MyMonthlyCar turns idle dealership inventory into month-to-month rentals

Founder Igor Dobrianskyi said he sees wasted opportunity on dealership lots. "Millions and millions of used cars are sitting on parking lots, depreciating and losing value," he said in an interview with TechCrunch, adding that there are 76,000 dealerships in the United States. "At the same time, there are people who need a car for a few months, but the options are actually very limited and expensive."

MyMonthlyCar aims to connect those two sides. The service only rents used cars month-to-month and does not offer short-term rentals. It also gives dealerships the chance to offer customers a rent-to-own option. "So we don’t bring them only customers to rent on a monthly basis, we basically bring them the clients who potentially can buy this car as well," Dobrianskyi said.

The startup is registered in Delaware and based in Florida. It was co-founded by Dobrianskyi; Kostiantyn Gitko, who is chief product officer; and CTO Vadym Zotov. All three are from Ukraine, Dobrianskyi said. He moved to the United States with his wife and young daughter after the Russia-Ukraine war began.

MyMonthlyCar does not charge dealerships to list cars on its website. It charges dealers 10% of each transaction and charges customers a separate 10% fee. The company has signed on seven dealerships to test the service and is working with an insurance broker to finalize its own insurance program, which will let customers choose among different types of coverage. "Insurance is the key for this business, and you need to have your own insurance as a platform," Dobrianskyi said, noting that the first question from dealers was about insurance and liability coverage.

The idea grew from Dobrianskyi's earlier industry experience. He owned a car rental company in Ukraine, but a lack of financing options limited its ability to scale. In 2016, he launched SizeCar, a peer-to-peer car marketplace where owners rent their cars to other drivers, similar to Turo. SizeCar eventually spread to 40 European cities, according to TechCrunch.

Despite its early stage, the founders have set aggressive targets. They plan to sign on 100 dealerships, reach 2,000 monthly rentals and generate $300,000 in revenue in the company's first year of operation, which is scheduled to start later this year once the insurance program launches. Over five years, the goal is $42 million in revenue, Dobrianskyi said.

The startup has not raised venture capital and is currently bootstrapped. Dobrianskyi said the plan is to raise a seed round and use the funds to hire more developers to build out the platform, including an AI tool to help dealers identify which cars are best to rent out at any given time.