MileIQ, the smart mileage tracker, today announced that it has closed $11 million in new financing led by Trinity Ventures, with participation from prior seed investors CRV, Marc Benioff, SV Angel, and a host of Silicon Valley's leading angel investors. In conjunction with the funding, Trinity Ventures general partner, Karan Mehandru, will join the MileIQ board. This latest round of funding will enable MileIQ to evolve its offerings, introduce versions on more platforms, and accelerate user growth in new regions. To this end, the company released a version of its popular MileIQ app for Android users, available today on Google Play.
MileIQ is a smart mileage tracking service that makes it easy for anyone to realize the value of his/her deductible or reimbursable miles. Since its January 2014 launch, MileIQ has been the top-grossing finance app in the iTunes App Store. It has been adopted by hundreds of thousands of users in the United States who average $535 in driving-related deductions each month.
As the trend toward a more prolific freelance economy grows, so do the 53 million1 independent, freelance and self-directed workers who demand products and services that allow them to save time and money. MileIQ is a freemium service that lets users track 40 drives every month for free. For a monthly or annual subscription fee, MileIQ will automatically log all of a user's drives, with the average driver making 67 trips each month. The release of the new Android app comes in response to high demand from Android users looking for the proven value that MileIQ offers.
'Our average user drives $535 worth of deductible or reimbursable miles every month,' said Chuck Dietrich, co-founder and CEO of MileIQ. 'And the majority of users had no idea how much of that value they were leaving on the table before they started using MileIQ. Whether those dollars are reimbursed by an employer or deducted on a tax return, they add up to a meaningful sum that can make a real difference to a person's finances. And with the average business drive worth $8.03, it's not just existing users, but all of the 53+ million independent consultants, salespeople, real estate agents, small business owners and others driving for work who have a lot to gain by using MileIQ. I'm especially excited that with today's introduction of MileIQ for Android, millions more Americans will now be able to experience the ease and value of automatic mileage tracking.'
'In our line of work we're meeting with clients and making deliveries throughout the day,' said Josh Leavy, owner of San Francisco Brewing Co. 'We're focused on customer satisfaction and barely have time for paperwork let alone tracking miles. MileIQ makes our mileage deductions easy by tracking our miles and letting us organize them at a later time. We're logging thousands of dollars in deductible drives every month, and it's great knowing we finally have an accurate record.'
'The growth of the Collaborative Economy and on-demand workforce, driven by the proliferation of mobile devices and cultural rise of the part-time worker, has created a new and burgeoning market, which will only continue to gather momentum,' said Karan Mehandru, general partner at Trinity Ventures. 'In MileIQ, we found an amazing team with its finger on the pulse of this sector's needs and focused on using powerful and intuitive mobile apps to create business solutions for the self-directed workforce. We are excited to work with the MileIQ team to help fuel the next stage of growth by delighting the consumer and converting miles to money.'
The MileIQ service includes a smart mobile app, a web dashboard, and secure cloud-based storage. The mobile app runs in the background and creates a mileage log for each user by automatically recording their drives, calculating the drive value, and recording the details in a series of drive cards. All users need do is swipe cards left or right to classify their drives as business or personal, making it easy claim the full value of their mileage.
For additional details on the funding news, please read Karan Mehandru's blog here.
About Trinity Ventures
Trinity Ventures is a top-tier venture capital firm combining business insight, practical expertise and a personal touch to help start-ups win big. For over eleven funds, Trinity has helped passionate entrepreneurs with breakthrough ideas transform markets and lives. Trinity's investment team takes a collaborative approach and believes in personal engagement, mutual respect and goal alignment to deliver out-sized returns to entrepreneurs and investors. The firm invests in early stage technology companies with emphases on Cloud and Mobile Infrastructure, Software-as-a-Service, Digital Media, and Social and Mobile Commerce. For more information, visit www.trinityventures.com.
About MileIQ
MileIQ is dedicated to providing products and services to support the 53 million independent contractors, consultants, real estate agents, and business owners that form the lifeblood of the U.S. economy. Our smart mileage-tracking technology alleviates a time-consuming administrative burden so users can focus on what matters to their businesses without having to forego the thousands of dollars in mileage deductions and reimbursements they're due. The MileIQ mobile app captures every mile users drive without taxing battery life or requiring any interaction, and our proprietary algorithms automate much of the classification and calculation of their drives. Integrations with FreshBooks, Concur, and other popular accounting, expense and tax platforms make it easy to report mileage, providing users with peace of mind and putting money back in their pockets. Download MileIQ for iOS on the App Store or MileIQ for Android on Google Play. More information is available at mileiq.com (www.mileiq.com).