Carpooling App BlaBlaCar Plans To Start Office In India, Eyes Expansion

Carpooling app BlaBlaCar is reportedly planning to expand its India business and open an office in the country.

“We are just building the team right now. It is pretty early days…we are looking to open an office in India… the first office may be in Delhi,” Nicolas Brusson, cofounder and COO, BlaBlaCar said, PTI reported.

BlaBlaCar is an intercity carpooling app that allows drivers to share their cars when driving between cities. The company entered the Indian market in 2015.

BlaBlaCar’s app currently has about 4 Mn people using its services in India and the company is targeting to double its user base here, Brusson added. “We plan to invest more in India and we plan to increase size in India,” he said.

France-based BlaBlaCar was founded in 2006 by Francis Nappez, Frédéric Mazzella and Nicolas Brusson. The company has raised $578.5 Mn funding so far. It is backed by investors such as Index Ventures, Accel Partners, Insight Partners, Lead Edge Capital.

Carpooling refers to car journeys in which multiple people with the same destination travel together. While the concept is pretty much known for commuting, the format has been working in an unorganised way in India.

It is important to note that BlaBlaCar wrapped up its active operations in India at the beginning of 2017. German carpool service Wunder also failed to sustain in the India market after burning multi-million USD and shutting down its India business in 2019.

Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (MVA) mandates that private cars can not be allowed to run under app-based taxis. However, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways issued the Motor Vehicle Aggregators Guidelines, 2020 in accordance with section 93 of MVA for issuance of licence as well as regulating such businesses running under carpooling apps.

Cab-aggregators which offer professional ride-sharing services have been facing regulatory issues in India. The ride-hailing services, be it bikes, autos or even cabs, are dominated by Ola and Uber, and Rapido is emerging as an important player in the bike segment. All these players are facing licence-related issues in different states such as Maharashtra, Karnataka.

Earlier this month, the ban on bike taxis of Ola, Uber and Rapido in the capital city was lifted while the Delhi government is still preparing appropriate regulations for such aggregators in the state.

According to a Researchandmarkets.com report, the shared mobility fleet size is forecast to grow from 7.02 Mn in 2021 to 9.70 Mn by 2027 at a compound annual growth rate of 5.5%.