 "BlaBlaCar announces $200 million in series D funding")
Ride-sharing is not new to Indians. There is a bus stop in Mumbai where a taxi leaves every 15 minutes with four passengers bound for Pune, 150 kilometers away. People queue up there to get into these ride-sharing cabs, which are more economical than the long distance bus ride which is far less comfortable. In every Indian city there are such vantage points from where people jump into a vehicle to share an inter-city ride.
Technology is taking this sharing to a new level. Earlier this year, French ride-sharing platform BlaBlaCar arrived in India to connect car owners with others travelling long distances so that both groups can save money. In its first six months in this large country, BlaBlaCar clocked a whopping 17 million shared kilometers and 350,000 seats across 700 cities.
Today, it announced $200 million in series D funding led by Insight Venture Partners and Lead Edge Capital. Vostok New Ventures participated in the round. “With this additional investment, we’ll be able to accelerate our growth in new markets,” Nicolas Brusson, BlaBlaCar’s co-founder and COO, says in a statement announcing the funding.
BlaBlaCar’s main rival is Tripda from Brazil, which launched in India in November last year – just two months before BlaBlaCar arrived. It is reported to be clocking 100% growth month on month, connecting 400 cities as of June. The Rocket Internet-backed ride-sharing app is growing twice as fast in India as it is globally.
