[Techtaffy Newsdesk]
Cherry, a tech startup that provides on-demand carwash services to customers anywhere they park, has raised $4.5 million of new funding in a Series A round led by Shasta Ventures with additional participation from Founders Fund and select angel investors including Shervin Pishevar and Bill Lee. They will join David Sacks, Keith Rabois and Max Levchin, who invested in a previous seed round.
Cherry is expanding nationally with this funding round, and the service is launching in San Jose, Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Cupertino, and Mountain View. Tod Francis, Shasta’s managing director, will be joining the company’s board alongside Yammer CEO David Sacks and Cherry co-founders Travis VanderZanden and Art Henry.
Travis VanderZanden (Co-founder and CEO, Cherry): If getting a Cherry carwash gives you even 30 extra minutes to spend with family or friends, then we’ll consider ourselves successful.
This is the first time the company has formally raised venture capital since launching in November 2011. The company previously closed a $750,000 seed round from Yammer CEO David Sacks, PayPal founder Max Levchin and Square COO Keith Rabois. Cherry’s funding to-date totals $5.25 million.