Citi Ventures backs ride-sharing service for kids

Zūm, a ride-sharing service for children, today announced it secured additional funding from new investor Citi Ventures to help double its national footprint by 2020, starting with newly available service in Dallas, Texas.

Zūm offers a fleet of cars and vans to handle daily student commuting, extracurricular trips and after-school activities.

The investment from Citi Ventures  will help Zūm accelerate growth initiatives and pursue new strategic partnerships, and adds to the company’s Series C round of $40 million led by BMW iVentures and supported by other new investors NGP Capital, Volvo Cars Tech Fund, Clearvision, Draper Nexus and existing investors Sequoia Capital and Spark Capital.

Zūm has saved California schools $15 million in the past 18 months with its network of highly vetted drivers and advanced scheduling to safely transport children to school and back. The company signed up more than 150 new school districts in 2018.

“Safe, reliable transportation for school-aged children is a major expense and pain point for both schools and parents, and Zūm is committed to providing an innovative and dependable solution,” said Ramneek Gupta, Managing Director & Co-Head of Venture Investing at Citi Ventures. “Zūm is re-inventing the $40 billion per year school transportation market and we’re proud to support their expansion.”