Daimler invests in ridesharing network carpooling.com
26 July 2012
Daimler AG is investing in the ridesharing network carpooling.com GmbH. The main shareholders will continue to be the company’s three founders, as well as venture capital firm Earlybird. The capital investment will serve primarily the development and expansion of carpooling.com’s mobility solutions.
carpooling.com is the leading ridesharing network, with 4 million registered users, transporting 1 million people a month across Europe. The platform is available on the Internet, on smartphone apps and Facebook. The company brings together ride-sharers for both medium- and long-distance trips, as well as for commuting. Profiles and ratings give users some insight into with whom they are traveling. In addition to rides, the company’s platform also offers bus, rail and airline tickets.
Daimler’s car2go subsidiary is a leader in fully flexible short-term car rental models; car2go has more than 130,000 customers and holds a share in MyTaxi. In July 2012 Daimler launched the mobility platform moovel. (Earlier post.) Moreover, Daimler has gathered experience in the ride-sharing market in two pilot projects in Ulm and Aachen with its car2gether ad-hoc riding-sharing system.
The goal of the new partnership is to further expand carpooling.com’s platforms and integrate the offerings within Daimler’s mobility solutions. The partners will be benefiting from each other’s experience in connection with customer needs, technical systems development, as well as in international rollouts of successful mobility concepts.
We view ridesharing as an important element of intelligently networked mobility. Our engagement in carpooling.com is a logical step in offering our customers an even wider range for getting from Point A to Point B. We are pleased that this strategic partnership will enable us to support carpooling.com’s growth and further development.
—Wilfried Steffen, who heads up Business Innovation at Daimler AG
In mid July 2012, both companies announced a technical cooperation for the pilot project moovel. The moovel mobility platform allows users to choose the best way to get from A to B in urban areas.
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