Mexican Car-Sharing Service Carrot.mx Raises $2M

Carrot — the ‘Zipcar‘ of Mexico — has raised a ~$2 million series B round led by Venture Partners. In addition, Auria Capital and its founders, and previous backer Mexico Ventures (a Mexican tax-payer funded VC), also participated in the round. This brings total funding to $3.5 million.

The investment will be used by the car-sharing company, which offers an alternative to car ownership and traditional car hires, to maintain a lead in Mexico. The startup aims to grow the service to 10,000 members and a fleet of 300 cars over the next two years.

To boost growth and firm up its dominance of the Mexican market, the company acquired UBICAR in 2012, which it says represented its only direct competitor. It also has a partnership with Mexico City’s existing bicycle system that enables its 120,000 user base to access the car-sharing service.

Currently, Carrot operates in Mexico’s three largest cities and says it aims to expand to the 15 most populated cities, which would give it a potential market size of nearly 45 million occupants.

“Among the nearly twenty car-sharing companies in the world, Carrot is the fastest-growing one,” claims Federico Antoni, Managing Partner at Venture Partners, in a statement. “Its management team has executed with surprising speed; already its innovative model has seized the Mexican market”.

Unless, of course, the likes of Zipcar decide to ride in.