BlaBlaCar, a ridesharing platform, announces that it has secured a €100 million revolving credit facility. The company also announced that it has reached profitability over the last 24 months. This heralds a new phase of profitable growth for BlaBlaCar, which keeps consolidating its multimodal strategy, reducing the carbon footprint of travel by 2 million tonnes of CO2 in 2023.
The objective is to extend BlaBlaCar’s multimodal strategy, combining several modes of shared transportation with the extensive coverage of its carpooling network, across the geographies where it operates.
“This €100 million financing will enable us to pursue an ambitious growth strategy, including M&A where we are currently exploring several opportunities. Combined with continuous innovation, M&A is a tool to help us achieve market leadership faster” said Nicolas Brusson, Co-founder and CEO of BlaBlaCar.
This model has already been implemented in France through the acquisition of Ouibus in 2019, leading to the establishment of BlaBlaCar Bus network across Western Europe. In parallel, in Eastern Europe and Brazil, the acquisition of Busfor and the development of its own bus marketplace enabled BlaBlaCar to lead the offline-to-online transition of the bus industry.
A record performance in 2023, achieving +29% growth in revenues and reaching profitability
This financing follows a strong 2023 for the company. 80 million passengers booked a bus or carpool ride on BlaBlaCar in 2023. This represents an increase of 23% compared to 2022. The growth is particularly pronounced in emerging markets such as India and Brazil, which are experiencing triple-digit growth rates. As a result, Brazil has become BlaBlaCar’s leading country for its carpooling activity in 2023.
BlaBlaCar recorded €253 million in revenue—a +29% increase from the previous year. For the first time, the company has achieved profitability for 24 months and has closed the 2023 exercise with positive EBITDA, initiating a new phase of profitable growth.
This sound financial performance is the result of the progressive monetization of new carpooling markets and the restructuring of the bus business in Western Europe. The company is also witnessing the positive outcomes of the multimodal strategy initiated in 2019, which is creating a strong value proposition for passengers and powerful synergies between the different modes of transport.
In addition, BlaBlaCar’s activities are benefiting from strong tailwinds: high energy prices combined with the rising awareness of the climate crisis has sparked growing interest among travelers in BlaBlaCar’s affordable shared mobility solutions, demonstrating the counter-cyclical nature of its services.
“Moving forward, the way we operate is geared towards achieving profitable growth as a fundamental principle. This milestone demonstrates BlaBlaCar’s maturity and financial stability. Nevertheless, we must remain humble: there’s still a long way to go in our journey to make travel more sustainable and humane. This step allows us to pursue our mission with confidence. Today, it enables us to finance new projects, encourage new innovations and explore new acquisitions.” said Nicolas Brusson, Co-founder and CEO of BlaBlaCar.
2 million tonnes of CO2 saved in 2023
This growing activity also translates into an increasingly positive impact on mobility around the world. By optimizing empty seats in cars and buses and encouraging shared travel, BlaBlaCar helped reduce the carbon footprint of travel by 2 million tonnes of CO2 only in 2023.
To this end, public authorities are also developing a range of mechanisms to support the adoption of shared mobility: from a dedicated carpooling plan in France to energy savings certificates in Spain.
Nicolas Brusson stated “With these measures, governments are recognizing that carpooling is an effective, targeted and immediate solution to our current and future challenges. It is clearer than ever that to limit spending, reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and reduce our carbon footprint, our travel habits must change. Shared mobility is part of the solution: BlaBlaCar has and will continue to bring this vision to everyone, individuals, companies, governments, and other stakeholders in the transition towards more sustainable and inclusive mobility”
