Car Sharing Startup Local Motion Gets $6 Million Investment, Steven Sinofsky On Its Board
Steven Sinofsky is joining the board of car sharing technology startup Local Motion. — Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (AH) is investing $6 million in Local Motion. Sinofsky recently joined Andreessen Horowitz.
Context & Ripple Effects
Steven Sinofsky has been rebuilding his post-Microsoft profile since his abrupt departure in November 2012 after the Windows 8 and Surface RT launches — a split he followed by denying reports he had tried to seize control of the Windows Phone division. Joining Andreessen Horowitz earlier this year and now taking a board seat at car sharing startup Local Motion marks his first public step onto the operating side of the portfolio.
The deal matters less for its $6 million size than for who is attached to it: Andreessen Horowitz had already established itself among Silicon Valley's top firms alongside Accel, Benchmark, Greylock, Kleiner and Sequoia by mid-2012, and the breadth of same-day pickup — TechCrunch, GigaOM, CNET, AllThingsD, GeekWire, Digits and bizjournals — shows the story traveled on Sinofsky's name, not the check.
First-order effects
- Local Motion gets $6 million from Andreessen Horowitz plus a director whose decade running Windows brings enterprise-scale software judgment to a young car-sharing technology company.
- Sinofsky converts his exit from Microsoft into an active investing-and-governance role within months of joining Andreessen Horowitz, rather than staying on the advisory sidelines.
Second-order effects
- Competing car-sharing and fleet-tech startups now fundraise against an Andreessen Horowitz-backed player carrying marquee executive credibility, raising the bar for comparable rounds in the category.
- The deal advertises Andreessen Horowitz's model of pairing capital with famous operators — a recruiting pitch aimed at both founders and other high-profile executives weighing post-corporate moves.
Third-order effects
- If senior operating executives keep taking board seats at seed-stage startups through their venture firms, governance itself becomes part of what investors sell, further collapsing the line between venture capital and hands-on management.
- A pattern of top-tier funds backing car-sharing and fleet software points toward shared mobility consolidating around well-capitalized platforms rather than fragmented local operators.
The trend: Top-tier venture firms are turning star ex-operating executives into board-level assets attached to early-stage mobility and fleet software bets.