French Rideshare Company BlaBlaCar Raises $100 Million

BlaBlaCar, a ridesharing app based
in France, just raised $100 million in a round of investments from
venture capitalists, cementing itself as a major player in Europe’s
sharing economy.

Here’s how it works: When one of the 8 million registered users
is making a long trip, they open up the app and look for someone
that is heading in the same direction. Each passenger has to pay an
average of $25, and the app suggests pricing so that the users
don’t bicker too much over the costs. The average trip arranged
through BlaBlaCar is 200 miles long, but rides can be as long or
short as necessary. It’s like Uber for highway hitchhikers, with
similar accountability mechanisms where passengers and drivers can
rate each other.

French startups received $1.03 billion in venture investments in
2013, making BlaBlaCar’s $100 million investment nearly a tenth of
last year’s total. The firm, founded in 2006, took off as gas
prices rose and smartphones became more pervasive.

Peer-to-peer services are
catching on worldwide. The advantages of not having to go
through a third-party for lodging and transportation are becoming
increasingly apparent to individuals. As technology continues to
make peer-to-peer transactional services a more viable sector of
the economy, expect traditional businesses to amp up their attacks
and further emphasize the excessive regulations that are currently
in place. Just this month, thousands of taxi drivers across Europe

protested Uber and related apps by blocking traffic in downtown
areas. But BlaBlaCar’s director for Spain and Portugal, Vicent
Rosso,
told the Spanish newspaper El Pais that BlaBlaCar’s
business has nothing to do with the activities that taxis across
Europe have been protesting recently:

“First of all, I want to stress that we have nothing to do with
Uber. The Public Works Ministry also made it clear in its
release: we are simply a platform that helps individuals share
travel expenses. From BlaBlaCar’s viewpoint, there is no need for
new regulations.”