AirBnB inspired startup FlightCar acquired by Mercedes Benz

Shri Ganeshram, Kevin Petrovic and Rujul Zaparde, Founders of FlightCar

SAN FRANCISCO (Diya TV) — FlightCar, a peer-to-peer car sharing startup co-founded by Indian American entrepreneur Rujul Zaparde, Shri Ganeshram and Kevin Petrovic has been acquired by German luxury automaker Mercedes-Benz.

The company, based in South San Francisco, Calif., announced last month that it will be ceasing operations at all 12 of its national locations — FlightCar had service such areas as San Francisco Bay Area airports, Los Angeles, Boston, Seattle and Denver.

Co-founded by Zaparde Ganeshram and Petrovic in 2012, FlightCar allowed customers to park for free at any of its participating airports while the company rented out their car for the duration of their trip. Rentals through FlightCar were fully insured and the company provided complete cleaning services for all vehicles, regardless of whether the car was used while someone was out of town.

FlightCar paid vehicle owners based off the amount of miles their car was driven, rates were dependent on the make, model and year of the car. Regardless, the rental fees for usage were considerably less than traditional car-rental companies.

In July of last year, FlightCar launched its official app, doing so would “revolutionize airport parking,” the company said at the time.

The news of FlightCar’s acquisition was shared through an official press release.

“Our technology will now be a part of the business innovation division at (Mercedes-Benz Research and Development North America), the innovation lab for new mobility services. We are excited to be part of Mercedes-Benz’s future shared mobility projects,” it said.

“We believe that people around the world can be more self-reliant by sharing their resources to improve society, and we truly appreciate the community that came together to share and rent each other’s unique cars. We thank all of our customers for being a part of our journey, and we look forward to a new future,” the statement concluded.

Despite many bad customer reviews, FlightCar managed to rake in tens of millions of dollars in Series A and Series B funding rounds.

The price of the company’s acquisition by Mercedes-Benz was not disclosed.