Flywheel is reeling in more cash to help build out its taxi-hailing platform.
The San Francisco-based company, which develops an app for taxi drivers who use the Flywheel app to let passengers hail and pay for rides with their smartphone, today announced an additional venture round.
Flywheel isn’t commenting on the exact funding amount, but did reveal the new investors:
- Michael Marks, former Chairman and CEO of Flextronics and co-founder of Riverwood Capital Ventures.
- Ash Bhardwaj, former CEO of Aricent, which was purchased by KKR for $1 billion.
- Duncan Robertson, former CFO of OpenTable.
- Ajay Shah, founding managing partner of Silverlake Sumeru and founder and CEO of Smart Modular, which was acquired by Solectron for $2 billion.
The new funding follows a $12 million Series C round the company raised this past November, when it also named Rakesh Mathur as its new CEO.
“We want to dominate all major markets in the U.S.,” Mathur told GeekWire in November.
Since the Series C round, Flywheel has made a series of moves, including a rebranding of 300 existing taxis in San Francisco with its logo and offering $5 promotional rides.
Flywheel is like Uber and Lyft in that it builds software that helps drivers and passengers connect with GPS tracking and mobile payment processing. However, the company partners with both taxi fleets and drivers who pay Flywheel 10 percent of every fare booked with its app, in addition to a $1 service fee from the passenger.
Flywheel is now operating in six U.S. cities: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Diego, Sacramento, and Portland.