Uber’s First Casualty: On-Demand Delivery Sidecar Shutting Down

Sidecar will ride no more.

The on-demand car service that looked to challenge rivals in the same space — most notably Uber, as well as Lyft — will cease most (but not all) operations at the end of 2015.

TechCrunch reported Tuesday (Dec. 29) that the news came via a posting by Sidecar Chief Executive Officer Sunil Paul, who shared the news on Medium. The announcement comes after the company shifted tactics, in essence taking focus away from the traditional ride-sharing revenue stream in favor of delivery runs. But now, the company will come to a screeching stop.

[bctt tweet=”The company will not fade completely into the ether.”]

But as TechCrunch noted, the company will not fade completely into the ether. Instead, according to the CEO, the company is looking to grab onto the “next big thing,” with a note that “it’s by no means the end of the journey for the company.” The executive did say that there were odds stacked against the company in respects to capital position, which as any connoisseur of startups knows is a key ingredient to success, especially in the battle for revenues and especially in an industry that is basically being created on the fly. The $35 million raised by the company through a consortium including SV Angel and Avalon Ventures, among others, has been dwarfed by the billions raised by Uber.

One investor seemed sanguine about the new direction, and the optimism comes from one who has been there for a while. TechCrunch reported that USV Partner Fred Wilson said — after past missives citing enthusiasm over the ride-sharing and then the delivery business — that he remains “really excited for the team and what is next for them,” according to an email provided to the site.