Sidecar Raises $15 Million to Expand Ride-Sharing Service Nationwide

Sidecar may go down as the little engine that could.

The ride-sharing startup announced Monday that it has raised another $15 million, bringing its total funding to date to more than $30 million. The latest round of funding was led by Avalon Ventures and included investments from Union Square Ventures and Virgin founder Richard Branson.

That's a significant amount for most startups, though it's less impressive when compared to other competitors in the space like Lyft, which has raised about 10 times as much, and Uber, which has secured backing of well over $1 billion.

For Sidecar and its investors, the goal isn't necessarily to beat the more well-funded and well-known startups in the space, but rather to carve out a segment of the market for itself through a unique approach.

"Transportation has been ripe for disruption for decades," Branson said in a statement about the investment on Sidecar's website. "An entrepreneurial company like Sidecar can take on the big guys with innovation and big ideas, not just big bank accounts."

Branson also argued that the transportation space is not "a winner takes all market," a point that one have assumed he believed anyway given that he previously invested in Hailo, another taxi startup.

So, @Sidecar skyped with Sir @RichardBranson this morning. pic.twitter.com/twuOenDVgm— Lee Fastenau (@thelbane) September 15, 2014

That point about it not being a winner take all market was also mentioned by Avalon Ventures in its statement.

"Often in the startup world, the most innovative company is not the one most talked about," Rich Levandov, a partner at Avalon, wrote in a blog post, seemingly alluding to more buzzed about companies in the space like Uber and Lyft. This is especially the true when you’re not in a winner-take-all market."

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Unlike Uber, for example, Sidecar users can pick and choose their drivers with the goal of having a more personal experience. Sidecar was also the first of these startups to let riders pair up with strangers in order to save money, though Lyft and Uber have since followed suit.