Social ridesharing, one of the concepts that have emerged from the new wave of dotcom innovation is gaining momentum, and looking to capitalize on this growing phenomenon is Ridejoy, a YC based start-up which helps to bring people together for long ridesharing journeys. The company recently announced the injection of a fresh $1.3 million into its coffers. The funding round was led by Freestyle Capital with Lerer Ventures, Start Fund, SV Angel, Founder Collective, Y Combinator, Ben Ling, Owen Van Natta. Joshua Schachter, rounded out the list of participants.

The company has competition from Zimride but its backers are hoping that Ridejoy’s knack for marketing the service in a unique way will help it stave off the competition. So far the company has hosted one service catering specifically to rides going to specific location and last year hosted an event set in the Nevada desert. Branded under Burningmanrides.com, the event attracted over 1,600 registrations, and in all just over 400 rides were completed.

The service still needs some shoring up and the new round of funding is expected to help in this regard. One of the big concerns is the level of safety for people offering and accepting rides under the service. So far the solution has been to integrate the service with Facebook to give the process a degree of transparency.

All in all, not a bad concept, and provided the safety issue gets sorted, it should pick up as a service.

Would you use Ridejoy for long trips? Share your thoughts below.

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