Sidecar has raised $15 million to expand its ride-sharing service

Sidecar may go down as the little engine that could. The ride-sharing startup announced Monday that it has raised another $15 million, bringing its total funding to date to more than $30 million. The latest round of funding was led by Avalon Ventures and included investments from Union Square Ventures and Virgin founder Richard Branson. That’s a significant amount for most startups, though it’s less impressive when compared to other competitors in the space like Lyft, which has raised about 10 times as much, and Uber, which has secured backing of well over $1 billion.

Sidecar may not make quite as many headlines as Uber or Lyft, but the transportation startup is certainly still finding success. That was made clear today with San Francisco company announcing a new $15 million round as it prepares to expand nationally. Sidecar, which had brought in $20 million previously, raised the fresh funds from existing investors Avalon Ventures and Union Square Ventures, while Virgin Group founder Richard Branson participated in the new round. “I like companies that are innovative, offer exciting customer experiences and make the world better,” Branson wrote. “Transportation has been ripe for disruption for decades. An entrepreneurial company like Sidecar can take on the big guys with innovation and big ideas, not just big bank accounts.” Sidecar CEO Sunil Paul, who is speaking at ourGeekWire Summit in Seattle on Oct. 2, wrote in a blog post today that his company will use the $15 million to launch in new cities across the U.S. — Sidecar currently operates in eight metros — and also continue building out its “Shared Rides” feature. “Our vision since the early days of Sidecar is unchanged,” Paul wrote. “We want to create the largest transportation marketplace in the world. We believe we can do this by building a system that is so affordable people will use it daily just as they do the bus and metro.”