Ride-sharing startup BlaBlaCar claims to have offered 3 million seats for travel on its platform since its India launch in January 2015. Note that this does not give an indication of how many seats were actually booked or the number of trips which were completed. However, in September 2015, BlaBlaCar mentioned that it had 3,50,000 seat bookings in India and was present in 700 cities. The France-based company claims to have over 30 million registered members globally, with presence in 22 countries. Note that BlaBlaCar allows travellers to find car owners who are heading to the same destination (intercity only) and connects them via mobile phone or email to share a ride. As such, the total number of cars on the platform keeps varying. BlaBlaCar operates more like a community, where the price charged per co-traveller is limited to a partial contribution towards the cost of the journey, and prohibits the car owner from making a profit from the trip. Interstingly, in July 2015, BlaBlaCar tied-up with IRCTC to offer passengers with wait-listed tickets the option of booking a seat on a shared ride. Funding: In September last year, BlaBlaCar raised $200 million in a series D round of funding led by Insight Venture Partners, Lead Edge Capital and participation from Vostok New Ventures. In July 2015, the company raised $100 million led by Index Ventures, with the participation of existing investors Accel Partners, ISAI and Lead Edge Capital. It had also raised $10 million in funding led by Accel Partners in 2012 and ~$140,000 in funding led by…
