HiGear
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
HiGear was a San Francisco peer-to-peer car-sharing club for luxury and sports cars, founded in 2011 by Ali Moiz and Murtaza Hussain. Registered users passed background checks and paid security deposits to lease members' cars for set periods. Within six months of launch it grew to over 5,000 members and 300 listed cars, processing hundreds of rentals a month. It raised $1.3 million from Battery Ventures, 500 Startups and angel investors.
02 / HiGear FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
A criminal ring targeted HiGear, stealing four members' cars worth $300,000 to $400,000 using stolen identities and credit cards to bypass all of its background checks. While police recovered some cars and insurance processed the rest, the incident exposed the worst-case risk inherent to peer-to-peer luxury car rental: identity fraud is hard to eliminate online, and with cars averaging $70,000 each the losses were untenable. HiGear concluded it could not guarantee car owners' safety and shut down.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Founded and funded
HiGear launched in San Francisco as a peer-to-peer luxury car-sharing service and raised $1.3 million from Battery Ventures, 500 Startups and angels.
- Shutdown and asset sale
In January 2012 HiGear shut down after a criminal ring stole four members' cars worth up to $400,000 using stolen identities; on February 27, 2012 its assets, platform and customer database were acquired by peer-to-peer car-sharing marketplace Rent2Buy for undisclosed terms.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
Raised $1.3 million from Battery Ventures, 500 Startups and angel investors.
- 02
Shut down in January 2012 after organized thefts exposed the inherent risk of peer-to-peer luxury car rental.
- 03
Sold its sharing platform, vehicle inventory and customer database to Rent2Buy on February 27, 2012.
- 04
No reliable company loss figure was disclosed; the $300,000-$400,000 figure refers to stolen cars' value, mostly covered by insurance.