WaiveCar is an all-electric, free car-sharing service that offers free rides for two-hours at a time. How does a company afford to give away services for free? Each WaiveCar is wrapped with a vinyl ad and has a LCD display ad on the top of the car, just like a traditional taxi cab. The entrepreneurs behind Waive Car, Zoli Honig and Isaac Deutsch of Santa Monica, California, pitched their eco-friendly business on Shark Tank in October 2017. They went into the Tank seeking an investment of $500,000 in exchange for 2 percent equity.
While guest Shark Chris Sacca (one of the first to invest in Uber) liked the business model, it was Kevin O’Leary who landed a deal with Waive Car. He invested $500,000 as a 36-month loan at 12 percent interest, two percent equity, and an 80 percent discount on any unsold ad space.
Since Shark Tank, WaiveCar has rolled out a fleet of 19 Chevrolet and Hyundai electric cars in Los Angeles and three cars in New York City in 2018. The WaiveCars in New York were offered to residents of Level, a new apartment building (with 540 units) on the Williamsburg waterfront in Brooklyn. New episodes of Shark Tank air Sundays at 9 pm on ABC. [Related: 27 Favorite ‘Shark Tank’ Products at Amazon — New List]
