• Home
  • Latest
  • Coins2Day 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

VCs to score big on Zipcar sale

By
Dan Primack
Dan Primack
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Dan Primack
Dan Primack
Down Arrow Button Icon
January 2, 2013, 4:32 PM ET

FORTUNE — Venture capitalists could be riding away with more than $130 million in profits from their early bets on car-sharing service Zipcar (ZIP), which today agreed to be acquired by Avis Budget Group (CAR) for around $500 million in cash.

Zipcar raised approximately $67 million from VCs between 2000 and 2010, with the largest investments coming from Benchmark Capital, Greylock Partners, Smedvig Capital and Meritech Capital Partners. This does not include investments made by Revolution Living in Flexcar, a rival car-sharing company acquired by Zipcar in 2007.

At the $12.25 per share acquisition price — plus some earlier divestitures — the total return would be around $205 million. If you were to exclude Revolution, it would be closer to $121 million.

Of Zipcar’s venture backers, only Smedvig appears to have sold some of its shares via Zipcar’s April 2011 IPO. Since then, Benchmark Capital is the only firm to have reported a disposition — generating over $17 million from its December 2011 sale of around one-third of its total position. So here’s what everyone seems to be left with, at a sale price to Avis of $12.25 per share:

  • Revolution Living: $84 million
  • Benchmark Capital: $31.2 million (total return of $48.88 million including earlier sale)
  • Greylock Partners: $26.27 million
  • Smedvig Capital: $12.48 million (total return $28 million including earlier sale)

One firm not included above is Meritech Capital Partners, which bought around $20 million worth of “Series G” stock in December 2010. There is no indication that Meritech has sold any of the shares, which today would be valued at just around $16.8 million. Also not included in the return calculations are from groups like Globespan Capital Partners and Boston Seed Partners that were too small to require regulatory reporting.

A few other notes about the acquisition:

  • At the end of its first day of trading as a public company, Zipcar was valued at approximately $1.1 billion.
  • One of the big expected synergies here is fleet optimization. Avis usually sees peak usage at mid-week, and often has idle supply on the non-holiday weekends. Zipcar, on the other hand, is busiest on the weekend and relatively slow during the week. The combination is expected to help even out those peaks and valleys a bit.
  • Expect the deal to seriously expand Zipcar into airports, including one-way to/from usage.
  • Zipcar will continue to be operated by its existing management team out of Boston.

Sign up for Dan’s daily email newsletter on deals and deal-makers: GetTermSheet.com

About the Author
By Dan Primack
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Coins2Day Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Coins2Day Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Coins2Day Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Coins2Day Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Coins2Day Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Coins2Day Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Coins2Day Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Coins2Day Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Coins2Day Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Coins2Day Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Coins2Day Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Coins2Day Editors
October 20, 2025
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Coins2Day 500
  • Global 500
  • Coins2Day 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Success
  • Tech
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Environment
  • Coins2Day Crypto
  • Health
  • Retail
  • Lifestyle
  • Politics
  • Newsletters
  • Magazine
  • Features
  • Commentary
  • Mpw
  • CEO Initiative
  • Conferences
  • Personal Finance
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Coins2Day Brand Studio
  • Coins2Day Analytics
  • Coins2Day Conferences
  • Business Development
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Coins2Day
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

© 2026 Coins2Day Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Coins2Day Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.


Most Popular

placeholder alt text
Commentary
Yes, you're getting a bigger tax refund. Your kids won't thank you for the $3 trillion it's adding to the deficit
By Daniel BunnJanuary 26, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Success
Despite running $75 billion automaker General Motors, CEO Mary Barra still responds to ‘every single letter’ she gets by hand
By Preston ForeJanuary 26, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Economy
An unusual Fed ‘rate check’ triggered a free fall in the U.S. dollar and investors are fleeing into gold
By Jim EdwardsJanuary 26, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Personal Finance
Current price of silver as of Monday, January 26, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJanuary 26, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Personal Finance
Current price of silver as of Tuesday, January 27, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJanuary 27, 2026
17 hours ago
placeholder alt text
Success
'The Bermuda Triangle of Talent': 27-year-old Oxford grad turned down McKinsey and Morgan Stanley to find out why Gen Z’s smartest keep selling out
By Eva RoytburgJanuary 25, 2026
3 days ago

Latest in

sf
LawSan Francisco
Mountain lion saunters through San Francisco’s posh Pacific Heights neighborhood before capture
By Olga R. Rodriguez, Haven Daley and The Associated PressJanuary 27, 2026
8 hours ago
Photo of Elon Musk
Big TechX
New filings exposing Elon Musk’s financials for X in the U.K. show revenue plummeted 58% in 2024
By Lily Mae LazarusJanuary 27, 2026
9 hours ago
barra
InvestingMarkets
Detroit’s top carmaker just wrote down $7.6 billion on its EV business—and grew its market cap by the same amount. Here’s how GM did it
By Nick LichtenbergJanuary 27, 2026
9 hours ago
People walk outside of a WeWork office building in London.
Future of WorkOffice Culture
Amazon and JPMorgan led the Coins2Day 500 in returning to the office 5 days a week. Now they’re leading a coworking comeback
By Jacqueline MunisJanuary 27, 2026
10 hours ago
man speaks at conference
CryptoCryptocurrency
Crypto giant Tether pushes into the U.S. with USAT stablecoin to challenge Circle
By Carlos GarciaJanuary 27, 2026
10 hours ago
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei
AIEye on AI
At Davos, CEOs said AI isn’t coming for jobs as fast as Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei thinks
By Jeremy KahnJanuary 27, 2026
10 hours ago