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BlablaCar Grabs $10M

2012-01-17
PARIS, FRANCE, Leading marketplace that connects any driver who has empty seats with paying passengers, announced it has received $10M from Accel Partners and existing investors ISAI and Cabiedes & Partners.
BlablaCar, the leading marketplace that connects any driver who has empty seats with paying passengers, announced it has received $10M from Accel Partners and existing investors ISAI and Cabiedes & Partners. The funds will be used to accelerate the growth of BlablaCar's European businesses BlablaCar.com in the UK, Covoiturage.fr in France, and Comuto.es in Spain. They will also fuel further expansion of its revolutionary service across the rest of Europe.

With over 1.6m users, BlablaCar is Europe's most active online collaborative consumption community. The rise of collaborative consumption - sharing unused assets and resources such as a guest room in your flat or a seat in your car - is creating a fundamental shift in the way people consume goods and services. In an age where the average car carries just 1.2 people, BlablaCar's ambition is to reduce the environmental impact of vehicles by rationalising people's use of cars.

In the past few years, BlablaCar's service has experienced an explosive growth, reaching:

· 1.6m members including 400,000 drivers offering their empty seats and sharing their motoring cost with passengers going the same way, ranging from long distance trips across Europe to simple daily commute

· One billion miles collectively shared by the community for more 8m passengers transported with more than half in the last 12 months

· 40m page views per month

Frederic Mazzella, CEO of BlablaCar, comments:

"We hired our first employee in 2009 and in a few years we have built a trusted community of 1.6m members sharing their car journeys across Europe. The business continues to grow at an exceptional rate. We are delighted that a top tier fund such as Accel Partners is backing us to lead this travel revolution in Europe."

Nicolas Brusson, COO of BlablaCar, added:

"Our service is redefining the way people use their car and travel. The majority of our users are buying unused car seats for journeys of 100+ miles, a much cheaper alternative than the train or airplane and representing on average a 70% discount. BlablaCar is spearheading the growth in collaborative travel, an innovative model that will change the travel market in the coming years."

While the service has benefited from both high petrol prices and increasing travel fares - transport costs rose by 11% in the UK in 2011 alone - research conducted on BlablaCar.com users also reveals that members widely use the service for other reasons such as meeting new people or simply choosing a more eco-friendly travel option.

Philippe Botteri of Accel Partners, who joined BlablaCar's board of Directors, said:

"We are thrilled to lead this investment and back the BlablaCar team led by cofounders Frederic Mazzella, Francis Nappez and Nicolas Brusson. Their vision of a European peer-2-peer travel community is disrupting the way people travel by offering a more environmentally friendly, cheaper and social travel alternative. The growth and engagement of their community is very exciting and suggests a huge untapped market opportunity."

Jean-David Chamboredon, CEO of ISAI, who co-invested in this round said:

"We are very pleased with BlablaCar's progress since we first invested in spring 2010. This was the first investment of our entrepreneurs' fund and having Accel leading our first follow-on round is a great milestone. The company's model has been invented in Continental Europe and made BlablaCar the undisputed leader in this market!"

About BlablaCar

Founded in 2006 and based in Paris, BlablaCar (Comuto SA) operates under the Covoiturage.fr, Comuto.es and BlablaCar.com websites in France, Spain and the UK respectively. BlablaCar is an online trusted community that connects drivers with empty seats with people looking for a ride (or: with travellers and commuters going the same way). Its 1.6m member community offers thousands of destinations across Europe every day. BlablaCar is creating a new, affordable and sustainable way to travel for more than 350.000 passengers every month. To ensure the quality of the matching between drivers and passengers, the website displays their preferences: smoking or not, animals accepted in the car or not etc… Members also specify their degree of "chatting" by choosing their type between "Bla", "Blabla" and "Blablabla".
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