CEO and Founder	Marcio Henrique Nigro
Country	Brazil
Email	nigro@caronetas.com.br
Website	www.caronetas.com.br
One line description	Caronetas is a website that turns the carpooling idea into a collaborative consumption of the car. We provide a virtual currency that the user can buy and use to evaluate and negotiate every ride: at the end of the ride process the total amount accumulated can be redeem in virtual partner’s stores for the web ticketed price. The commuter’s safety is provided using corporative e-mails validation, and the company are encouraged to participate because it promotes mobility and sustainable consumer change: instead of buy and burn fuel, the user get goods and services, promoting development.

 

 
Enterprize Brief
Caronetas is a carpooling website, exclusive for people who own a corporative e-mail address, validated by the Company they work for. Caronetas introduces a ‘virtual currency’, which allows people to ‘pay’ for the carpooling, in order to share costs, and all the money involved in each transaction can be redeem for products and services in partner stores. At the end, the resources that would be burned with fuel, damaging the environment and our health, are redirected to production, generating goods and jobs. It’s unique because it ensures safety and provides a possibility to sustainable cost sharing through a safe and compelling way.
What inspired our company was the challenge of changing the mobility daily choice of the drivers, making then realize how they could make a collaborative consumption of their cars, getting rewarded for this choice.

Our objective is to contribute to the solution of the urban mobility issue, helping the drivers to be rewarded by the act of carpooling, through the possibility of the acquisition of products and services, resultant of a collaborative and sustainable attitude.
Besides, it allies value creation, social responsibility and environmental benefits, all together. Our goal is to reduce at least 10% of the cars out of the streets in the big Cities. We have been successful with Company’s commitment, with around 900 Enterprises registered during the first year. Our Plan is to expand operations to Mexico and United States over 2012.
 

 

Does your venture meet the goals of the Prize? max. 250 words (40 points)*
Caronetas incentive the driver to share their cars through a safe, innovative and beneficial process, reducing traffic and GHG emission while promotes development creating goods and jobs. As a side effect, it also raises the offer of transport.

Our solution was developed by young entrepreneurs to address two main objectives:
1) improve big cities citizen’s live, reducing traffic, emission of toxic gases and contributing to social integration among people.
2) Creating an attractive process to promote what we call a smart swap: goods and services instead of burned fuel.

Once we promote the collaborative consumption of the car, using products and services to materialize user’s mobility choice, we introduce a new value to people’s life, changing their way to see how they spend their own resources. Also, since the ride is scheduled and can be paid on daily bases, we stimulates the user to decide every morning for his mobility choice, and it can be a bicycle, bus, ride or train and even more then one of them.
As a result we have a more sustainable, since we reduce the number or cars, a more equitable, since the ride prices should be lower than a taxi fare, and safe transport, since all the users should be working on registered companies.
 

How is your venture unique and innovative? max. 200 words (20 points)*
Our business process is unique and innovative because it stands as an alternative of transportation to people who do not own vehicles and also allow possible monetary gains to cars owners through a ‘smart swap’ With this ‘swap’, we materialize the user’s mobility choice, and that makes the commuter tell his colleagues and friends that his Ipad or his mobile phone was an outcome of a car sharing option.

This transportation modal can also be perfectly integrated to other modals like subways, trains and buses. The integration with other transportation modals is crucial for the sustainability of the project. In fact, the Enterprise has been developing the integration inside the website, so people can understand how to perform carpooling and take a public transportation as a composition to their way.

Besides the importance of the integration with other modals, by increasing the occupancy of private cars, removing vehicles out of the streets and, as a consequence, we help the public transportation to reduce its usage. Public transportation with less usage means a better quality for the population in general, including urban poor.
 

Is your enterprise scalable or replicable? max. 150 words (20 points)*
Caronetas website can be implemented in any location in the World, where exists geo-reference, because it uses information from local maps (i.e: Google, OSM). There is a possibility to integrate information offered by the local subway, services of traffic information, location of bikes parking lot or any other information service to help the user decide his daily mobility option. Its technological base is DOT NET and mobile application can be customized locally in order to fits the local needs. At the end it’s a matter of language translation and cultural adaptation.
 

How would you demonstrate the success of your enterprise? max. 150 words (20 points)*
Caronetas has completed its first year of go-life, with insertions in almost all media vehicles. We have about 900 Enterprises with 230.000 employees, from several sectors.

Awards:
Top 3 Greenbest 2012 (Academy award – websites)
Young Award Brazil (Premio Jovem Brasil 2011):

We had insertions in main Brazilian television channels: Globo, SBT, Record, Grupo Bandeirantes, Canal Futura and among them we highlight the following links.
http://g1.globo.com/globo-news/noticia/2012/02/rede-social-promove-caronas-por-meio-da-internet-em-sao-paulo.html

Media section: http://caronetas.com.br/Midia-Imprensa

Partners List:
SOS Mata Atlantica – http://www.vadegalinha.org.br/
SulAmerica – http://www.monitormercantil.com.br/mostranoticia.php?id=109435
TAM – http://www.webtranspo.com.br/agencia/24024-tam-estimula-funcionarios-a-dar-carona
Cenesp – http://exame.abril.com.br/economia/meio-ambiente-e-energia/noticias/inicia-na-avenida-paulista-acao-por-carona-segura
http://www.centroempresarial.com.br/pt-br/como-chegar/
Conjunto Nacional – http://ccn.com.br/localizacao.php
 

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