Sidecar, Uber and Lyft competitor, is shutting down on December 31
Sidecar has announced it’s shutting down at the end of the year. Company chief executive Sunil Paul expl
ained in a Medium post (not the company’s official blog, strangely) that the move was intended to help pave the way so his team could “work on strategic alternatives and lay the groundwork for the next big thing.” All ride and delivery operations will shut down at 2 p.m. Pacific time on December 31, 2015.
One of the pioneers of the ridesharing movement years ago, Sidecar has failed to capitalize on it, losing ground to Uber and Lyft, both of which have raised hundreds of millions of dollars. But Sidecar’s approach was slightly different in that it allowed riders to select their drivers and didn’t have an issue with surge pricing, which many criticized its competitors for.
Although this is the end of rides and deliveries, Sidecar apparently isn’t totally done. Instead, the team will “work on strategic alternatives and lay the groundwork for the next big thing,” Paul wrote. He added, “it’s by no means the end of the journey for the company.”
Paul also noted that Sidecar had a “significant capital disadvantage.” It’s true. Lyft has raised $1.26 billion and Uber has raised over $10 billion. Sidecar has only raised $35 million in funding from Avalon Ventures, SV Angel, Union Square Ventures, and several others.
One can only speculate what legal issues ride share companies are dealing with, regarding labor disputes. Several organizations known for drumming up issues for more modern free enterprise solutions have been running negative PR and using everything at their disposal to remove these companies from the market. Another nail in the coffin of capitalism…?
Eventually the company pivoted away from just transporting people. Believe it or not it offered to be a courier service, delivering goods such as marijuana to customers. There were even reports that Sidecar had partnered with other services like Instacart to assist in transportation of goods. In February, it rolled out same-day deliveries to rival Postmates and other similar offerings, claiming: “Same-day delivery will represent half of our business by the end of 2015.”
In total, Sidecar had raised $35 million in venture funding, backed by investors like Richard Branson, Mark Pincus, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Union Square Ventures, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Google Ventures, Fenox Venture Capital, and Avalon Ventures.
Hopefully we haven’t seen the last of Sidecar.
