This Week in Travel Startup Funding: BlaBlaCar, Ola and More

Each week we create a roundup of travel startups that have received or announced funding that week. The total amount raised this week was $455.9 million.

Here are four companies that announced they raised funding this week, listed in order by the highest amount raised. See previous roundups here.

>BlaBlaCar raised $200 million in a Series D investment round led by Insight Venture Partners and Lead Edge Capital with the participation of Vostok New Ventures.

BlaBlaCar is a ride-sharing website that connects drivers with empty seats and paying passengers to offset travel costs. It has more than 20 million members and operates in 19 countries including several in Europe, Russia, Turkey, Mexico and India. This latest funding round puts BlaBlaCar’s valuation at $1.2 billion, the first time the company has surpassed the $1 billion valuation milestone. The company takes a 15 to 20% cut from the overall fare and drivers make money to cover gas and car maintenance costs while travelers get an affordable ride to their destinations. A 200-mile ride costs about $25 on average if a traveler uses BlaBlaCar, the company estimates.

BlaBlaCar also acquired its biggest competitor Carpooling.com and its 6 million members and it currently has no plans to expand to the U.S.

>>Ola raised a $225 million Series F round from a number of existing investors including Falcon Edge Capital, Steadview Capital and Tiger Global Management bringing the Bangalore, India-based startup’s total funding to more than $900 million.

The mobile app cab-booking company was founded in 2010 and this latest funding round positions the startup to have a $5 billion valuation. Ola plans to announce more funding in the coming weeks and has more than 40,000 cars across 22 cities in India. The company says it will also use the investment to reach 200 cities by next year.

>>ADARA raised a $23 million Series C round from new investor World Innovation Lab and existing investors August Capital, Morganthaler Ventures, ONSET Ventures and QuestMark Partners bringing the Mountain View, California-based startup’s total funding to more than $67 million.

ADARA, a travel data intelligence company founded in 2009, said its funding will accelerate its expansion and product development globally, especially in Asia. The company leverages data from more than 320 million active traveler profiles, 9 billion travel searches and 500 million travel bookings annually. ADARA currently has 15 offices across the U.S., Europe, Middle East and Asia.

>>Conichi raised a $7.9 million Seed round from new investor HRS.

Founded in 2014, the Berlin, Germany-based startup is a mobile app for hotels to help them recognize guests when they enter a property using beacon technology. This helps facilitate swifter check-in/check-out and manage loyalty programs with guests. Conichi’s proprietary software utilizes beacons to display relevant guest information to hotel staff in real-time as guests arrive at a property.