BlaBlaCar is an iconic name in the French startup ecosystem. The carpooling and bus ticketing company has been around so long that it's hard to consider it a startup anymore. Still, BlaBlaCar is a very interesting company today because of its unique trajectory.
What started as a rough-and-tumble online hitchhiking community has become a startup that has raised hundreds of millions of dollars and reached unicorn status. It then expanded to many countries on several continents, but then scaled back its ambitions and started considering profitability.
Today, the company announced that it has secured a €100 million ($108 million at current exchange rates) revolving credit facility. This will give us new leverage to plan for the future and continue to drive growth through acquisitions and other means.
“Debt is relatively attractive, non-dilutive and also a very flexible tool,” Brusson said. The €100 million loan facility is in partnership with several major banks based in France, the UK and the US.
BlaBlaCar has not yet reached its debt limit, so it is not paying interest at this time. But Brusson said the company plans to use the debt facility to buy smaller businesses. With many startups struggling to raise their next round of funding, BlaBlaCar could step in and acquire these small businesses.
have been profitable for the past 24 months
Although BlaBlaCar is not a public company, it has gradually come to terms with the fact that it can share some metrics more publicly. In this way, BlaBlaCar can reveal for the first time that it has reached profitability. In fact, it has been profitable since April 2022.
This milestone must come as a great relief, as 2023 has been a difficult year for French startups. Unless, of course, you're working on an artificial intelligence product.
“The entire business is profitable. We have been profitable for almost two years,” co-founder and CEO Nicolas Brusson told TechCrunch. “2022 has been almost a full year since COVID-19, except maybe the first two months. We recorded a revenue of 195 million euros. We ended up in the negative, but that was because we had a really bad first quarter.”
“However, since the second quarter of 2022, we have been profitable. And in 2023, our revenue exceeded 250 million euros. Therefore, our sales growth rate is 30%. It’s weak, but it’s still profitable.”
Profitability means different things to different people. Many companies like to claim that they are profitable even though we are talking about EBITDA, a financial measure that does not take into account the costs associated with a company's assets. Brusson is a bit fed up with companies pretending to be profitable, but actually losing money every year.
In BlaBlaCar's case, the company is profitable on an EBITDA basis, but also generates net income, all things considered. BlaBlaCar doesn't own cars or buses anyway.
In 2023, 80 million passengers booked a bus or rideshare with BlaBlaCar. And the good news is that he has BlaBlaCar users not only in France but all over the world.
“Brazil is bigger than France in terms of number of users. And I think India will be bigger than France in terms of rideshare numbers next year,” Brusson said.
The company has not yet started monetizing users in India, Brazil, Mexico, and Turkey. Nor have I received any reductions in carpool transactions. Booking fees will be added in stages, which will also help the company increase its revenue.
One wrinkle is Russia. When the Ukraine war began, BlaBlaCar had millions of users in Russia. While many technology companies decide to sell their Russian subsidiaries, BlaBlaCar's Russian operations are completely isolated from the rest of its operations, but BlaBlaCar has no intention of selling. Brusson argues that this is counterproductive because it essentially means transferring it to a Russian-based owner.
“Today it represents just under 5% of revenue, which is quite small. Although it is still part of the group, it is completely separate and independently managed. The company is completely separate from the group. But if you want to sell it, in the current context, it's like giving it to someone.”
add train ticket
In Europe, BlaBlaCar wants to centralize all ground transportation options. In addition to carpooling and bus rides, the company plans to add train tickets as well. Users will be able to purchase tickets in the next year or so.
“Our idea is to combine it with carpooling. So we will be able to offer an almost door-to-door journey, combining train and carpooling,” Brusson said.
Even if you don't book your next train ride with BlaBlaCar, the company is also experimenting with last-mile carpooling. “In that case, we will have another model for slightly shorter distances. The idea is to connect the train station with the destination. Usually, once you arrive at Vannes station, you need to go to your grandmother's house, a villa or a weekend getaway. “It often happens that there are still 10 to 40 kilometers left,” he pointed out.
Since many BlaBlaCar users are already driving in that direction, the company will ping those drivers to see if they can pick up a group of passengers at a station and drop them off at their destination. .
In markets outside Europe, bus use is the biggest opportunity. “The good news for us in these markets is that bus remains a very offline and fragmented industry,” Brusson said. He pointed out that people spend billions of dollars on bus tickets in India and Brazil, suggesting again that BlaBlaCar has room to grow.