SKOOT launches “world’s first carbon negative lift-sharing app”

Newly launched lift-sharing start-up SKOOT has raised over £1.6 million in funding in a bid to provide an alternative to public transport and single occupancy vehicles.

The “first and only carbon negative lift-sharing app” was designed to tackle challenges such as the “rising cost of motoring, disappearing bus routes and now COVID-related issues of public transport”.

Features include:

• SKOOT plants a tree every three rides taken
• Auto collection of payment for petrol and running costs
• Driver checks with the DVLA to ensure the car is roadworthy, along with scanning of driving licences
• Drivers can carry a £2,500 fine if too much money is paid for a single journey
• SKOOT calculates the exact CO2 created every month and pay for the offset to the tune of 110 per cent with each passenger contributing 5p per trip. 

Greg Gormley, CEO of ride-sharing firm SKOOT, commented: “It’s never been more expensive to run a car – nor harder to get around, with the reduction in public transport routes, people not wanting to travel on buses, trains and tubes or even use ride-hailing apps due to COVID. SKOOT provides a simple lift-sharing solution to help solve these issues, without any need for the driver to have specialist car insurance or the rider to be concerned with whom they are being picked up by.

“We seamlessly connect friends who drive with friends looking for lifts and take away the awkwardness of those conversations by automating pricing, collecting monies in app and enabling route planning, making it much simpler and fairer for everyone all in real-time, whilst being much cheaper than any alternatives.

“The idea and our concept resonated so well we were fortunate to be oversubscribed at our last fundraise, which was completed prior to lockdown. We, along with our investors, truly believe that the opportunity and timing is right to really make a difference to mobility across the Globe.” 

The start-up now employs 12 full time staff, and following a UK launch thanks to a $50,000 grant from Innovate UK, plans to expand across Europe, North America, Canada and Australia.