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<br /> France-headquartered ride-sharing platform <keyword id="2401770" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="BlaBlaCar">BlaBlaCar</keyword>, which entered the Indian market last year, has announced that it would now verify the government IDs for all its members, so that it can improve the safety and security for its rides. <br />
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Out of the 22 countries in which the company operates, India is the first market to have such feature introduced for verification of its riders, which was brought in a few weeks ago, based on member feedback. <br />
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"India is the first country where we have begun verification of government ID documents, such as the Aadhar card," Raghav Gupta, BlaBlaCar’s India country manager, told <a href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/in-a-first-blablacar-introduces-verification-in-india-to-ensure-safer-rides/articleshow/53091990.cms">ET</a>. "We took the decision after our members suggested it. The idea is to create a trusted community." <br />
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The verification would be a two-step process wherein the company would be verifying the scanned document that users would upload, and the details will be matched with government database using API integration. Verified member profiles will also boost the member's profile, so that they get more requests for individuals looking to travel on the same route as them. <br />
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As of now, BlaBlaCar is not making any money in India, but is looking to monetise by the first half of 2017, for which it would charge commissions from co-travellers for the rides. <br />
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<a href="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/j3SN5kw9z5U/maxresdefault.jpg"><em>Image source</em></a><br />

BlaBlaCar introduces government ID verification for better safety

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Flickr/leweb3</span></p><p class="caption">Blablacar CEO Frédéric Mazzella</p></div><p></p></div></div>Ride-sharing startup BlaBlaCar has raised $160 million from Insight Venture Partners, <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2015/09/08/blablacar-is-raising-160-million-from-insight-valuing-ride-sharing-startup-at-1-2-billion">TechCrunch reports</a>.</p><p>The Series D round of funding apparently values the business at $1.2 billion (£780 million). That means that BlaBlaCar is now a European "unicorn" (a startup valued above $1 billion).</p><p>TechCrunch reports that BlaBlaCar's Series D round will be led by Insight Venture Partners, but with participation from business angels.</p><p>Business Insider has reached out to the company for confirmation, and will update this story when it responds.</p><p>BlaBlaCar doesn't work like other ride-sharing services. It's designed for longer trips between cities, not for travel within them.</p><p>Riders book trips between cities and destinations in advance with drivers who already traveling the route. Customers pay a small fee for the journey, and BlaBlaCar takes around a 10% cut of the price. There's also a system that controls how much you want to talk to your driver. Select "bla" if you're not feeling talkative, but you can also choose "bla bla" if you're a little chatty, or "bla bla bla" if you're keen to make conversation.</p><p>BlaBlaCar has been expanding rapidly around Europe and the rest of the world. <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/15/blablacar-acquires-its-biggest-competitor-carpooling-com-to-dominate-european-market/#.tm6hxk:yB1h">It acquired competitors Carpooling.com and AutoHop in April</a>. That brought the total number of BlaBlaCar members to around 20 million. The company <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/01/blablacar-raises-a-massive-100-million-round-to-create-a-global-ride-sharing-network/">previously raised $100 million</a> (£64.9 million) in 2014.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/guy-invents-drill-powered-walking-machine-2015-7">This guy built a walking machine powered by a hand drill</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="Y2MHE4djpuBAyKj7UIaNX1oQEbIRcv51" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

REPORT: Ridesharing startup BlaBlaCar has raised $160 million

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Flickr/TechCrunch</span></p><p class="caption">BlaBlaCar CEO Frederic Mazzella</p></div><p></p></div></div>French ridesharing startup BlaBlaCar<a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/blablacar-has-raised-160-million-report-2015-9"> has reportedly raised $160 million</a> (£104 million) in new funding, which brings its valuation to $1.2 billion (£780 million). </p><p>How could a hitchhiking app be worth so much? Hardly anyone uses it. It has only 2 million monthly active users. For comparison, Whatsapp has 900 million.</p><p>But some back-of-the-envelope calculations show that BlaBlaCar could actually already be generating surprisingly robust revenues.</p><p>The model that BlaBlaCar follows is similar to Uber and other ridesharing services, but the way the service works is slightly different.</p><p>BlaBlaCar riders pay their driver a fee, and <a href="http://tech.eu/features/481/ride-sharing-europe-carpooling-blablacar/">the company takes around a 12% cut</a> from that amount (which is similar to how Uber works). But what's different about the service is that BlaBlaCar doesn't operate within cities - instead it's all about travel between long-distance destinations. Need a ride from Paris to Brussels, but don't want to pay the expensive train or plane fare? BlaBlaCar is your solution.</p><p>Let's take a look at some of BlaBlaCar's numbers to figure out how much money it's bringing in. </p><p>BlaBlaCar COO and cofounder Nicolas Brusson<a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4260cd4e-7c75-11e4-9a86-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3l3e0RfFw"> told The Financial Times in December</a> that the company has 2 million people who use its services every month. And the company said earlier last year that <a href="https://pando.com/2014/07/01/europes-blablacar-raises-100m-to-take-ride-sharing-long-distance/">the average ride charge was around $25 </a>(£16). Factor in BlaBlaCar's 12% cut and it's bringing in around $72 million (£46.8 million) every year, assuming that its users take one trip every month.</p><p><strong>Here's the sum:</strong></p><ul><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">2 million rides</span></li><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">x $25 each</span></li><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">x 12 months of the year</span></li><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">x 12% cut for BlaBlaCar</span></li><li><strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">= $72 million in revenues </span></strong></li></ul><p>We used old, conservative numbers to generate that estimate.</p><p>An annual revenue of $72 million is no small figure, but if it were recurring annual revenue it would make a one-time investment of $160 million look reasonable. </p><p>It pales in comparison to <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/uber-revenue-projection-in-2015-2014-11">Uber's predicted revenue figures</a>. Uber is expected to hit an annual revenue run rate of $10 billion (£6.5 billion) by the end of 2015. Uber takes a larger cut than BlaBlaCar, keeping 20% instead of 12%, so it's expected to keep $2 billion (£1.3 billion) of that total. It also does many more rides.</p><p>BlaBlaCar doesn't yet operate in the US, and doesn't appear to have any plans to head there and compete with Uber. <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4260cd4e-7c75-11e4-9a86-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3l3e0RfFw">COO Nicolas Brusson told The Financial Times</a> in a December 2014 interview that "the US is not the best market for us in many ways." Instead, BlaBlaCar is focusing on other international markets like India, Turkey, Brazil, and Russia.</p><p>It can be tricky for European ridesharing companies to expand to the US and attempt to take on the bigger players. British ridesharing company Hailo expanded to New York in 2013, <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/hailo-hangs-up-on-u-s-app-driven-taxi-service-1413335668">but ended its operations there in 2014</a>. Hailo's CEO, Jay Bregman,<a href="http://fortune.com/2014/10/14/hailo-taxi-app-funding-failure/"> also departed the company</a> shortly afterwards. </p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/us-earths-ice-melted-animated-map-climate-change-2015-7">Here's what the US would look like if all the Earth's ice melted</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="Z4dGwzdDrnZunZUB10-CqEUToYnAvsHw" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

We figured out how much money new European unicorn BlaBlaCar could be making

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="BlaBlaCar" title_caption="Nicolas Brusson" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/563a00bcdd0895b8608b47b6-960/maxresdefault.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span>BlaBlaCar</span></p><p class="caption">Nicolas Brusson</p></div><p></p></div></div>One of the most exciting European tech startups is BlaBlaCar, the French ride-sharing app that lets people split the cost of fuel on journeys between cities: The company recently raised <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/4-charts-blablacar-android-app-2015-9">a $200 million (£127 million) round of investment that values BlaBlaCar at $1.6 billion (£780 million)</a>. Yet the company has no presence in the US and no plans to launch there soon, COO Nicolas Brusson told Business Insider at Web Summit in Dublin today.</p><p>On its face, this seems weird: America is a massive market that loves ride-sharing apps like Uber; it has terrible train links between its major cities; short flights between nearby cities can be expensive and inconvenient (think of the airport wait-time); and Americans think nothing of casually driving 200 miles a day - which is the kind of distance that is a sweet spot for BlaBlaCar drivers and passengers. BlaBlaCar also replaces hitchhiking by making it safer and easier, in the much the same way Airbnb and Uber do in their sectors - by reassuring both sides of a transaction that the other person they're dealing with has been checked out and peer-rated. </p><p>And, BlaBlaCar has the kind of global ambitions that Uber does. </p><p>So why don't Americans want to get between cities cheaply by sharing a ride on BlaBlaCar, when they're seemingly so willing to do the same for a short trip inside a city on Uber?</p><p>It turns out that the US's lack of public transport infrastructure in most cities hobbles BlaBlaCar from developing there while giving an artificial boost to Uber, Brusson says. </p><p>On a typical BlaBlaCar trip, the driver might say, "I am leaving from this location in London and will drop people at Picadilly Station in Manchester. Show up at this place in London if you want to share the ride and the cost." The start and end location don't matter because both London and Manchester have great bus, train and underground links, so it is easy for someone without a car to get to the driver, and to get to their final destination after they've been dropped off. Public transport means that the driver doesn't have to ferry passengers around a traffic-choked city, dropping each one off, like a taxi. "So you need good public transport within cities to take care of the first part and the last part" of the journey, Brusson says.</p><p>But in the US, "If I tell you I'll drop you off in Sunnyvale and you actually live in Palo Alto, what are you going to do? Good luck," Brusson says. "So that's an issue we have in the US, the fabric of the city, the fabric of the network is not ideal. It's also why Uber is so popular because Uber is replacing a lack of public transport" in the US, he says.</p><p>This is fascinating because it shows how government public spending and infrastructure decisions can either encourage new businesses or prevent them. BlaBlaCar is huge in Germany because it's easy to get around without a car in most German cities. And while train links between German cities are good too, BlaBlaCar opens up a new market of riders who want to make those same journeys at a fraction of the train cost.</p><p>And while American cities, with their lousy bus networks and mostly non-existent subway and light rail systems, are perfect for a service like Uber, they militate against BlaBlaCar's long-journey app service.</p><p>In the rest of the world, however, BlaBlaCar is growing like crazy. Here are the company's latest metrics, per Brusson:</p><ul><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">10 million people traveling every quarter.</span></li><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The traveler count is doubling year on year.</span></li><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">20 million people signed up in total.</span></li><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Average trip cost is 20 euros ($20).</span></li><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">BlaBlaCar takes a 10-15% cut of each journey cost, except in new markets where it waives the cut while the service is being introduced and ramped up.</span></li><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">400 employees in 19 countries and 13 locations, including Moscow Sao Paulo, Mexico City, London and Paris.</span></li></ul><p>Those numbers imply that <strong>BlaBlaCar's revenues could currently be something like $96 million annually</strong> (10 million travellers per quarter x $20 per trip x four quarters x 12% cut = $96 million). That's <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/how-much-money-blablacar-could-be-making-2015-9">up from our previous estimate in September of $72 million</a>. Brusson declined to discuss revenues but invited us to do the math ourselves.</p><p> </p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-impact-commercial-airplanes-aeronautics-travel-transportation-plane-2015-8">NASA is the reason airplane wings bend up at the end</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="J2bDM3eDqfzyqiiXLbpR1YJF7eUR_h9d" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Why America may never see one of Europe's hottest tech startups

<br /> US based taxi hailing app <keyword id="1042120" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Uber">Uber</keyword> would join the likes of BlaBlaCar, Ridingo, Tripda and Meru Cabs with the India launch of its new car pooling product, <keyword id="6591085" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="UberPool">UberPOOL</keyword>, in the coming weeks. <keyword id="6354321" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Bengaluru">Bengaluru</keyword> will become the first city to experience it, said Uber in a statement. <br /><br />

	In UberPOOL, users can share a ride and split the cost with another person who just happens to be requesting a ride along a similar route. When Uber finds a match, it notifies the user of a co-rider's details.
<br /><br /> "We will launch a beta version for Bengaluru users in the coming weeks. They will join millions of commuters in <keyword id="12161" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="San-Francisco">San Francisco</keyword>, New York City, Boston, Austin and Paris who have been using UberPool for months now," Bhavik Rathod, General Manager at Uber in Bangalore, told ET. <br /><br />

	"Our vision for UberPOOL means helping solve some of the toughest problems cities are facing today, whether it's congestion, pollution, or lack of access to transportation," he added.
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	Uber claims that riders in India will be able to save up to 50% while adding only a few minutes of time per trip. 
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	Nearly half of all Uber rides in San Francisco are pooled rides. Launched in India less than two years ago, Uber is active in 22 Indian cities, even as it faces trouble with authorities in cities such as Mumbai and Delhi for not possessing a license to operate cabs.

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	(Image credits: Indiatimes)

Uber to bring its car pooling product UberPOOL to India very soon

Keeping in mind the vast online commuter market, India’s top cab aggregator, <keyword id="6354720" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ola">Ola</keyword> is now prepping-up to introduce <keyword id="3071546" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="motorcycle-taxis">motorcycle taxis</keyword>.<br />
<br /> The Bangalore-based cab aggregator also plans to launch a shuttle bus service. Not just this, but Ola users will now be able to avail <keyword id="3072073" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="car-pooling">car-pooling</keyword> feature on its mobile application, reported The Economic Times.<br />
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The motorcycle taxis and shuttle service, however, might face regulatory issues as these do not have any legal frameworks so far.<br />
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Internal sources, requesting anonymity, informed that the bike taxis will be on the lines of Indonesia's GoJek, Blue-Jek and Grabbike, which is being used to transport people as well as goods.<br />
<br /> Another major add-on to the mobile application, <keyword id="3071503" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="OlaShare">OlaShare</keyword>, is being worked-on for quite some time now. The company, however, declined to respond on the email queries by the business daily.<br />
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The firm is also in the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Ola-Cabs-new-round-of-fund-raising-to-value-it-above-5-billion/articleshow/49072304.cms">advanced stage of closing a financing round</a> of about $500 million (Rs 3,000 crore), which will give a muscle to the firm for its forthcoming plans.<br />
<br /> The new services, if compared to the other cab-service providers, might give a tough fight to San Francisco-based <keyword id="1042120" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Uber">Uber</keyword>, which is targeting to enhance its business outside the US with India being one of the most potential markets.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Uber-hopes-to-make-India-its-second-largest-market-sees-Ola-as-competition/articleshow/49087294.cms">(​Uber hopes to make India its second-largest market, sees Ola as competition)</a><br />
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Uber, however, introduced UberPool, its car-pooling service in India, starting with Bengaluru.<br />
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Kartik Hosanagar, a professor of technology and digital business at The Wharton School termed the bike-taxi move an interesting one and said, "As of now, it should be seen as an experiment. But one with tremendous potential for Ola... However, the company would have to navigate around regulations."<br />
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HeyTaxi, a Mumbai-based motorcycle-taxi company which was launched in June, came under fire from the city's transport department, which has termed the service illegal.<br />
<br /> A top official at <keyword id="151058" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Delhi-Transport-Department">Delhi Transport Department</keyword> said the state was framing a scheme for a motorcycle-taxi service but there were issues to consider. "As of now it will be deemed illegal. We were planning to launch such a service in Delhi but have put it on hold due to safety concerns," he said. Instead, Delhi launched a scheme for renting self-driven motorbikes in August.<br />
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Car-pooling services, too, are in a regulator grey zone. Several state governments encourage personal carpooling as a way to lessen traffic and pollution, but as a business, the service is not covered under any legal framework.<br />
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Safety is another area of concern, as riders would have to car-pool with strangers. Meru Cabs verifies co-riders with their PAN or Aadhaar numbers while BlaBlaCar mandates a social network account such as Facebook for logging in.<br />
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Experts, on the other hand, agreed upon the fact that car-pooling as a business has huge potential.<br />
<em>Image: thinkstock </em><br />

Ola is going for the kill! Uber already sees it as competition

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Investor Nat Rothschild has funded a new taxi app in London that goes live today. However, unlike ride sharing app Uber, it actually has the blessing of London's black cab drivers.</p><p><a href="http://www.maaxitaxi.com/">Maaxi is an iPhone and Android app</a> that lets users order a black cab ride, which is then shared with others travelling on a similar route. </p><p>Rothschild, who is the heir to his family's multi-billion dollar fortune, provided seed funding for Maaxi.</p><p>Uber has a similar carpooling service called UberPool that matches passengers who are requesting a ride along a similar route. The riders are locked in from the start of the journey. But Maaxi uses a different system. The app looks at where passengers want to go, before assigning them to a cab with other customers, and will pick up more riders along the way. The model is more efficient because it squeezes more passengers into one car and could therefore be cheaper than Uber. </p><p>In an interview with Business Insider, Rothschild explained what makes Maaxi special:</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">I have a place in California where UberPool is already working. It's used if you live in Hollywood and you want to go to Venice Beach for dinner, it's a 25-mile ride. Or you want to go across town, they'll pick them up along the way and split the fare if it's equidistant. It's an incredibly primitive version of what Maaxi is...What Maaxi does in conjunction with its mapping software is it's like you see rides coming up at a live pace, literally as if you're sitting on a bus stop looking at which busses are about to arrive.</p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"The technology is quite sophisticated because unlike anything that exists out there," </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Maaxi cofounder Gabi Campos, who was formerly the CEO of online gambling site PokerStars, said</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">. "It's what we're calling 'door to door public transport.'"</span></p><p>Unlike Uber, Maaxi has the support of Transport for London and the city's black cab drivers, many whom feel Uber is taking their business and skirting the law to continue operating. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-london-protest-2014-6">Taxi drivers even held protests in the city</a> to try and force TfL to crack down on Uber.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The Rothschild family is one of the world's wealthiest dynasties, and has spent hundreds of years advising kings and queens on their investments. Nat Rothschild himself manages various funds with assets in the tens of billions, and is renowned for his shrewd understanding of the investment market. That makes his backing a real seal of approval for Maaxi. </p><p>Rothschild says that he immediately understood what Maaxi is, and liked the idea:</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">I don't mean this in an arrogant way: I have a good network. This idea came to me through a mutual friend. Gabi and I have a mutual friend and he introduced us and I took one look at the proposition but more importantly Gabi's background and he's a proven businessman, a proven entrepreneur, incredible pedigree. The idea is extraordinary and it was a case of implementation.</p><p>Maaxi isn't the only app trying to shake up public transport. In addition to Uber, there's also French ride-sharing app BlaBlaCar, Hailo, and Gett. But Rothschild feels that Maaxi is different enough to stand out:</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">I don't think you can compare Maaxi to any of these other apps that you refer to. It's a very, very different proposition to anything else that I'm aware of. Uber is a minicab company, it's a very simple technology. This is an enormously complicated system for aggregating groups of passengers and moving them around seamlessly at an extremely attractive price point. I just think it's not something that has been done or even attempted before.</p><p>Another reason why Maaxi may go down well with Londoners is the fact that it was actually built in London, unlike other taxi apps.</p><p>"It's an entirely London-based, London-bred piece of technology," Rothschild said. "This was done in England in a tech warehouse. It's pretty remarkable to have watched it, and I'm very proud to have been associated with it. It's a great idea. Obviously now it's the implementation, but the idea is bulletproof."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mathematical-breakdown-uber-vs-taxis-money-transportation-2015-4">We did the math: Is Uber really cheaper than a taxi? </a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="Zmc3Z1cDoefsaxh4d9RwdpJj_TkDZlTs" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

You Searched For "BlaBlaCar riders" and got 7 results

BlaBlaCar introduces government ID verification for better safety

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Ola is going for the kill! Uber already sees it as competition

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