Sidecar, a pioneering ride-hailing and delivery startup that was eclipsed by far larger competitors like Uber and Lyft, is getting out of the ride-hailing and delivery business.
Hail and Farewell, Sidecar. It Was a Good Ride.
The early experimenter in pooling and delivery had raised $35 million.
Sunil Paul, Sidecar’s co-founder and CEO, broke the news in a Medium post on Tuesday. He writes: “Today is a turning point for Sidecar as we prepare to end our ride and delivery service so we can work on strategic alternatives and lay the groundwork for the next big thing.”
Paul didn’t specify what that thing is, beyond noting “it’s by no means the end of the journey for the company.” We reached out for clarification.
Sidecar, which launched in 2012, was one of the first on-demand apps to experiment with ride destination tracking, pooling and deliveries. In May of this year, it began delivering medical marijuana. Problem was, other startups with much larger funding also followed suit. I’d heard that Sidecar was poking around for a sale recently, but did not hear who the prospective buyers were.
The startup had raised $35 million from a handful of investors, including Union Square Ventures and eccentric billionaire Richard Branson. A year ago, when Sidecar raised its Series C round, Branson defended his stake. “It has been reported this is a winner-takes-all market, but it’s not,” he said in an interview on Sidecar’s blog.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
