SAN FRANCISCO -

Car sharing platform Turo announced this week that it has publicly filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission relating to the proposed initial public offering of its common stock.

Despite sustaining a net loss of $97.1 million during 2020, Turo believes company stock is attractive because of what it dubbed through its prospectus submitted to the SEC as “the Turo flywheel effect.”

While the number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined, Turo said it intends to list its common stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TURO.

“Our platform benefits from the self-reinforcing value proposition between hosts and guests,” Turo said in the prospectus available online. “Hosts are engaged with our brand and platform due to the unique income generation opportunity we provide, and they become increasingly engaged as they earn more. As existing hosts grow and new hosts join, our value proposition to guests strengthens as guests have access to a more unique selection of vehicles in more locations.

“The unique inventory of vehicles not available anywhere else, along with the seamless experience we offer guests, spurs organic, word-of-mouth growth, and repeat behavior,” the company continued. “Growth in demand leads to greater income opportunities for our hosts, which further strengthens our host value proposition and, in turn, encourages existing hosts to grow and new hosts to join.

“As we scale and continue improving our offering, our guests book more trips which we leverage to generate data that powers our machine learning algorithms, such as data-driven pricing, search results ranking, and vehicle recommendations,” the company went on to say. “These algorithms improve our host and guest experience and make our business more profitable, resulting in reinvestments to further improve user experience and propel growth.”

Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan will act as lead book-running managers and as representatives of the underwriters for the proposed offering. Allen & Company and Citigroup are acting as book-running managers.

Cowen, D.A. Davidson & Co., Wolfe | Nomura Alliance, LionTree Advisors, Loop Capital Markets, Ramirez & Co., Inc., and Siebert Williams Shank are acting as co-managers for the proposed offering.

“The principal purposes of this offering are to increase our capitalization and financial flexibility and create a public market for our common stock,” Turo said in the prospectus. “We currently intend to use the net proceeds we receive from this offering for general corporate purposes, including working capital, operating expenses, and capital expenditures.

“We cannot specify with certainty all of the particular uses for the remaining net proceeds to us from this offering. We may also use a portion of the net proceeds for acquisitions of, or strategic investments in, complementary businesses, products, services, or technologies,” the company continued.

“We will have broad discretion over how we use the net proceeds from this offering. We intend to invest the net proceeds from the offering that are not used as described (in the prospectus) in investment-grade, interest-bearing instruments,” Turo went on to say.