The San Francisco-based car rental startup Kyte has officially shut its doors after a tumultuous period of financial uncertainty and operational downsizing. The company, which once drew comparisons to industry titan Hertz, has sold select assets to peer-to-peer car sharing service Turo, as confirmed by San Francisco Business Times. With a customer base cited at 1.8 million "reachable users" and a range of digital assets encompassing code repositories, Amazon Web Services infrastructure, and a portfolio of domain names, the wind-down of Kyte signals the fading of what was once a bright vision for revolutionizing urban mobility. Unexpected to many following the promising venture, Kyte filed for receivership in California to settle debts as it could no longer sustain operations. According to a notice that went out to Kyte creditors, the board made an attempt to secure additional financing. Still, these efforts were not fruitful, ultimately leading to Kyte’s fleet of vehicles being repossessed and liquidated. Meanwhile, many customers, sold on the convenience of deliveries to their doors, have been left scrambling for refunds on prepaid reservations, with some finding success through credit card chargebacks, as noted in a TechCrunch article. Kyte CEO Nikolaus Volk suggested that chargebacks might be the quickest route for customers to reclaim their money. The company's ambitions began with a founding trio of Ludwig Schoenack, Nikolaus Volk, and Francesco Wiedemann in 2018. They sought to redesign the car rental experience to be customer-centric, flexible, and with delivered services. Despite raising significant funds from equity and credit lines from notable institutions like Goldman Sachs and Barclays Bank, Kyte's future came into question as it experienced difficulties scaling operations and maintaining free cash flow across various U.S markets. Kyte's restructuring effort to prioritize profitability in San Francisco and New York City did not seem enough to salvage the enterprise, as Volk explained in an interview with TechCrunch. The sentiment surrounding the company's closure was captured in messages from the company’s LinkedIn page and Volk himself, expressing a heartfelt thanks to customers, team, investors, and community for their support. "While this chapter closes in its current form, the spirit of Kyte continues on with Turo," stated Kyte in their LinkedIn post. Equally, Volk reflected on the efforts and achievements of the team, "While this is obviously not the ambitious outcome we were going after, and while this chapter is ending, I hope the impact Kyte had — on people, product, and the industry — will keep flying. And I am grateful we found a home with Turo," he shared on LinkedIn.