BMW i Ventures makes strategic investment in Scoop; carpooling mobile application
25 May 2016
BMW i Ventures announced a strategic investment in Scoop Technologies, Inc., creators of the carpooling mobile application “Scoop”. Since launching in August 2015, Scoop commuters have taken more than 40,000 trips, offsetting nearly 500,000 in commute mileage for riders. Originally launched in Pleasanton, CA, Scoop now also operates commute trips into San Francisco, Palo Alto, Sunnyvale and North San Jose.
The Scoop app automatically connects co-workers and neighbors who live in the same neighborhood and travel to the same work area. Commuters select each trip one way at a time and choose whether to ride or drive. Scoop’s algorithm matches them to a carpool with neighbors and co-workers for the most efficient commute.
Scoop partners with major employers, office parks, and local governments to offer employees an affordable and effective transportation solution. The list of employers in the Scoop network includes some of the Bay Area’s largest companies such as Cisco, Microsoft, Salesforce, Workday, Airbnb, Tesla, and Sandisk. Scoop’s partners employ more than 200,000 commuters in the Bay Area.
Scoop’s carpooling offer is a great help for urban traffic and parking problems in cities, but it also enables employers in finding and supporting sustainable transportation solutions for their employees. Through this investment, BMW Mobility Services and Scoop together could offer a practical carpooling solution to a problem facing cities, starting here in the US.
—Ulrich Quay, Head of BMW i Ventures
Scoop’s mission is to reduce the impact that traffic has on our lives. For most employees, driving to and from work is the most frustrating time of the day—it’s expensive, unproductive, and stressful. We’ve built an app that allows commuters to enjoy all the benefits of carpooling without the hassle. This financing will enable our team to bring Scoop to more commuters in our area and beyond.
—Rob Sadow, CEO of Scoop
As a strategic investor, i Ventures aims to build strong partnerships with young start-ups with a high potential of making urban mobility smarter, more efficient and more flexible. Collaboration projects intend to create sustainable business value on both sides. Portfolio companies benefit from BMW i Ventures’ long-term experience, strong reach and the broad network of a well-established brand. Through its previous investments in the fields of e-mobility, navigation, parking, car sharing and intermodality, BMW i Ventures has already entered into strategic partnerships with innovative providers such as Zirx, Chargepoint, Life360, Moovit, JustPark, Chargemaster and Zendrive.
Fixed Car sharing has been going on for decades but SCOOP (and other similar applications) will be more flexible. It will also be very/more useful for college and university students with flexible/variable hours.
Two to four people per car (instead of one) would greatly reduce traffic density, specially during peak hours and reduce associated traffic jams?
Posted by: HarveyD | 25 May 2016 at 10:27 AM
@Harvey,
It depends on what the displaced commuters would have done.
If you take people out of cars, you are doing well.
If you take people off buses or bikes, not so much (unless the buses were crowded).
Posted by: mahonj | 26 May 2016 at 09:33 AM