Type Private Website blablacar.com | ||
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Founded 2006; 11 years ago (2006) Founders Frédéric Mazzella (CEO) Nicolas Brusson (COO) Francis Nappez (CTO) | ||
BlaBlaCar is the world's largest long-distance ridesharing community. Conceived in December 2003 by Frédéric Mazzella, and founded in 2006, BlaBlaCar connects drivers and passengers willing to travel together between cities and share the cost of the journey. BlaBlaCar has more than 600 employees and more than 35 million members across 22 countries.
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Members must register and create a personal online profile, which includes ratings and reviews by other members, social network verification, and rate of response. "Profiles of members show how much experience they have of the service, meaning those with more – known as "ambassadors" – attract more ride shares and, importantly, each user's profile includes a "BlaBla" measurement, which indicates how much they are willing to chat during a trip".
As of April 2015, the company had raised USD$100 million from blue-chip venture-capital firms including ISAI, Index and Accel, plus earlier rounds of €1.2 million from ISAI and €600,000 from founders, friends, and family.
On September 16 2015, BlaBlaCar announced it had raised another US $200 million "primarily from US investors" in a round that valued the company at USD$1.6 billion.
The service is accessible via the web, mobile and also via apps for iOS and Android.
History
Mazzella first came up with the idea in 2003 while trying to travel home for Christmas, during which he observed many empty car seats available but no way to access them. In 2008, the founders launched the "2.0 web community Covoiturage.fr", described as "Booking meets Facebook." Covoiturage.fr was originally both C2C (free) and B2B, selling the software platform to companies to use to encourage ridesharing amongst employees and sold as many as 200 platforms. But the B2B model was not profitable, requiring too many customisations for lower and lower costs, so the founders focused entirely on the C2C model and looked on how to improve it and monetise it.
Business model
The startup's economic model is designed for long distances and geared toward motorists looking to fill empty seats during journeys they would have been making anyway.
International expansion
Critical reception
BlaBlaCar has been awarded over 50 prizes and honours since its creation, including most recently a special prize from the Le Figaro for 'Best place to work: fun and performance'" according to INSEAD Business School.