Caterpillar Invests in an Airbnb for Excavators -- Update

By James R. Hagerty 

Caterpillar Inc. said it had invested in Yard Club Inc., a San Francisco-based startup that helps owners of heavy equipment rent idle machines to one another, much as Airbnb Inc. helps people find vacant homes or apartments for short stays.

A spokeswoman for Caterpillar, which makes construction and mining equipment, said the company had provided a bridge loan that could be converted to equity in the future. Colin Evran, Yard Club's 31-year-old chief executive, who founded the startup in 2013, declined to provide details of the financing but called it "pretty substantial." Yard Club already had attracted $1.6 million of venture capital in late 2013, he said.

Yard Club has been testing its service in the Bay Area and currently has about 700 pieces of equipment listed for rental. Mr. Evran said Caterpillar dealers would help spread the service to other places.

Excavators, bulldozers and other types of equipment often sit idle between jobs, leaving owners' capital tied up in assets that aren't being used regularly. To avoid the costs of owning idle equipment, more users have turned to equipment rental firms in recent years. The American Rental Association, a trade group, estimates that 54% of the U.S. equipment fleet is owned by rental companies, up from around 40% a decade ago.

Caterpillar has responded to the rental trend by insisting that its dealers set up CAT Rental Stores so they can rent as well as sell equipment. That requires heavy spending by dealers to build up rental fleets and exposes them to the risk of being stuck with lots of idle equipment if the economy stalls.

Yard Club will list equipment from CAT Rental Stores as well as from individual equipment owners, Mr. Evran said.

Write to James R. Hagerty at [e-mail]

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