BlaBlaCar

BlaBlaCar is the world’s largest long-distance ridesharing community.[1] Conceived in December 2003 by Frédéric Mazzella,[2] and founded in 2006,[3] BlaBlaCar connects drivers and passengers willing to travel together between cities and share the cost of the journey. BlaBlaCar has more than 25 million members across 22 countries.[4][5][6][7]

Members must register and create a personal online profile, which includes ratings and reviews by other members, social network verification, and rate of response.[8][9] “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”.[2]

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.[10]

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.[11]

The service is accessible via the web, mobile and also via apps for iOS and Android.

Person Details

Frédéric Mazzella is the Founder and CEO of BlaBlaCar, the leading European ridesharing community that connects drivers with empty seats and people traveling the same way, so they can share their cost. Frédéric originally imagined a new transport network, built on people, when he could not get home one Christmas, several years ago. He had no car. The trains were full. The roads, too, were full of people driving alone in their car. It occurred to him that he should try to find a driver going his way and offer to share fuel costs… BlaBlaCar was born. Today, with 10 million members across Europe and 2 million people transported per month, BlaBlaCar is making road travel social, money-saving and more sustainable.

Frédéric holds an MBA from INSEAD, a Masters of Science in Computer Science from Stanford and a Masters of Physics from ENS Ulm (Normale Sup). Prior to founding BlaBlaCar he worked for 3 years as a scientific researcher, at NASA (USA), and NTT (Japan). Frédéric is a regular speaker in international conferences and medias (CNN, Bloomberg, CNBC….) on the theme of sustainable development, entrepreneurship, global marketplaces and building trust in online communities. Frédéric is also an accomplished classical pianist and tweets @mazaic.