Ridaroo, the ride-sharing web application covered in October, is now hoping to make a ride share on long car trip or a tedious commute that much more efficient.
The company launched a Google Chrome extension for their new Deals On the Way feature, which pushes promotional deals based on users’ travel routes.
The extension is free to download and allows Ridaroo users to layer Deals On the Way on top of Google Maps at the click of a button, cofounder Aksel Gungor told Technically Philly. Gungor emphasizes that, unlike other sites like daily deal giant Groupon, there’s no sign up required, so there are no daily emails.
“Most deal sites send you deals that are ‘around you’ like your zip code, but if you think about it, your zip code is a pretty big area and you might not necessarily frequent that area,” said Gungor. “People really like that it’s more about where they’re going every day, and closer to where they actually spend time on a weekly basis.”
Ridaroo, which launched in September 2010, got its name because the logo almost included a kangaroo.
“We really liked the idea of ‘hopping in a car and going somewhere,'” Gungor said.
The company launched its college service for Philadelphians with .edu email addresses in October 2011, as Technically Philly reported.
“The response has been great, there are close to 1,000 students signed up,” Gungor said.
The startup also licenses its web app to large institutions who want to offer the service to employees interested in carpooling to work. Most recently, Ridaroo has partnered with PECO, so that PECO employees could use the service to commute to work, Gungor told Technically Philly.
Users can sign up, create a profile, then ask for a ride or offer one, if, say, they want to offset the price of gas on a long commute.
Originally incubated at the Baiada Center for Entrepreneurship, Ridaroo now runs out of an office in Fitler Square
Gungor, 24, who lives in South Philly and cofounder Andy Guy, 31, who travels in from North Jersey, previously raised a family and friends round, but Gungor says they are not looking to raise any additional funding.
Instead, Gungor said the company is working on developing additional partnerships with companies like PECO to support business development.
To download the new Chrome extension, click here.
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