Cleantech, meet mobile. The intersection between these two industries has grown over the past twelve months as companies increasingly look to use smartphones as a platform to enable their services. This trend will accelerate in the future as more and more companies realize that mobile phones ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Alistair Croll’s post on O’Reilly Radar this week may have been titled “There’s no such thing as big data,” but Croll believes the exact opposite. Rather than just collecting data, he argues, you have to ask the right questions of it. Coincidentally, DJ Patil joined Greylock ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Collaborative consumption refers to a class of new businesses that use the web to enable the sharing and bartering of goods and services — from cars to apartments to office space. The market evolved out of the first generation of general-purpose P2P marketplaces such as Craigslist and eBay and is now tied to the way we use the Internet and cell phones. GigaOM Pro conducted a survey of GigaOM readers to gauge the popularity of the collaborative consumption movement, which services readers are using and the impact certain security concerns will have on the growth of industry. This research note examines the survey’s results and provides analysis on the current state and future of the web-sharing market. Companies mentioned in this report include Zipcar, RelayRides, thredUP and Airbnb. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free GigaOM Pro trial subscription. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
After the great market sell-off yesterday, stocks are rebounding slightly on Tuesday, including many of the greentech stocks that took a beating yesterday. But most of them are only up slightly. Here’s the latest: Read more »
Tech stocks took a beating on Monday morning, the first day of trading after Standard & Poor downgraded the credit ratings of credit agencies. At the same time, greentech stocks — from solar to biofuels to smart grid — fell alongside the weak macro economic news. Read more »
The emerging web-sharing movement, which includes startups like Airbnb, RelayRides, and ThredUP, has its roots in the maturing way that people use the Internet and cell phones, and its future economy will rise around location, niche groups and capital-intensive, under-utilized and time-sensitive objects. For entrepreneurs looking ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The problem of feeding and providing energy to 9 billion people by 2050 will require many technology solutions. But in a unique way, the web and mobile can act as a sort of operating system for physical stuff, leading to more efficient use of resources. Read more »
While using the web to share “stuff” is still a relatively new concept, the business model is being adopted by a growing number of companies, and I think it has started to reach a tipping point and become more mainstream. Read more »
Whoever thought that renting your bed to strangers would work? But Airbnb has made it work and now Getaround, a peer-to-peer car sharing service, is looking to find similar success by letting people rent out their cars to other users. Read more »
Zipcar’s stock is still flying high after the car sharing company debuted on the Nasdaq last month. To the CEO of neighbor-to-neighbor car sharing startup RelayRides, Shelby Clark, Zipcar’s IPO has shown investors that there’s real money to be made in car sharing. Read more »
While car sharing company Zipcar had a smash hit debut on the Nasdaq last month, how big of a market car sharing will become is still unclear — particularly to rental giant Enterprise. Read more »
As kids, we were all taught to share our favorite toys. At Green:Net Shelby Clark from RelayRides and Joe Gebbia from Airbnb talked about how their companies are leveraging the power of social media to take sharing into the grown-up world. Read more »
Is the greentech industry headed for a breakout year or is it retrenching for hard times to come? The first three months of 2011 provided evidence that could support both assertions, with a big rise in venture capital investment and a big drop-off in global energy financing. Solar power remained the largest green technology sector in terms of venture capital investment, while in the world of electric vehicles, GM’s Chevy Volt hybrid and Nissan’s all-electric Leaf — the first two mainstream plug-in vehicles — hit the showroom floors in significant numbers. Meanwhile the smart grid sector’s relative dearth of VC investment was more than made up for by the massive round of acquisitions. Companies mentioned in this report include NRG Energy, Microsoft, Silver Spring Networks, Tesla and BrightSource Energy. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
A recent study found that mobile devices and apps can help drastically improve the appeal and usefulness of public and shared transit options, but only if companies and legislators take a cue from some of the good examples already out there. Read more »
At Green:Net next week, we’ll be exploring how adding IT technologies to anything from the power grid, to data centers, to buildings, to lighting can lead to energy efficiency and a more sustainable consumption of increasingly-constrained resources. Read more »
Combine a year in which IPOs are back and car sharing is hot and what do you get? A smash hit success. Zipcar’s stock debuted on the Nasdaq Thursday at an eye-opening $30 per share, up over 60 percent from its offering price of $18. Read more »
With Zipcar’s expected public market debut today, the year of the car as a service (in contrast to personal ownership) has arrived. Internet and mobile technology is the platform for cars as a service in a world with increasingly constrained resources. Read more »
On the eve of Zipcar’s Nasdaq debut on Thursday, the car sharing company priced its stock at $18 per share late Wednesday, well above the previous estimated range of $14 to $16 per share, and raising $174.24 million, far above Zipcar’s original estimate of $75 million. Read more »
Apparently, car sharing company Zipcar’s long-awaited IPO is not off! This week, Zipcar priced its IPO at between $14 and $16 per share for a planned run on the Nasdaq under the symbol ZIP. The company’s 8.3 million shares will net $89.2 million. Read more »
If you own a car but don’t use it much, growing numbers of startups are itching to help you rent it out. One of the latest ventures is Getaround, which aims to set itself apart with a recipe involving Facebook, smart phones, and green cars. Read more »
Greentech marked its best year ever in 2010, and part of that is thanks to the wealth of activity across sectors during the fourth quarter. Global investment in clean energy surged, and while wind power remained the biggest greentech area, solar power saw the fastest growth. The energy efficiency sector appears to have more room for smaller players to make their mark amidst a rapidly maturing market. Meanwhile, China’s stance as a growing greentech giant continued to complicate its relationship with the United States. Companies mentioned in this report include General Electric, Intel, ZigBee, iControl, People Power and EnerNOC. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Zipcar had until the end of 2010 to decide if it wanted to buy majority share of Spanish car sharing company Avancar, which it invested $300,000 in for a minority share. The answer? Undecided. Zipcar has extended the option to buy majority share another year. Read more »
Car sharing is a particularly high capital business to be in. You might say “Duh,” but as of September 2010, Zipcar had 8,541 cars in its fleet, most of which it leases, but 1,692 of which it owns outright. Read more »
Over the course of 2010, a rich ecosystem of services, startups and innovations began to take shape around the idea of sharing cars and bikes. Here’s seven steps taken this year toward shared transportation: Read more »
The largest car sharing company in the U.S., Zipcar, said this morning it has raised $21 million in a Series G financing round. While that could sound like a good thing, it could also mean the company’s highly-anticipated IPO is on the rocks. Read more »
RelayRides, which aims to help people rent out their personal vehicles, launched today and said it raised its first round of investment from Google Ventures and August Capital. It’s part of a trend in which companies are using the web to help people share “stuff.” Read more »
BMW Group is breaking into car sharing with a new pilot project in Munich that will let customers rent any current BMW model by the hour. It fits into much larger trends of innovation around providing mobility as a service — and growing competition for Zipcar. Read more »
Zeitbyte is having its biggest week ever, as it has been chosen to distribute live and on-demand video streams of more than 100 runway shows during the week-long New York Fashion Week. Those runway shows are being made available both online and on mobile devices. Read more »
Zipcar’s path to the public market has become a bit more bumpy as its purchase of Streetcar, its largest rival in London, raises anti-competition concerns. The Office of Fair Trade (OFT) in the U.K. said Tuesday it couldn’t be confident that the acquisition wouldn’t stifle competition. Read more »
When it comes to car sharing, General Motors’ new venture capital arm, GM Ventures, wants to get some skin in the game. And according to GM Ventures President Jon Lauckner, Zipcar and GoLoco are two “interesting models.” Read more »
In the second quarter of 2010, greentech startups scored record venture capital and increased spending despite a weak economy. Solar power retained its lead in greentech venture financing, while global investment for clean energy asset financing fell. China, meanwhile, underscored its rising might in the greentech industry, raising billions of dollars in green energy financing. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Zipcar, a Cambridge, Mass.-based startup with the country’s largest car sharing network, has scored a legal victory at home and stepped into a potential antitrust quagmire abroad, according to Zipcar’s latest filing with financial regulators ahead of its planned $75 million IPO. Read more »
Small business owners are still optimistic and confident, both in themselves and in their businesses, and if you were to ask any of them, they would each have unique lessons to share, things they know for sure. Here are some things that I know for sure: Read more »
ABI Research forecasts in a new report that apps for smartphone devices will give vehicle navigation systems a run for their money over the next five years — a trend that could make demand for connectivity a double-edged sword for green cars. Read more »
Zipcar officially filed for an up to $75 million IPO on Tuesday. It’s S-1 filing reveals potential challenges from antitrust authorities in the UK and information about how the company handles a flood of data about its vehicles and member services. Read more »
Zipcar, a decade old startup with the country’s largest car sharing network, has filed with regulators this morning to raise up to $75 million in an initial public offering. Read more »
Four years after setting up a car sharing service in London, England, Zipcar announced today that it has acquired the UK’s largest car sharing provider, Streetcar. Now Zipcar faces some questions about how to bridge technology gaps between different models. Read more »
Zipcar has bought London-based car-sharing firm Streetcar in its latest bid to expand across Europe, the companies announced this morning. The acquisition, valued at about $50 million, expands the size of Zipcar’s UK fleet more than fourfold, to 1,770 vehicles. Read more »
There’s already 19 green IPOs on deck this year. Still more greentech firms have been rumored to be eying the public markets for some time. Here’s our 10 picks for which greentech startups could be next to file this year in the U.S.: Read more »
Zipcar bills its car-sharing service as a money saver. At the tail end of a recession, has Zipcar — which has said it aims to “cross over to profitability” in 2010, and eventually go public — seen users flock to its service? Read more »
