Getaround acquires European car rental platform Drivy for $300 million

European car-sharing brand Drivy has been snapped up by its U.S. counterpart Getaround in a $300 million deal.

The acquisition immediately gives Getaround access to six new country markets and will form part of a mission to expand the brand.

The pair have five million users between them, a statement says, with Drivy's presence in 170 European cities adding 2.5 million to the existing number hosted by Getaround.

To date, France-based Drivy had raised $43.3 million in investment over four rounds, with its most recent coming in 2016 in a Series B to the tune of $35 million.

Getaround has wooed the likes of the SoftBank Vision Fund, Toyota and Menlo Ventures during 12 capital-raising efforts.

It secured $300 million in the summer of 2018 to fuel a major expansion plan for the brand.

Getaround founder and CEO Sam Zaid says: "As the leading European car-sharing marketplace, Drivy has built a strong business with products, teams and values that closely align with ours at Getaround, making for a natural integration for our employees and users.

"Consumers all over the world are embracing the ease, flexibility and freedom that connected car-sharing offers. Getaround is delivering on growing consumer demand by providing a consistent, instant and safe car-sharing experience in 140 U.S. cities - and now, across the 170 cities in Europe that Drivy has developed."

Drivy founder and CEO Paulin Dementhon will become the CEO of Europe for Getaround, and the existing executive team will remain in place to run operations in the continent.

Getaround has an existing partnership with Uber so that people can now rent some vehicles by the hour to drive for the ride-hailing app.

Dementhon believes car-sharing will "replace car ownership in large urban markets, meeting consumer demands for instant and flexible transportation options," as well as contribute to the efforts of cities to reduce congestion and pollution.

He adds: "Connected technology, frictionless user experience and increased car fleet density are the keys to this evolution, as they make it more convenient to use a shared car than your own."