Founded in 2000, Zipcar's hourly car rental service now includes 500,000 members and 8,000 vehicles providing service to metropolitan areas and college campuses in the U.S., U.K. and Canada.
In June, Zipcar filed for a $75 million IPO to help fund operations and allow for debit remittance. This financing round will likely be used instead for those purposes and help further finance fleet growth and expansion.
The funding announcement also comes just one day after Google Ventures and August Capital put an undisclosed sum into new car-sharing startup competitor RelayRides -- its first round of financing.
RelayRides approaches car-sharing in a much different fashion and instead allows users to make their own cars available for rental, earning 65% of the rental fees for doing so. RelayRides installs devices in its user-generated fleet that track and unlock cars. It's a strategy that could help the young company avoid the pricey costs of maintaining its own fleet.