Exclusive: Miami’s Freebee snags $6 million BP investment to expand its electric-car rides
Miami-based transit company Freebee will use a $6 million investment from energy giant BP to extend its free electric ride-hailing business nationwide.
BP Ventures Principal Shaun Healey said the company’s investment in Freebee aligns with its goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050 or sooner. It also marks the British oil behemoth’s entry into Miami’s emerging tech sector.
Freebee now provides free ride-hailing service via its electric fleet to Miami residents and students at local colleges like Florida International University. Co-founders and managing partners Kristopher Kimball and Jason Spiegel have been intentional with all-electric to reduce carbon.
As two University of Miami graduates with roots in the Philadelphia area, Kimball and Spiegel noticed a difference in Miami’s infrastructure. They found that it could be difficult to use public transportation to navigate the area and they sought a solution to assist municipalities and residents, by launching Freebee to help bolster the public transit network.
Kimball looks forward to Freebee’s expansion, as a way for Miamians without transportation to find job opportunities throughout the city. “It’s an economic development tool as well as a transportation piece, because you’re moving your community around now,” he said.
The duo launched Freebee in 2012 and its vehicles initially served as promotional tools for clients like telecommunications company T-Mobile or musician Avicii to engage people in South Beach. At the end of 2015, Kimball and Spiegel developed the Freebee app as a way to counter the introduction of on-demand ride-share firms like Uber.
In 2016, Key Biscayne officials reached out to Freebee to minimize traffic congestion and assist its residents in getting around the community. It secured a one-year test project from Key Biscayne officials, and after only three months, Key Biscayne residents saw the value in Freebee’s rides as a long-term public transportation solution. That experience led to Kimball and Spiegel shifting their business model from that of a promotional company into a public transit service.
“This is really what the future of public transportation is,” Spiegel said. “Instead of looking at fixed-route trolleys and fixed-route buses, it’s now providing this on demand door-to-door first- and last-mile type transportation service that really provides so much value outside of just the transportation side.”
Introducing the electric cars in Miami-area communities like Pinecrest has helped remove the stigma associated with public transportation, Kimball said. Municipalities working with Freebee pay for its ride service with hours customized to residents’ needs. Drivers also are paid for their time on the road.
Looking ahead, Kimball and Spiegel ultimately want to drive Freebee into other municipalities throughout America. Outside of Miami, Freebee recently began free rides to Virginia Beach, Virginia, residents to get around the city to places where public transportation doesn’t take them.
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