Strategic Investment in Obilet by BlaBlaCar

Obilet Announces Strategic Investment Agreement with BlaBlaCar

Obilet, Turkey’s leading online travel and tourism platform, has announced a strategic investment agreement with BlaBlaCar. Following the necessary approvals, the agreement will allow Obilet to maintain its operational autonomy and continue its current projects uninterrupted. Moreover, Obilet will support BlaBlaCar‘s developing bus ticketing operations in emerging markets. Founders Ali Yılmaz and Yiğit Gürocak will continue their roles as CEOs.

Established in 2012, Obilet enables users to compare and purchase tickets and reservations from hundreds of bus, airline, ferry, hotel, and car rental companies. With over 40 million annual ticketing and reservation transactions, Obilet stands as one of the world’s leading travel and tourism platforms. Beyond its B2C services, Obilet also provides B2B services, including route data distribution and ticketing infrastructure software (IMS – Inventory Management System) for bus companies. Starting with bus ticketing and now one of the top three platforms globally in this domain, Obilet has recently expanded internationally, offering services in 15 languages and over 50 countries. It has quickly become a leading travel ticketing platform, particularly in Eastern Europe.

BlaBlaCar, based in France, connects drivers and passengers for intercity community-based travel, serving 27 million active users annually in 21 countries. BlaBlaCar aims to be the main platform for multimodal journeys globally, promoting shared and collective travel to reduce carbon emissions.

Joint Growth in International Markets

Yiğit Gürocak, CEO of Obilet, commented on the agreement:

“After becoming Turkey’s leading travel and tourism platform, we turned our attention to international markets. Sharing a similar vision and values with BlaBlaCar, and being offered the chance to lead the bus ticketing aspect of their goal to be the global leader in multimodal travel, motivated us to consider this partnership. This collaboration provides opportunities to leverage BlaBlaCar‘s technology and organizational expertise to expand further into hotel reservations, car rentals, and airline tickets. Upon completion of the agreement and approval processes, we will accelerate our efforts and expand our team. We believe this partnership will greatly benefit all of Obilet‘s partners and users.”

Nicolas Brusson, CEO of BlaBlaCar, stated:

“We have long followed Obilet‘s growth journey and recognized their successful leadership in digitizing Turkey’s bus industry with their strong team and strategic execution. With this planned investment in Obilet, we aim to reinforce BlaBlaCar‘s mission to develop sustainable mobility access in markets where much of our growth is outside Europe.”