Ford is making a big change to its shuttle-bus service Chariot — and it could mean a huge new business opportunity (F)

pulse

January 30, 2018 11:36 PM

Future growth will be about enterprise customers, as Chariot expands into new cities.

Ford will shift Chariot's growth business to enterprise customers.
The startup was acquired for $65 million in 2016.
Enterprise customers are expressing more demand for Chariot's services.

When Ford bought Chariot, a San Francisco-based shuttle bus service, in 2016 for $65 billion, it looked like a nice start for the automaker and what could have been a series of smaller acquisitions — a contrast with some bigger dollar signs aimed at getting legacy automakers up to speed on new mobility models.

Ford's strategy was careful, while General Motors' was bolder — all-in, for example, GM had acquired Cruise Automation, a self-driving startup, for $1 billion.

$3 million in a seed round in April 2015

"We are getting pull from enterprise," Ford Mobility head Marcy Klevorn said on a conference call with reporters last week after Ford announced that is was buying two more startups.

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