When he was a senior studying at Texas A&M University, Matthew Iomi realized there was no good option to transport groups of people. The fellow college students heading for the night together had no access to on-demand rides, with the same convenience, accessibility and affordability as typical ride platforms like Uber and Lyft.
“When I hit that 6-7 (person) mark, I had to split it and take multiple cars. This is inefficient and not very sustainable. Plus, everyone It’s an inferior experience because we can’t ride together,” Iomi, now 28, told TechCrunch. “One other option was to book a charter vehicle a few days or weeks in advance.”
The latter choice usually involves the group paying more time than they need to ride.
In 2020, he and his co-founder Justin Russ decided to experiment with creating an on-demand group ride-sharing service that would buy a party bus and serve 7-14 passengers. They named it Fetii. This is a French marine term for family extensions.
“We want to say that the ride-sharing mantra brings people together,” Emi said.
Five years later, Fetii is currently operating in 68 cities across six states, including Dallas, San Antonio, Houston, Atlanta, Nashville, Phoenix and Scottsdale, transporting more than 200,000 passengers each month. . Also, while Fetii offers the ability to book rides in advance, Iommi says the majority (75% to 80%) are on demand.
The Austin-based startup has closed its $7.35 million seed round led by Mark Cuba, joining it from Y Combinator, Goodwater Capital and others. Fetii will use that money to expand into new markets, including Florida, California and Massachusetts.
For the young people, young people
Fetii is not the first startup to build a business around group rides. A few years ago there was Chariot, a commuter shuttle startup that Ford acquired in 2016 before Ford closed in 2016. A few hours in the morning and evening.
In 2022, Uber started an Uber charter in collaboration with US Coachways as a way to allow riders to book party buses and passenger vans apps, but that too quietly became a bust.
These obstacles were lessons from Iommi and Rath. Just as a few college kids bootstraps a startup, “Burning millions of dollars like these ridesharing companies do whenever they try to get it up and try to understand it.” We had to find a way to launch it in the city without it.”
Rather than targeting corporate events, weddings, or other use cases where charter companies will focus first, Fetii has hone itself into college students.
“I think the biggest thing that people before us didn’t understand is creating services and brands aimed at younger adults and people who tend to gather in groups more frequently,” Iommi said. I said that.
Most Fetii riders are between 21 and 30 years old, and platform use cases range from nighttime and single parties to weddings and sports games. Fetii also offers rides for groups that hold corporate events, meetings and festivals.
“They use us multiple times a week, whether they just go out with friends, whether they have a formal event or anything like that,” Iommi said.
Thinking about it through the payment system was a unique challenge for Fetii.
“When that van appears, the (rider) payment method is very similar to Lime and Bird by scanning the QR code, so each person in the group wants to pay off by himself. Instead – Iumi said, pointing out that the typical fare is around $5 per person.
By focusing on university students first, Fetii developed a scalable playbook.
“We want to start college first. We partner with a lot of organizations, sports teams, fraternities and female student life and really teach them how to use the product,” he said.
The first ride is always free. Iommi says Fetii will help lay the foundations in the university community. This allows startups to attract drivers and ensure there is a balance of supply and demand.
Fetii uses a program called “Fetii VSP” (vehicle service provider). This allows entities with their own fleets and drivers to place their VANs on the Fetii platform.
Once the startup establishes a university base, it expands outwards. People start to see brand fetii vans moving around and word of mouth spreading. As Iommi pointed out, each rider in the group can convert to a customer, and the customer can transform others, leading to healthy, cost-effective growth.
In fact, it was a rave review from one user, Mark Cuban’s daughter that drew the billionaire investor and former “shark tank” star to the seed rounds of Fetii.
“My daughter used the Fetii non-stop with a friend and rave reviews about it,” Cuban told TechCrunch. “She said I should invest. So I reached out to Matthew, and I liked it as much as I heard about it.”
When asked in 2009 whether Cuba was about to reject an offer to invest in Uber, he said: Fetii has the opportunity to become global and do amazing things. ”
Iommi told TechCrunch that when he started the business, the acquisition of either Uber or Lyft was the best exit strategy. The Fetii is still interested in partnering with the riding giant, but that has changed over time.
Cuba also appears not to jazz about Fetii going on the M&A route. “I’m always indecently profitable and I like to throw away cash,” he said.