Tag: Passes Inc.

Stic, a Culver City-based adtech platform for the gig economy, announced in early December it raised $10 million in bridge funding from Accretion Capital and a handful of angel investors. Stic is now valued at $200 million, according to the company.

Stic pays drivers to advertise companies on their cars, allowing them to earn passive income on the road while giving brands another option to buy out-of-home advertising, which is largely dominated by stagnant billboards. Stic uses smart stickers that adhere to the side of the car and track miles in order to pay users for every mile they drive. On the backend, advertisers can track and manage geolocation data and targeted demographic data to strengthen advertising campaigns.

Stic was founded in 2023 by then-college student Adam Cohen. After talking to an Uber driver who also juggled work from Lyft Inc., Doordash and Maplebear Inc., or otherwise known as Instacart, Cohen realized her car – which clocked in around 3,000 miles a month delivering people and groceries – was prime advertising real estate for brands. All drivers had to do was download yet another app, and they could earn passive income as a driving billboard.

“Stic is going on in the background. You don’t even have to touch it,” Cohen said. “You’re already driving the miles.”

As the U.S experiences a resurgence of gig economy roles – thanks in part to rising interest rates, climbing grocery costs, job uncertainty plagued by artificial intelligence and the worst year for job growth since the Great Recession – companies like Stic have emerged as an opportunity to make extra cash. Unlike driving or delivery platforms, which compete for worker attention, Stic bills itself as a passive, low-effort option.

“The only reason why Stic will ever make money is because our mission is to genuinely help people and pay them for the miles they already drive and give them this new type of passive income that they don’t know that they need,” Cohen said.

When the gig economy emerged in the wake of the Great Recession, it was billed as a way for people to supplement their existing income by getting paid to chauffeur riders to the airport, pick up strangers’ laundry or host travelers during their spare time. Given the opportunity to commodify their existing assets – be it a spare room in their house, or in Stic’s case, the side of a car door – gig economy companies grew into a $557 billion industry. Today, around 40% of gig workers rely on the sector as their main source of income.

While the gig economy is, to some, inextricably tied to the economic and technological milestones of the 2010s, gig work startups have experienced a funding renaissance in the 2020s. Companies in the space received around $250 million in venture funding in 2025, per PitchBook, more than double what the sector made in 2019.

“In today’s economy, people are looking for meaningful ways to earn income and seek advertising that isn’t disruptive to their daily lives,” Lucy Guo, chief executive and founder of Passes and a Stic’s partner, said in a statement. “Stic’s platform empowers gig workers while delivering smarter advertising in the real world, unlocking growth opportunities for all sides of the marketplace – from drivers to brands and agencies.”