The world of car-sharing just got more interesting. Zipcar (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ZIP]]), the Cambridge, MA-based pioneer in the sector, said today it has led a $13.7 million Series A investment in Wheelz, a Palo Alto, CA-based car-sharing startup that targets college students. Detroit-based Fontinalis Partners, a transportation tech investment firm, also participated in the round.
As part of the deal, Zipcar CEO Scott Griffith has joined the board of Wheelz, along with Mark Schulz, a founding partner at Fontinalis and longtime auto industry veteran (he was president for international operations at Ford). Zipcar, which went public last April, does not have majority ownership in Wheelz, according to the press release.
Griffith says in a statement that “interesting new mobility models and transportation-related technologies are emerging. This investment is our first step in the direction of potentially offering a broader array of mobility services.”
Wheelz is going after the college campus market using a peer-to-peer auto sharing model. The company, which is led by CEO Jeff Miller, rolled out its service at Stanford University last September. Wheelz is also rolling at UC Berkeley, USC, and UCLA.
Author: Gregory T. Huang
Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003.
Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
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