Sunil Paul (born November 12, 1964) is an Internet entrepreneur who launched Spring Free EV in 2021.[1] He has previously founded companies such as Brightmail and Freeloader, Inc. He was the co-founder and CEO of Sidecar, a San Francisco, based an on-demand peer-to-peer taxi service that later pivoted away from ridesharing toward deliveries of various items.[2][3]
Early life and background
Paul was born in Punjab, India. At the age of 4 his parents immigrated to the United States where he was raised in Nashville, Tennessee. Paul holds a B.E. in Electrical Engineering from Vanderbilt University.[4]
Career
Starting in 1994, Paul served as an Internet Product Manager and Director of Corporate Development for America Online, Inc.
In 1996, Paul co-founded and launched his first startup with Mark Pincus, Freeloader, Inc., a web-based push technology service.[5] Freeloader was backed by Fred Wilson and Softbank.[6] Paul served as the Chief Executive Officer from January 1996 - June 1996 when Freeloader, Inc. was acquired by Individual, Inc., for $38 million.[7]
In 1998 Paul founded Brightmail (previously known as "Bright Light Technologies"), an e-mail filtering company, and raised $55 million in three rounds of venture capital led by Accel, TCV and Symantec. Brightmail was acquired by Symantec on May 19, 2004 for $370 million in cash.[8]
Paul is an angel investor with investments in companies including LinkedIn, and Solazyme. In February 2012 Paul co-founded Sidecar, an on-demand peer-to-peer ridesharing service with Jahan Khanna, Adrian Fortino, and Nick Allen. Sidecar was based in San Francisco, CA [9] and raised $10 million Series A funding in October 2012 from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Google Ventures.[10][11] Sidecar operated in Seattle,[12]Los Angeles, Austin, Philadelphia,[13]Chicago,[14]Boston, New York City[15] and Washington, D.C. Sidecar closed on December 31, 2015. The company raised $39 million over its life and sold to General Motors in January 2016. The price of the transaction was not disclosed, although a person familiar with the matter said it was less than the roughly $39 million that Sidecar raised.[2][16]
Paul launched Spring Free EV in 2021, a fintech company designed to have climate level impact by accelerating adoption of electric vehicles.[1]
