RelayRides seeks rebirth as Turo, Car-sharing startup raises $47 million led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

RelayRides, the San Francisco-based peer-to-peer car rental service has just transformed its name to Turo. The company is also announcing $47 million in Series C funding, launched by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Turo, formerly known as RelayRides, just raised $47 million Series C round from new investor Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers taking the San Francisco based startup's total funding to $95 million. It is a peer-to-peer car rental network in the U.S. and available in more than 2,100 cities and at 300 airports across the country, as mentioned in Skift.

The renaming of the brand was announced officially on Tuesday. It appears to be easy to be recognized across languages, the longer rental duration ideal for trips."We're excited because we believe this brand corresponds with what Turo actually does," Andre Haddad, the CEO of Turo claimed via Forbes. He also added, "It's been morphing into its current form over a few years, centered on travel and tourism."

The double announcement is meant to grab attention of clients all over the country. Turo doesn't disclose the number of customers using its platform or the number of cars currently available for rentals.

According to Fast Company, the company claims that Turo is a made-up word, the name is intended to spark associations with works like "tourism," "turbo," and "adventure." The 60 percent of its revenue now comes from out-of-town travelers who are renting the cars of people who are themselves flying out of town. And it wants to take the trend global, thus the name.

Turo is promising to function differently from the standard car rental experience, much as Airbnb has made itself different from other hotels. "Instead of renting the generic fleet vehicle," the CEO stated, "[our customers] are interested in renting some of the unique cars we have in the marketplace. They are also interested in connecting with the owner of the vehicle and establishing a different kind of rapport with the city that they're visiting."

When RelayRides launched five years ago, it had no certain point on tourism. The company started targeting travelers when it debuted the preference to search by airport in 2013, and started off a delivery option in 2014.

And now that the startup has at least one car available in over 2,500 cities and about 300 airports, renaming it seemed to be working for some people as they claim that Turo is a name easier and shorter to say. Moreover, the company also approximates that its rentals are on average 35% cheaper than a rental car company's vehicles.