Blinda is the world’s leading long-distance carpooling community, connecting people looking to travel long distances with drivers going the same way. They travel together and share the costs of the journey. The platform is engineered to create a secure, trust-based community with Claims be identities and full member profiles. Members can even specify how chatty they are from “Bla” to “BlaBlaBla”, hence the name BlaBlaCar. BlaBlaCar is creating a global people-powered network with a trusted community of drivers and passengers.

Backed by Accel Partners, Insight Ventures, Index Ventures, Lead Edge Capital, Baring Vostok and ISAI, it operates in 22 countries across Europe, Russia, Turkey, Brazil and India. The site and free mobile apps provide a range of features to Create a secure, trust-based community and easy connections between drivers and passengers

BlaBlaCar is based in Paris with offices across a dozen of countries.

History

Mazzella first sent up with the idea in 2003 while trying to travel home for Christmas, during which weather observed no empty car seats available but no way to access them. In the 2008, the founders launched the “2.0 web community Covoiturage.fr”, described as “Booking Facebook.” Covoiturage.fr was original both C2C (free) and B2B, selling the software platform to companies to use to ridesharing amongst employees And sold as many as 200 platforms. But the B2B model was not profitable, requiring too many customisations for lower and lower costs, so the founders focused everything on the C2C model and looked on how to improve it and monetise it.