French carpooling platform BlaBlaCar has acquired Russian counterpart BeepCar from internet company Mail.Ru Group, according to an official statement.
Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
BlaBlaCar and Mail.Ru also announced a new partnership, which will see the French startup committing to further promote carpooling through Mail.Ru Group platforms, which include social networking sites, instant messaging, search engines, and e-commerce portals.
As of this autumn, BeepCar traffic will be redirected to BlaBlaCar, driving advertising revenue for Mail.Ru Group.
BlaBlaCar, which has operations in 22 countries worldwide, including India, is already a market leader in Russia, having entered the country back in 2014. In fact, Russia has been BlaBlaCar’s largest market accounting for over 15 million members out of a global community of 65 million members.
BeepCar claims to have seen a solid growth in both users and booked rides since its launch in 2017, with total app installs reaching over 5 million in Q2 2018 across Russia.
“Through this acquisition, we’re doubling down our commitment to offer an ever more reliable carpooling service in Russia and address the demand of millions of Russians for convenient and efficient long-distance mobility solution,” said BlaBlaCar co-founder and CEO Nicolas Brusson.
BlaBlaCar’s last known funding round was in 2015, when it raised a $200-million Series D round, which made it one of France’s most heavily funded startups with more than $330 million in funding since its launch in 2006.
The acquisition of BeepCar counts as BlaBlaCar’s second acquisition of the year, following its purchase of French urban carpooling startup Less earlier this year.
Asia has recently seen similar deals in its carpooling industry. Earlier this year, Kakao Mobility, the cab-hailing and transport services unit of South Korea’s mobile services giant Kakao, acquired local carpool startup Luxi for KRW25.2 billion ($23.3 million), while messenger platform giant LINE, through its Indonesian business unit, in November last year announced that it has taken over a local chatbot-based carpooling platform, TemanJalan, for an undisclosed amount.
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