BERLIN, Aug. 1, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global professional driver service Blacklane has raised the largest investment in its history. Daimler AG, through subsidiary Daimler Mobility Services GmbH, led the two-digit million euro Series C round. Existing investors RI Digital Ventures, b-to-v and Alstin also joined the round.
Daimler already invested in Blacklane in 2013, becoming its first strategic partner.
Blacklane will use the money to:
- Accelerate global expansion, especially in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions. Blacklane will add dozens of new cities this year. Today, the company serves over 200 cities and 400 airports in 50 countries.
- Continue to enhance passenger and driver apps, its API, and portals for corporations and driver partners.
- Integrate with more distribution partners in the travel industry.
- Develop additional services, including new vehicle classes.
- Grow the team at its Berlin headquarters and beyond to manage its global operation.
How Blacklane Modernized an Outdated Market
Blacklane redefined the professional driver industry with a global footprint, consistently high quality and customer-friendly policies. The company closes the missing link in the travel chain, the first and last miles of a trip.
Travelers book guaranteed rides with only commercially licensed and insured drivers. Due to its smart dispatching technology, Blacklane's fixed, all-inclusive rates cost a fraction of legacy limousine service prices. The service includes 24/7 multilingual customer service and end-to-end real-time service control. Airport and train station pickups include driver meet-and-greet service and one hour of driver wait time.
Travelers book Blacklane directly on its website or apps, or with blue-chip partners such as Amadeus, Booking.com, Expedia, Lufthansa, Sabre's TripCase, and TripAdvisor's Viator.
Local professional driver companies grow their revenues without new costs. They add Blacklane's global customers to their local business, taking as few or many rides as they choose. Drivers know their exact rates before they accept rides from Blacklane's advanced dispatching platform.
Quotes
- Jens Wohltorf, CEO and Co-founder of Blacklane "In the past, professional driver services were expensive, inconsistent and difficult to book. But Blacklane has made them affordable, accessible, and reliable worldwide, while upholding the industry's safety and quality standards. With the additional strategic and financial support in place, we will bring even more innovation to our global passengers and drivers in the months and years ahead."
- Klaus Entenmann, Chairman of Daimler Financial Services "We want to offer flexible and innovative mobility services to our customers. Our investment in Blacklane as a global professional driver service is an important part of this strategy. In recent years, we at Daimler Financial Services continuously developed our mobility services and platforms, in which we invested close to €500 million. We are prepared to make additional strategic investments in our mobility ecosystem."
- Jochen Gutbrod, Executive Chairman & Partner, b-to-v Partners and Blacklane board director "Ground transportation is only at the beginning of a major transformation. Blacklane has reinvented this market to the benefit of the entire travel ecosystem."
About Blacklane ( www.blacklane.com ) Blacklane conveniently connects passengers with the spare capacities of licensed, regulated and insured professional drivers. Corporate and individual customers can book and schedule rides in over 50 countries around the world. Blacklane guarantees low and all-inclusive fixed rates at the time of the booking with a unique pricing and dispatching algorithm. The company provides a consistently high global standard by combining multi-lingual 24/7 customer care with real-time service control for tens of thousands of quality cars.
About Daimler Financial Services Daimler Financial Services is the Daimler Group's global provider of financial services and offers a variety of innovative mobility services. It is the world's leading provider of free-floating car sharing with its car2go brand. Most recently, it was announced that mytaxi will merge with the UK-based provider Hailo to become the leading taxi app in Europe, after the regulatory approvals. Daimler Financial Services develops intermodal mobility solutions for cities with its brand moovel. Mobility services, such as these, provide a foundation for the future of autonomous driving.
Blacklane Press Contacts Adam Parken, Director, Communications & Public Relations +49 (0) 30 2016 3016 +49 (0) 159 0414 6420 +1 919 277 8551 adam.parken@blacklane.com
Julia Gebert, Senior PR Manager, DACH & Middle East +49 159 0431 5493 +49 30 2016 3913 julia.gebert@blacklane.com
Photo 1: Jens Wohltorf, Blacklane's CEO and Co-founder and Frank Steuer, Blacklane's CTO and Co-founder Photo 2: Blacklane cars
Photo 1 http://hugin.info/172926/R/2032197/756464.jpg Photo 2 http://hugin.info/172926/R/2032197/756465.jpg
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