Kyte was founded in San Francisco in 2019 by Ludwig Schoenack, Nikolaus Volk and Francesco Wiedemann, all of whom are German immigrants to the United States. Schoenack, who holds an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business, previously worked as a venture partner at venture capital firm Contrary, Volk previously worked at Uber as a software engineer, and Wiedemann previously worked at ReachNow.[3][4] The company soft-launched its service in May 2019, originally only within the San Francisco city limits.[5] In January 2021, Kyte announced that they had raised $9 million from DN Capital and Amplo VC.[6] In August 2021, Kyte began offering car rentals in Seattle, which became the company's eighth city in which it was operating.[3] In March 2022, the company began operating in its fourteenth city, Portland, Oregon. That month, they also announced that they had raised a further $200 million from Goldman Sachs and Ares Management, and that they would use this money to add more vehicles to their fleet.[7] In November 2022, the company announced that it had raised a further $60 million in a Series B venture round of fundraising. In December 2022, Kyte announced that it would begin offering subscriptions lasting for either three, six, or twelve months in all fourteen of their markets. These subscriptions serve as an alternative to shorter-term rentals, and allow users to choose between Teslas and a range of other vehicles.[8]
