BlaBlaCar reaps $200m from Insight et al.

The round's size represents a considerable jump on the $160m figure that emerged last week, when BlaBlaCar was understood to be nearing an announcement.

Investing alongside Insight and Lead Edge was Stockholm-headquartered VC Vostok New Ventures.

Lead Edge was the only existing BlaBlaCar backer that took part in the series-D, while Index Ventures, Accel Partners and Isai stepped aside this time around.

The four firms backed a $100m round led by Index Ventures in July 2014, at the time the latest in a wave of investments in the European car-sharing space. 

Isai's involvement with BlaBlaCar dates back to 2010, when the business raised €1m in seed funding. Two years later, the VC was joined by Accel Partners during a $10m series-A led by the latter.

BlaBlaCar has grown exponentially since being founded in 2006 and is believed to have broken the €1.4bn valuation mark in the run-up to the current series-D.

The valuation boost comes on the back of swift expansion by BlaBlaCar across Russia, Germany and nine other countries via a series of bolt-on acquisitions over the past few years. Notable purchases include Earlybird-owned Carpooling in Germany, its biggest competitor in Europe, and Hungary-headquartered Autohop.

The series-D is the second largest growth capital investment witnessed by unquote" in France in the past five years: in April, animal feed and nutrition service InVivo NSA secured €215m from Eurazeo and CDC International Capital.

The transaction illustrates the mounting popularity for privately funded rounds in excess of $100m – as opposed to a flotation on the public market – for so-called 'unicorns' in recent weeks.

The trend, explored by unquote" last month, mirrors the surge in French startup financing found by recent EY research for H1 2015. According to the document, the segment reaped €759m in funding in the period, a significant increase on the €450m mark it had hovered around since 2013. 

Company
Founded in 2006 as Covoiturage.fr, BlaBlaCar is an online car-sharing service that links together drivers and passengers to share traveling costs. According to its figures, its member base totals 20 million people across 19 countries.

BlaBlaCar currently employs a workforce of 350 professionals in 12 offices worldwide and claims to have doubled headcount on an annual basis for the past few years.

People
Frédéric Mazzella, Francis Nappez and Nicolas Brusson co-founded BlaBlaCar and are the startup's current CEO, CTO and COO respectively.

Advisers
Equity – Willkie Farr & Gallagher, Gordon Caplan, Annette Péron, Matthew Guercio (Legal).

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