• by Sara Guaglione , July 17, 2019

IAC, the company that owns The Daily Beastand Dotdash.com. is investing $250 million in Turo Inc, a peer-to-peer car-sharing company.

The backing values the company at more than $1 billion, with IAC its largest shareholder.

Founded in 2010, Turo has more than 10 million members across 5,500 cities. It lets users rent their cars to other users online or through the Turo app. Nearly 400,000 vehicles are listed on Turo.

It also recently became available in the UK and Germany.

IAC's investment brings the company's total funding to $470 million. Turo plans to use IAC’s backing “to help accelerate growth and refine the customer experience,” according to the company.

Turo has scale, and is in a “very large market where consumers want better, more tailored experiences — perfect for IAC,” stated Joey Levin, CEO of IAC, who will join Turo’s board.

IAC holds majority stakes in the parent companies of Match, Tinder, HomeAdvisor and Angie’s List. It also owns Vimeo.

“Just as we've seen with travel, dating and home services, technology is accelerating a shift in the transportation space as the economics of car ownership change,” Levin added.

He said the over $60 billion global car-rental market is facing disruption as peer-to-peer car-sharing services like Turo expand.