# Upshift

> Upshift is a San Francisco car subscription service for people who drive a few days a month but don't want the cost and hassle of owning a car. Members pick a flexible monthly plan, get a clean late-model hybrid (Toyota Prius or Corolla Hybrid) delivered with insurance, maintenance, and refueling included, and skip parking tickets, repairs, and long-term loans. Founded in 2012 by Ezra Goldman and Ayako Hiwasa, the company frames itself as 'the ownership alternative for low-mileage city drivers' and is positioning for an autonomous, connected, electrified future of car non-ownership.

- **Founded:** 2012
- **Headquarters:** San Francisco, United States
- **Founders:** Ezra Goldman (Co-founder & CEO), Ayako Hiwasa (Co-founder & Head of Operations)
- **Team size:** ~22 employees
- **Products:** Fractional Car Subscription, All-Inclusive Vehicle Access, Hybrid & EV Fleet, Delivery & Self-Pickup, Remote-Driven Delivery (with Elmo)
- **Notable:** Avoided over 1,115,728 lbs of CO2 through shared, low-mileage hybrid use, Maintains 5.0 ratings on both Yelp and Google, Raised ~$2.7M from MINI, Ford, Toyota Financial Services and thousands of crowd investors

## Products & services

- **Fractional Car Subscription** — Flexible monthly plans (e.g. 4, 8, or 12 drive-days a month) giving members access to a late-model hybrid. Unused days roll over and extras are charged at a flat rate.
- **All-Inclusive Vehicle Access** — Insurance, delivery, maintenance, cleaning, and refueling are bundled into the subscription, so members only think about driving.
- **Hybrid & EV Fleet** — A standardized fleet of recent-model Toyota Prius and Toyota Corolla Hybrids (plus past RAV4 Hybrid, Hyundai Ioniq 5 EV), all low-mileage and uniform.
- **Delivery & Self-Pickup** — Vehicles delivered to the member's location or accessed via self-pickup using telematics; picked up when the member is done.
- **Remote-Driven Delivery (with Elmo)** — A partnership to have cars remotely teledriven to a member's doorstep and repositioned by operators without anyone physically in the car.

## Achievements

- Avoided over 1,115,728 lbs of CO2 through shared, low-mileage hybrid use
- Maintains 5.0 ratings on both Yelp and Google
- Raised ~$2.7M from MINI, Ford, Toyota Financial Services and thousands of crowd investors
- CEO Ezra Goldman featured in Forbes (2023)
- Selected for the URBAN-X accelerator
- First-mover partnership to bring road-legal remote-driven car delivery to California

## Latest updates

- **2026-03** — Announced partnership with Elmo to launch remote-controlled (teledriven) car subscription delivery in California.
- **2026-03** — Updated fleet to 2026-model Toyota Prius and Corolla Hybrids with under 5,000 miles.
- **2024-03** — Latest reported funding activity (Seed).
- **2023** — CEO Ezra Goldman featured in Forbes; cumulative equity raised reached ~$2.7M.

## Links

- Website: https://upshiftcars.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/upshift
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/upshiftcars
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/upshiftcars
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/upshiftcars

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/upshift
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-27