Daimler AG is taking a significant stake in ridesharing network, carpooling.com GmbH.
The main shareholders in the firm 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, Daimler says.
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Daimler is also present in the fully flexible short-term car rental market through car2go which has over 130,000 customers. It has also held a share in MyTaxi since early 2012. In July 2012 Daimler launched the mobility platform moovel.
Daimler says the goal of the partnership is to further expand carpooling.com’s platforms and ‘intelligently integrate the offerings within Daimler’s mobility solutions’.
“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,” said Wilfried Steffen, who heads up Business Innovation at Daimler AG.
“We will be utilizing the new capital to further improve our offerings, broaden our customer service and make carpooling available to even more users worldwide,” said carpooling.com CEO Markus Barnikel.
See also: ANALYSIS: OEMs to grab car sharing opportunity in cities
