New Hires Bring 35 years of Industry Experience of Scaling Engineering Teams and Growing Start-up Companies
SAN FRANCISCO– (February 6, 2019) – Ridecell Inc., a leading carsharing, ridesharing and autonomous ridehailing platform for new mobility operators, announced two new additions to its executive team. Fernando Ruarte has been appointed Vice President of Engineering, managing global teams developing Ridecell customer and mobility platforms. Gelena Sachs was named Vice President of People, responsible for the strategic direction of all aspects of people management, including talent acquisition, training and development, performance management, organizational analytics and workforce planning.
Fernando brings more than 20 years of engineering management experience as a CTO and senior engineering executive to Ridecell. With a track record of implementing complex cloud computing and big data projects for enterprise companies such as Mode Media Corporation, Extended Systems, Inc., Oracle Corporation and the French government, Fernando has built, grown and managed development teams of several hundred engineers on three continents. Fernando started his enterprise software career while studying at Instituto Tecnologico de Buenos Aires and is a joint inventor of multiple patents covering online processing and geo-database technologies.
Gelena has over 15 years of expansive Human Resources and organizational effectiveness experience, managing HR at both start-ups and large established enterprises, including Clorox, Riverbed Technology, Illumina, Stitch Fix, Udemy and Business Wire, a Berkshire Hathaway Company. She has a deep passion for fostering an exceptional culture and employee experience. Her leadership accomplishments include employing advanced people analytics to transform organizational structures and implement high-performing people-centric employee programs. Gelena holds a degree in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley.
“With our recently closed Series B round, Ridecell is accelerating the development of our mobility and operations platform to support use cases ranging from carsharing to autonomous ridehailing. Fernando and Gelena each bring years of industry experience and deep technical expertise, which make them invaluable additions to our management team,” said Aarjav Trivedi, CEO of Ridecell. “They are highly seasoned team leaders that will help us grow our global organization, and help our people maintain focus on achieving results for Ridecell customers.”
About Ridecell
Ridecell is on a mission to empower new mobility operators, including OEMs, car rental companies, auto clubs, cities, transit agencies, dealer groups, and private fleets to launch, expand, and maximize the utilization of their own ridesharing and carsharing services. Headquartered in San Francisco, the company provides a new mobility cloud platform for carsharing, ridesharing and autonomous ridehailing. End-to-end integration and automation accelerate time-to-market, enabling Ridecell customers to launch mobility services quickly, operate efficiently, and scale revenues as business grows. Through its acquisition of Auro, Ridecell also provides a comprehensive suite of L4 on-vehicle software, sensors and controls that enable autonomous vehicle operation.
Founded in 2009, Ridecell has already processed over 25 million rides and rentals, and has a team of more than 120 professionals in the US, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Ridecell’s Series B round is led by Activate Capital and brings together prominent investors including DENSO, Cox Automotive, Munich Re Venture’s ERGO Fund, Initialized Capital, LG Technology Ventures, BNP Paribas, Penske, Deutsche Bahn, Mitsui, Sony Innovation Fund, Ally Ventures and Khosla Ventures.
The company now powers new mobility offerings, including ReachNow, mobility service from the BMW Group, ZITY by Groupe Renault and Ferrovial, and GIG Carsharing service by AAA. In addition, Ridecell powers dynamic shuttle services for campuses such as Georgia Tech, UC Berkeley, UCSF, 3M, and transit agencies like SouthWest Transit.
Media Contact:
Diptii Tiiku
(415) 608-8112
press@ridecell.com