed $722 million in revenue for the first nine months of the year, up about 8%, and that Turo had close to $500 million in equity funding. It names Cerebras and Navan as companies with confidential filings.

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IPO • Public Markets • Semiconductors and 5G • Startups • Transportation & Logistics

With Turo Withdrawal, A Slim IPO Pipeline Gets Thinner

Joanna Glasner

February 14, 2025

Joanna Glasner jglasner

It was bad enough that the tech IPO pipeline has not been growing. Now, it is actually shrinking.

On Thursday, peer-to-peer car rental platform Turo became the latest venture unicorn to withdraw plans for a public offering. In its securities filing , the company gave no reason for the decision other than that it “does not wish to conduct a public offering of securities at this time.”

The withdrawal follows a dismal start to the year for San Francisco-based Turo, whose public image took a hit after attackers used vehicles rented on its platform in two separate New Year’s Day attacks.

In the deadliest attack, a man drove a rented Ford F-150 Lightning pickup truck onto Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing 15 people including himself and injuring 35. In the second attack, a man exploded a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas.

Turo struck a cooperative tone in the aftermath, saying it was working with law enforcement in their investigations. The company said it did not believe either renter had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat.

Even so, this was clearly one of the worst-case scenarios for any brand, let alone one on the cusp of a New York Stock Exchange market debut. And it appears that up until this year, Turo was planning to carry out its long-awaited IPO plans.

Turo had submitted an updated IPO prospectus in November, describing itself as the world’s largest car sharing marketplace. It disclosed $722 million in revenue for the first nine months of the year — up about 8% from year-earlier comps.

A long wait, now foiled

For Turo, the now-foiled path to IPO has been a long time in the making. Founded in 2009, the company was an early star amid a burgeoning crop of startups developing apps allowing people to buy and sell goods and services to each other.

Turo’s early years coincided with the period that saw gig and sharing platforms such as Uber and Airbnb establish initial market share. And over the years, the car rental platform pulled in serious venture backing, with close to $500 million in equity funding. Its largest stakeholders include IAC , G Squared and August Capital .

As platforms go, car sharing never caught on to the same extent as ride hailing or short-term rentals. While Uber and Airbnb are now collectively valued at more than $260 billion, Turo’s financials peg it as a company destined to debut at a tiny fraction of that sum.

However, it was still viewed as an IPO-worthy business, particularly popular as a marketplace for people to rent vehicle models not typically available from the big chains. Renting on Turo was also often a cheaper option.

Who’s next?

With Turo’s departure from the IPO pipeline, market watchers face a dismally thin pipeline of venture-backed tech companies that actually have filed an IPO prospectus.

True, there are several that have disclosed confidential filings for a public offering. This includes AI chip company Cerebras and business travel and expense platform Navan . These are both high-valuation private companies currently, and would generate plenty of buzz with their debuts.

What we aren’t seeing, however, are public filings from IPO candidates, laying out their financial performance, risk factors and visions for growth.

When might we start seeing some? By fall of last year, it was already clear that the 2024 tech IPO market would end on a low note . And while we did see the debut of ServiceTitan , a platform for home services pros, it was still a very quiet period for IPOs of venture-backed tech companies .

So far, 2025 hasn’t brought much in the way of new IPO filings from U.S. tech unicorns. Yes it’s still early, and there’s plenty of time for the pace to pick up.

But so far, it’s looking pretty disappointing.

Related reading:

Illustration: Dom Guzman

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