Blacklane

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Blacklane

logo
legal form GmbH
founding 2011
Seat Berlin , GermanyGermanyGermany 
management
  • Jens Wohltorf
  • Frank Steuer
Number of employees 400 (2019)
Branch Passenger transportation
Website www.blacklane.com

Blacklane GmbH is a start-up company based in Berlin and operates a portal for chauffeur- driven services. Private or corporate customers can book trips in advance at fixed prices via a website, a smartphone app or by telephone. The company cooperates with local chauffeur services and does not have its own vehicle fleet. Blacklane uses the opposite of the Dutch auction, which means that the price starts low and increases as the auction progresses. If a trip is booked, an offer is made to the driver. If this offer is not accepted by a driver after a few minutes, the price will be increased.

history

Blacklane was founded in 2011 by fellow students Jens Wohltorf and Frank Steuer in Berlin. In the initial phase, RI Digital Ventures, B-to-V Partners, 88 investments GmbH and Car4you invested in the company, which officially started operations in June 2012. From the beginning of September Blacklane was active in Düsseldorf , Frankfurt, Hamburg , Cologne , Munich and Stuttgart , and at the end of the year also in Bremen , Leipzig , Dresden and Hanover .

In January 2013 it was announced that another round of financing had taken place. RI Digital Ventures, B-to-V Partners and Car4You were again involved, and Alternative Strategic Investments (Alstin), the company of the German investor Carsten Maschmeyer, was added . In May 2013 Blacklane was active in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Italy, France and Great Britain. In August 2013, a project called “Mission 100” began, in which operations in 100 cities began in 100 days. The last of these cities was Palma de Mallorca on December 16, 2013. With this project, Blacklane was represented in 130 cities and 45 countries at the end of 2013. The day after the launch in Palma de Mallorca, Blacklane announced that Daimler AG had invested around 10 million euros in the company, bringing the company value to almost 60 million euros.

In March 2014, after a one-year beta phase, the company officially started operations in eight UK cities: London , Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Edinburgh and Glasgow. The conference “Mobility in Transition: Progress or Standstill?” Took place on September 17, 2014 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Berlin. The conference was initiated by Blacklane's CEO Jens Wohltorf. In the meantime (as of October 2018) Blacklane is available in 300 cities in 60 countries.

In 2015, Blacklane and the global distribution system Amadeus, through which travel agencies can make bookings for their customers, announced a cooperation. In the future, travel agencies may offer customers trips that include home pick-up. In March 2015, Amadeus announced the partnership with Blacklane and that the Berlin-based company will be the first fully integrated provider for taxi and transfer trips in the future.

In 2016 Blacklane launched its service in Las Vegas, Venice, Monaco and Toulouse. In August, the company announced that Daimler, RI Digital Ventures, b-to-v and Alstin had again invested an eight-digit million amount. According to Jens Woltorf, it is the largest financing round in the company's history. In December of the same year, Daimler manager Ralf Echtler became CFO at Blacklane, the chauffeur service expanded to 64 other cities in Asia, opened a branch in Singapore and announced a partnership with the frequent flyer program Asia Miles.

In spring 2017, Blacklane announced partnerships with Hertz , Groundspan, Expedia and Finnair . In October, the company announced the takeover of the SOLVE concierge service.

In April 2019, Blacklane announced a possible IPO within the next three years.

regulation

Misrepresentation of taxi prices in 2013

In April 2013, Blacklane came under fire when taxi associations accused the company of unfair competition. The allegation against Blacklane was that the company had incorrectly quoted taxi prices compared to its own. Blacklane had assumed "hidden costs" for taxi rides, which included items such as a 10% price increase due to delays or a 10% tip. This led to Blacklane's own net prices being presented as cheaper compared to taxi rides. This was viewed as defamation and Blacklane had to take this comparison off its own website in order to avoid a fine of 250,000 euros or the suspension of its own services for a period of 6 months.

Special permit for the Smart 2014

Blacklane got into the discussion again when it offered the Smart as a new vehicle class in 2014. This is noteworthy because German legislation provides that sedans must always have two doors on the right-hand side of the vehicle. The Smart only has one door on the right-hand side, but only one door on the left-hand side. Taxi companies threatened to take action against it because Blacklane broke the law by offering smarts. Blacklane announced in interviews that it had received official approval from the German authorities, since the Smart, although it only has one door on the right-hand side, ultimately complies with the safety regulations for passengers.

Awards

The Tech5 Initiative recognized Blacklane as the fastest growing tech start-up in Germany. In addition, the company was nominated as the fastest growing tech start-up in Europe at The Next Web Conference in April 2015 in Amsterdam. The award ultimately went to the Amsterdam company Fairphone .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ gruenderszene.de: Berlin startup Blacklane wants to go public. Retrieved May 3, 2019 .
  2. ↑ qz.com
  3. ↑ blacklane.com
  4. ↑ gruenderszene.de
  5. ↑ weser-kurier.de
  6. ↑ neuepresse.de
  7. ↑ gruenderszene.de
  8. ↑ deutsche-startups.de
  9. ↑ venturevillage.eu ( Memento of the original from June 8, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / venturevillage.eu
  10. ↑ blacklane.com
  11. ↑ http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20131217-704085.html?dsk=y ( Memento from January 23, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  12. ↑ travolution.co.uk
  13. ↑ a b Mobility in Transition: “Uber will die” . heise online, September 19, 2014.
  14. ↑ a b Peter Neumann, Jonas Rest: Showdown of the taxi duelists. In: Berliner Zeitung , September 17, 2014.
  15. ↑ a b Markus Mechnich: Everything Uber or what? In: Der Tagesspiegel , September 22, 2014.
  16. ↑ Joachim Fahrun: Uber against the others . In: Die Welt , September 18, 2014.
  17. ↑ a b Joachim Fahrun: Chauffeur Service Uber takes on an entire industry . In: Berliner Morgenpost , September 18, 2014.
  18. ↑ "Old versus New": The industry is hotly debating about the Uber transport service . In: Westdeutsche Zeitung , September 17, 2014.
  19. ↑ "Old versus New": The industry is hotly debating about the Uber transport service . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , September 17, 2014.
  20. ↑ The industry is hotly debated about the Uber car service . Welt Online , September 17, 2014.
  21. ^ Dietmar Fund: Blacklane Symposium confronts Uber with the taxi industry . taxi today , September 18, 2014.
  22. ↑ Stephan Dörner
  23. ↑ Blacklane: This Berlin start-up ensures business trips without stress . In: https://www.horizont.net . ( horizont.net [accessed October 12, 2018]).
  24. ↑ biztravel.fvw.de
  25. ↑ Blacklane. Retrieved October 23, 2017 .
  26. ↑ Daimler manager Echtler switches to Blacklane - TFT magazine . In: The Frequent Traveler . December 8, 2016 ( tft-mag.com [accessed October 23, 2017]).
  27. ↑ Hertz's Latest Twist Is Adding Private Driver Services From Blacklane . In: Skift . March 10, 2017 ( skift.com [accessed October 23, 2017]).
  28. ↑ Blacklane. Retrieved October 23, 2017 .
  29. ↑ Blacklane. Retrieved October 23, 2017 .
  30. ↑ Blacklane adds airport concierge services worldwide with acquisition of Solve - WIT . In: WIT . October 12, 2017 ( webintravel.com [accessed October 23, 2017]).
  31. ↑ Berlin startup Blacklane wants to go public. April 30, 2019, accessed May 3, 2019 .
  32. ↑ Richard Leipold: Blacklane back on the path of virtue . Berlin Taxi Association, April 24, 2013.
  33. ↑ § 25 Doors, alarm system and partition . Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection.
  34. ↑ Jens Tönnesmann: Breaking up encrusted structures . WirtschaftsWoche , April 5, 2014.
  35. ↑ thenextweb.com
  36. ↑ thenextweb.com