GetGo drives revenues at a cost as bottom line turns red

When Singapore-based GetGo raised almost US$15 million in 2023, its CEO and co-founder Ting Feng Toh set a lofty goal: help the city-state realize “a significant part” of its Green Plan 2030 via serving a million households by that year.

To that end, GetGo boosted its fleet by adding electric vehicles. This plan initially appeared to have benefited the company’s top line, with its revenue growing 55% year on year in 2023.

However, costs have gone up. After making a small profit in 2022, GetGo turned loss-making the following year as its employee benefits and fleet-leasing expenses nearly doubled, according to its audited financial statement for 2023.

But with continued growth and improvements in operational efficiency, Toh tells Tech in Asia that it expects to hit profitability this year.

Convenience is key

Founded in 2021, GetGo emerged as one of the major tech-enabled players in Singapore’s car-sharing space. It claims to be the largest platform that does not require users to pay deposits or membership fees.

GetGo co-founders Johnson Lim (left) and Ting Feng Toh / Photo credit: GetGo

Instead, the company operates on a pay-per-use model that lets users rent cars by the hour or day. This service is mostly offered through GetGo’s app, with rates starting at around US$2 and varying based on factors like duration and distance.

Convenience is key for services like GetGo’s, Toh observes. The company had grown its fleet to 3,000 from 2,100 vehicles during its 2023 funding round, increasing accessibility for its 400,000 registered users.

“Today, there’s a GetGo vehicle within five minutes’ walking distance from most users’ homes,” Toh tells Tech in Asia.

EVs are a key part of this expansion. At the time of its US$15 million round, the company said it would be adding more EVs to build a fleet of 10,000 greener cars in total.

The company coupled this expansion with efforts to push brand awareness and community engagement last year, allowing GetGo to bump up its current monthly bookings from 150,000 to 180,000 as of February 2023.

These combined initiatives were the main drivers of GetGo’s revenue growth in 2023, according to Toh.

Going into overdrive

The company, however, also logged its first year of loss in 2023. This was mostly because GetGo’s administrative expenses went up 2x year on year to US$15.3 million.

Toh says this comes after a year of “significant investment” for GetGo, doubling down on the company’s data and technical architecture capabilities as well as partner integrations.

Full speed ahead