BlaBlaCar, a France-headquartered transport marketplace backed by rail operator SNCF, received $115m in funding on Tuesday from growth equity fund FMZ Ventures and investment firms VNV Global and Otiva J/F.
Founded in 2006, BlaBlaCar runs an online platform that allows a customer base of some 90 million users across 22 countries to link up with each other to carpool lengthy or regular journeys. It has also expanded into bus travel, an area in which it plans to invest using the funding.
Nicolas Brusson, BlaBlaCar’s co-founder and chief executive, said: “The Covid-19 crisis has been a real test on the resilience of various models in the travel sector.
“The BlaBlaCar community-based model with a zero fixed-costs and flexible network came out as a clear winner. This additional funding strengthens our position and brings more firepower to deploy our offensive growth strategy.”
The funding was supplied in the form of convertible note financing that will convert to equity at a $2bn valuation in the case of an event such as an initial public offering or acquisition not taking place, Brusson told TechCrunch. Its overall funding now stands at $565m.
SNCF joined existing backers including investment firm VNV (then known as Vostok New Ventures) to provide $114m in funding in 2018. The company’s other earlier investors include Insight Partners, Lead Edge Capital, Accel, Isai, Index Ventures and Cabiedes & Partners.
