Palo Alto: Wheelz, a peer-to-peer (P2P) car sharing startup, has raised a whopping $13.7 million in series A round of funding led by Zipcar. Also participating in this round of funding is Detroit-based Fontinalis Partners, transportation technology strategic investment firm. Mark Schulz, 30-year automotive industry veteran, former President for International Operations at Ford Motor Company and Founding Partner at Fontinalis, will be joining Scott Griffith on the Wheelz board. Also joining the board is Jim Freer, former vice-chairman of Ernst & Young.
Founded in 2011 by Akhtar Jameel and Jeff Miller, Wheelz is a peer-to-peer car sharing company targeting college campus communities-connecting students with cars to students who need them. The company is headquartered in Palo Alto. Jameel is also the CTO of the company. Prior to this, he was the product marketing and solution lead at Better Place, President and CEO at Mercedes-Benz R&D North America, VP & CTO at DaimalerChrysler Research & Technology. He holds a Bachelor in Engineering in Electrical and Telecommunications from Delhi College of Engineering and a PhD. in Computer Science from Tulane University.
“Based on our analysis and primary research, we believe P2P could expand the total addressable market for car sharing. We chose to make this investment because we believe that Wheelz has the right leadership, technology and business model to succeed in the emerging P2P space,” said Scott Griffith, Chairman and CEO, Zipcar. Zipcar is a car-sharing network with approximately 673,000 members and 8,900 vehicles in urban areas and college campuses throughout the US, Canada and the UK.
Bill Ford, Founding Partner, Fontinalis Partners, said, “We founded Fontinalis to help shape the future of mobility. We are committed to investing in entrepreneurs and accelerating the growth of breakthrough technologies and business models such as Wheelz to explore that future.”
The model of Wheelz empowers car owners to earn money from their car when they are not using it while providing convenient and affordable access for car borrowers to conveniently get the vehicle they need for any occasion including errands, shopping excursions, dates and weekend trips.
“We are thrilled to be partnering with Zipcar and to welcome Scott to the Wheelz board. Zipcar is the pre-eminent car sharing company in the world. Zipcar knows and understands the business complexities of car sharing better than anyone on the planet; we will benefit tremendously from this expertise as we continue to grow. Equally exciting, their knowledge related to operating within university communities and deep ties to the automotive ecosystem will be invaluable as we scale the business,” said Jeff Miller, Founder and CEO of Wheelz.
