Sidecar was a US-based vehicle for hire company that provided transportation and delivery services. It was founded in 2011 in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

and closed on December 31, 2015.

History

Sidecar was founded in September 2011 by

Sunil Paul Sunil Paul (born November 12, 1964) is an Internet entrepreneur who launched Spring Free EV in 2021, a fintech company designed to have climate level impact by accelerating adoption of electric vehicles. He has previously founded companies such a ...

, CEO, Jahan Khanna, CTO, and Adrian Fortino. The company expanded its operations into

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and

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

. At the

South By Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, ...

festival in 2013, Sidecar made all rides during the conference free. In 2013 the company started operating in

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, Washington, D.C.,

Charlotte Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

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and

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay ...

Investments

Sidecar was backed by a number of wealthy investors including Union Square Ventures, Avalon Ventures,

Lightspeed Venture Partners Lightspeed Venture Partners is a global venture capital firm focusing on multi-stage investments in the enterprise, consumer, and health sectors. Lightspeed invests in seed, early and growth-stage companies. The company invests in the U.S. and ...

, Google Ventures, and Sir

Richard Branson Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is a British billionaire, entrepreneur, and business magnate. In the 1970s he founded the Virgin Group, which today controls more than 400 companies in various fields. Branson expressed ...

. The company raised in series A funding from Google Ventures and

in 2012.

Legal challenges and approval in California

In the fall of 2012, the California Public Utilities Commission issued a

cease and desist A cease and desist letter is a document sent to an individual or business to stop alleged illegal activity. The phrase "cease and desist" is a legal doublet, made up of two near-synonyms. The letter may warn that, if the recipient does not disc ...

letter to Sidecar (along with rideshare companies Lyft and

Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery ( Uber Eats and Postmates), pa ...

) and fined each $20,000. However, in 2013 an interim agreement was reached reversing those actions. In September 2013, the CPUC unanimously voted to make the agreement permanent, creating a new category of service called "transportation network company" to cover Lyft, UberX, and Sidecar, and making California the first state to recognize such services. In 2013 the Philadelphia Parking Authority carried out a sting operation against Sidecar and shut it down as an "unauthorized service provider." However, Sidecar argued that its operation is not taxi service but "a way to organize ridesharing and carpooling."

Repositioning, shutdown

In February 2015, Sidecar announced a same-day service for local businesses whereby goods, food, and flowers were to be delivered to local consumers using its existing pool of drivers. Sidecar also announced its partnership with Yelp Eat24. By August 2015, most of Sidecar's business entailed making deliveries. On December 29, 2015, Sidecar announced that it would shut down. On January 19, 2016, automaker

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

acquired Sidecar's assets and intellectual property, and hired Khanna and 20 other employees. The purchase was a follow-up to GM's $500 million investment in Lyft.

References

{{Authority control Companies based in San Francisco Technology companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area Ridesharing companies of the United States Transport companies established in 2011 Transport companies disestablished in 2015 2011 establishments in California 2015 establishments in California Defunct Softbank portfolio companies