BlaBlaCar secures a $100 million round to transform city-to

BlaBlaCar secures a $100 million round to transform city-to-city
travel around the world
Company aims to build a global people-powered transport network
London/Paris, 02 July 2014: BlaBlaCar, the world’s largest long-distance ride-sharing
network, today announces a $100 million Series C investment round led by Index Ventures,
with the participation of existing investors Accel Partners, ISAI and Lead Edge Capital, to
connect cities globally.
With over 8 million members in 12 countries, the Paris-headquartered company has created a
new way to travel from city to city based on wasted capacity in cars – i.e. empty seats –
providing an alternative to trains, planes and long haul coaches. By matching people looking
to travel long distances with drivers seeking to share the cost of their journeys, BlaBlaCar is at
the forefront of a worldwide sharing economy revolution, making ground transport more
efficient and affordable.
The service has seen strong growth due to the ever-increasing cost of owning and driving a
car, especially for long trips. Every month, more than 1 million BlaBlaCar members share
journeys, representing year-on-year growth of over 200%. For the typical journey of 200
miles, drivers offer seats at less than £16 (€19/$25) on average, covering part of their
motoring costs, while passengers travel at prices that are three times lower on average than
any other alternative.
Already well-entrenched across Europe, the company will use the investment to expand into
new markets, said CEO Frédéric Mazzella. “Since founding the company, we have shaken up
the long distance travel market in Europe and built an active and loyal community. This
investment will help us accelerate to build a trusted people-powered transport network right
across the globe.”
Since its last financing round of $10m in early 2012, BlaBlaCar has expanded from France
into 11 countries and made three acquisitions. With each major new market entry, uptake has
accelerated. Its latest new territory, Russia, for example, saw over 250,000 new verified
members in the first quarter of operation, while BlaBlaCar surpassed 1 million members one
year after launch in Germany.
“Our very successful new market expansion demonstrates that BlaBlaCar is relevant on a
global scale,” said Nicolas Brusson, COO. “This $100 million round provides firepower for us
to explore every large market in the world, where access to ground transport can be improved
upon. We will continue to look for smart, local acqui-hires, as we build a brand with global
reach and unrivalled on-the-ground operations.”
Index Ventures partner, Dominique Vidal, who will join the company’s board, said: “We are
so excited to be partnering with Frédéric, Francis, Nicolas and the team, who are at a defining
moment in their audacious quest to transform the way cities are connected all over the world.
Index is a long-term supporter of marketplaces and this investment is our 27th in the space,
reflecting the way social media is accelerating a peer-to-peer revolution, fundamentally
reshaping the way we live, work and get around.”
Philippe Botteri, Partner at Accel Partners and board member, added: “While the market for
short-distance ride sharing within cities is highly competitive, BlaBlaCar is addressing a
completely different segment, namely long-distance travel -- and they have quickly become
the global category leader.”
Jean-David Chamboredon, CEO of ISAI and board member, said, "We saw the potential of the
BlaBlaCar network at the time of our investment in early 2010, but, even so, we probably
underestimated just how massive the adoption would be among travellers. It has been
fantastic to see how mainstream long distance ride sharing is becoming in the company’s
markets of operation."
An early pioneer of the sharing economy, BlaBlaCar was founded in 2006 by Frédéric
Mazzella, CEO, Francis Nappez, CTO, and Nicolas Brusson, COO, and currently operates in
Benelux, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, the Ukraine and the United
Kingdom.
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About BlaBlaCar
BlaBlaCar is a long-distance ride-sharing community that connects people looking to travel
long distances with drivers making the same journey, so they can travel together and share
the costs. Each passenger makes a contribution for their seat, and drivers cover their
motoring costs but do not to make a profit. Every month, more than 1 million BlaBlaCar
members share journeys of around 200 miles.
The web and mobile platform are engineered to create a secure, trust-based community with
full member profiles and even a preference for members to specify how chatty they are, from
“Bla” and “BlaBla” to “BlaBlaBla”, hence the name BlaBlaCar.
http://www.blablacar.com/
About Index Ventures
Index Ventures is a multi-stage venture capital firm investing in technology and life science
companies. Based in London, Geneva and San Francisco, Index is dedicated to supporting the
best entrepreneurial teams looking to build market-defining, global businesses. Since its
inception in 1996, Index has teamed-up with exceptional entrepreneurs in more than 20
countries, who are using technology to reshape every industry from gaming, media, retail and
travel to education, financial services, security, storage and pharma -- and every other sector
in between. The companies they’ve started include asos, Citymapper, Criteo, Dropbox, Etsy,
HouseTrip, Just Eat, King, Nasty Gal, Skype, SoundCloud and Supercell — among many
others. More at www.indexventures.com.
About Accel Partners
Founded in 1983, Accel Partners has a long history of partnering with outstanding
entrepreneurs and management teams to build world-class businesses. Accel today invests
globally using dedicated teams and market-specific strategies for local geographies, with
offices in Palo Alto, London, New York City and Bangalore, as well as in China via its
partnership with IDG-Accel. Accel has invested in over 500 companies, many of which have
defined their categories, including Angry Birds (Rovio), Atlassian, Cloudera, ComScore,
Dropbox, Facebook, Groupon, Imperva, Kayak, Playfish, QlikTech, Spotify, Supercell, Varonis
and Wonga. For more information, visit the Accel Partners web site at www.accel.com or find
us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/accel.
About ISAI
ISAI, known as the French internet entrepreneurs' fund, was founded by Pierre KosciuskoMorizet (PriceMinister), Geoffroy Roux de Bezieux (Virgin Mobile), Stéphane Treppoz
(Sarenza) and Ouriel Ohayon (Appsfire) and it is managed by Jean-David Chamboredon,
Christophe Raynaud and Pierre Martini.
ISAI invests via two investment vehicles: one early-stage post-seed Venture fund and one
small cap Private Equity fund.
Alongside the founders, ISAI gathers more than 70 individual investors in the ISAI funds
including founders of 24h00, Abaxia, Alapage, Alloresto, Aposition, Aufeminin, Betclic,
BourseDirecte, Boursorama, Cityvox, Companeo, Criteo, Directinet, DirectPanel, EVE, FiaNet, Fortuneo, Freever, Fullsix, Highdeal, Infobebes, LesJeudis, Micromania, Mistergooddeal,
Overblog, Netcentrex, Onedirect, Photoweb, Pick-up Services, Photobox, PressIndex, Prizee,
Screentonic, Seloger, ShowRoomPrive, Sophis, Travelprice, Twenga, Toluna, Vente-privee,
Voyagermoinscher, Webhelp and Wcube.
ISAI currently has 85 million euros under management and is an AMF authorized portfolio
management company. http://www.isai.fr/
About Lead Edge Capital
Lead Edge Capital is an innovative, multi-stage growth equity firm that offers entrepreneurs
flexible capital and extensive domain expertise via its Limited Partner Network, a
global advisory group of leading executives, entrepreneurs and dealmakers. Lead Edge
manages over $400 million in assets and has invested in leading software
and internet companies including Marketo, Bazaarvoice, Mindbody, Drilling Info, Refinery29,
Serena & Lily and Alibaba Group. Lead Edge is based in New York and manages over $400
million in assets. Learn more at www.leadedgecapital.com.