Seattle-based Kids Transportation Start-Up Pogo Rides Wins $1 Million Top Prize from Verizon
San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) December 09, 2015 -- Today the mobile app company Pogo received one of the three $1 million top prizes in the 2015 Verizon Powerful Answers Award contest, competing against a field of 1400 other start-ups.
Pogo is a new way for busy parents to secure safe, reliable, affordable transportation for their kids. The Pogo mobile app for Apple and Android devices (available in early 2016) helps parents streamline their existing carpools and discover new carpool connections across all of their trusted groups, combined with the guarantee of paid rides from thoroughly screened and trained professional drivers.
“I am grateful to Verizon for recognizing the potential of Pogo to help ease the transportation burden of busy parents – especially working moms like me” said Pogo co-founder and CEO Melissa Lehman.
Lehman joined Huffington Post co-founder and editor-in-chief, Arianna Huffington, and Verizon Executive Vice President and President of Product Innovation and New Businesses, Marni Walden, at the event for a discussion of global trends in entrepreneurship and technology leadership.
One quarter of the 1400 entrants and also one quarter of the 12 finalists were female-led companies.
Pogo Connects Busy Parents with Trusted Rides for Their Kids
There are 26 million US households with kids ages 6-17, and those kids require over 4 billion rides each year to scheduled activities. With Pogo, finding a ride is as easy as bringing your existing carpool, joining a trusted group, or creating a new group. Then posting the rides you need and giving rides when you have an extra seat.
According to Pogo’s research, if US families can collectively increase kids carpooling 300,000 cars can be removed from US roads and CO2 emissions can be reduced by 1.7 million tons, which is like planting 80 million trees. And busy parents gain back 5 days per child per year from not driving.
To learn more about Pogo, visit http://www.PogoRides.com.
For Media Inquiries, please contact John Glover at jglover(at)pogorides(dot)com
Verizon Powerful Answers Award is a year-long global challenge to discover and help bring to market technologies that show promise for addressing some of the world’s greatest challenges in the emergency response, transportation and Internet of Things categories.
John Glover, Pogo Rides, http://www.pogorides.com, +1 4255037738, [email protected]
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