This EV Rental Startup Stems From Previous Entrepreneurial Company

Picture credit: Jodie Cook on Unsplash

The following post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga.

If you’re traveling on the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) public transport system in San Francisco or by ferry in the New York City area, you might have a company called Bytemark to thank for the convenience of your journey.

Bytemark, now owned by Siemens AG SIEGY, provides software for payment solutions on such mass transit systems. It is, however, the brainchild of Micah Bergdale, who co-founded the company in New York City and sold it to the German-based multinational in 2019.

Like other serial entrepreneurs, Bergdale wanted to try other things after selling his company. His latest venture is a startup car rental company called Joulez that will offer only electric vehicles (EVs) to its customers.

Bergdale is not alone on such a venture and has brought a number of his fellow Bytemark colleagues along for the ride.

Joulez Management Reflects Bytemark Past

Among those is Technology Consultant, Sandeep Puppala, who, along with developing mobile apps for Bytemark in the mass transit industry, has done similar work with TravelCenters of America Inc. TA to support passenger vehicles and long-haul truck drivers.

Juan Ortiz is Joulez’s Growth Development Consultant and will focus on developing rapid market share for the new company. He was previously the Director of Business Development at Bytemark.

Melanie Artale, an Operations Consultant at Joulez, was previously the Director of Project Management at Bytemark where she worked with mass transit providers like privately held NY Waterway, which provides ferry and bus services in the New York City area.

Bergdale, as Joulez’s CEO, leads the new company.

Start With Apple, Continue With Tesla?

Bergdale’s professional start was with Apple Inc. AAPL, where he worked for 3 years in various engineering and managerial roles. Feeling the entrepreneurial itch when he was 22, he founded a company called Digital Criterion, which helped companies implement Apple technology into their operations.

After divesting himself from Digital Criterion in 2011, Bergdale went on to found Bytemark, which grew to a global company with 100 employees working in India, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and the United States.

Now, Bergdale’s focus is on building an efficient and customer-focused EV car rental system.

The journey has started small with operations focused for now in New York City. The company took delivery of its first Tesla Inc. TSLA vehicle in September and plans to expand into other U.S. cities as well as Canada before moving further afield internationally.

With less than 1% of current rental vehicles being EVs, Bergdale expects there to be plenty of room for Joulez to become a viable player in the EV car rental industry.

Big rental car players such as Avis Budget Group Inc. CAR have already signaled their desire to have more EVs in their fleets. The company’s stock price more than doubled in early November when it said it would expand its EV fleet.

Learn more about the current raise for Joulez via its StartEngine campaign here.

The preceding post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga. Although the piece is not and should not be construed as editorial content, the sponsored content team works to ensure that any and all information contained within is true and accurate to the best of their knowledge and research. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice.