VC-backed Blablacar.com buys Podorozhniki

The site was merged with Blablacar.com following the bolt-on. The deal reportedly took half a year to finalise.

The acquisition is part of Blablacar.com's expansion into eastern Europe and the launch of its regional services in Russia and Ukraine.

Blablacar.com has established a new office in Moscow as part of the expansion, bringing its total number of offices up to seven. The firm also has bases in Paris, Milan, London, Madrid, Warsaw and Hamburg.

The firm claims to currently have more than 6 million members, with 1 million members travelling via Blablacar.com services every month.

Previous funding
Accel and Isai invested €7.5m in Comuto in January 2012 alongside Cabiedes & Partners. The capital was intended for European expansion, and Blablacar.com has already made four acquisitions including Italian car-sharing site PostoinAuto.it in March 2012.

Isai and Cabiedes had already injected €1.25m into Comuto in June 2010, according to unquote" data, with Isai providing the majority of the capital.

Company
Founded in 2010, Podorozhniki is a Ukrainian carpooling site headquartered in Kiev with a workforce of three, all of whom will join Blablacar.com's team.

In 2011, the firm received a small capital injection – believed to be around $100,000 – from Russian seed investor Arkady Moreynis via his investment firm Glavstart. According to reports, the investment came with the stipulation that Podorozhniki would be sold to a larger trade player by the beginning of 2014.

Podorozhniki is popular in Russia already, with a reported 30,000 Russian users registered on the Ukrainian site prior to the bolt-on by Blablacar.com.

People
Aleksey Lazarenko is the founder and CEO of Podorozhniki. Frédéric Mazzella is the CEO of Blablacar.com; he founded the company alongside CTO Francis Nappez and COO Nicolas Brusson.

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