French unicorn Blablacar is said to have raised €21.3 million euros from Baring Vostok, a leading Russian private equity firm. The news was reported this morning by Maddyness, an authoritative French tech blog.
When contacted by East-West Digital News, Baring Vostok and Blablacar declined to comment on this information, but Maddyness told us that they had access to official documents about the deal.
The funding will be used to “accelerate [Blablacar’s] international growth,” according to these documents.
Before this reported deal, Blablacar had raised more than $336 million in total, according to CrunchBase, including $200 million in a Series D round which was closed in September last year. No Russian investors had been involved so far.
The French startup entered the Russian and Ukrainian markets in 2014 through the acquisition of Ukrainian site Podorozhniki.
Baring Vostok is among the most established Russian investment funds, having invested some $2.4 billion in nearly 70 projects in total across Russia and other former Soviet republics since 1994. In the Internet field, Baring Vostok invested in Yandex, the Russian search giant, and Ozon, a leading online retailer, at very early stages. Recently the private equity firm participated in funding deals for 2GIS, an ambitious online mapping service company from Siberia, and Doc+, an in house-call doctor service.
Update Nov. 22, 2016: The deal was confirmed by Blablacar’s co-founder and CEO Nicolas Bruisson in an interview with the French business daily Les Echos.
