Fair
- 🦄Became a unicorn2018
- 📈Peak valuation$1.2 Billion ’18
- 💔Became a Unitard2019
- 💸Last valuationWiped out
How it happened
Fair was a SoftBank-backed startup that let consumers lease used cars through an app, and ran a popular program renting cars to Uber drivers by the week. It hit a ~$1.2B valuation after a ~$500M equity round in 2018, but its capital-intensive model unraveled fast: it cut 40% of staff and its CFO in 2019, wound down the Uber-driver program in 2020, and sold the remains to Shift for ~$19M in 2022. Glassdoor reviews from the October 2019 layoff are brutal — staff described a chaotic operation that couldn't locate most of its cars, lavish perks over a fintech that couldn't manage its money, and laid-off employees losing their health benefits seven days later.
Employee accounts paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor ↗. See our methodology.
Source: TechCrunch / Fortune / Bloomberg (SoftBank-backed car-subscription startup valued at ~$1.2B after raising ~$500M of equity plus billions in debt; laid off 40% of staff in 2019, wound down its flagship weekly-rental program for Uber drivers in 2020, and sold its remaining dealer-listing assets to Shift Technologies for ~$19M in 2022 — a near-total loss for SoftBank)
