Fetii Brings Ridesharing to Large Groups

Fetii, a large-vehicle rideshare service that caters to college students, raised a fresh round of financing to expand nationwide.

The Big Move: Despite the rideshare market being dominated by Uber and Lyft, no one has quite cracked the code on offering rides for groups larger than a family (other than a brief journey with Uber Charter). If Fetii can go the distance, the company could be at the center of everybody’s night out on the town.

Behind the Rides: Goodbye, party buses; hello, Fetii shuttles?

• Fetii, which is a French Polynesian term for an extension of one’s family, allows users to hail vans that can fit 7-14 passengers both on-demand and in advance.
• Fetii operates its own vehicles and allows third parties to offer their services on the app, similar to Uber and Lyft.
• Each rider in a group scans a QR code before entering the vehicle, so they can each pay for their portion of the ride — ensuring that there’s no Venmoing one person at the end of the night.
• The service is already available in 68 cities across six states, including hot spots like Dallas, Nashville, and Atlanta. It allegedly has 200,000 monthly passengers.

Last Stop: Fetii, which is based in Austin, got off the starting line by focusing its efforts on the customers most likely to become the quickest repeat users — college students. Co-founder and CEO Matthew Iommi (who came up with the idea for the startup when he was a senior at Texas A&M) told TechCrunch that “we partner with a lot of the orgs, the sports teams, the fraternities, the sororities, and really teach them how the product is used.” No wonder most riders are between the ages of 21 and 30.

Fetii just closed a $7.35 million seed round led by Mark Cuban, whose daughter is a passionate Fetii rider. It plans on using that money to immediately expand into more states, including California, Massachusetts, and Florida… so keep an eye out.