From carpooling startups trying to help us minimize vehicle emissions to the many chauffeur-ordering services available, transportation seems to be a hot space for entrepreneurs at the moment.
Even more, despite the many roadblocks facing Uber across the globe, startups tackling the taxi-hailing space, in particular, continue to pop up in Europe and don't seem to be fazed by the news.
To give you an idea of the many uni-modal transportation services available to help you get around, we've put together a list of startups hailing from Europe to keep an eye out for (note: only companies with a site available in English were included).
Also check out these 10 European tech startups driving change in the automotive industry.
Car-sharing
1) BlaBlaCar
Headquarters: Paris, France
Gist: Founded in 2006, BlaBlaCar aims to connect car-owners with empty seats to passengers who are willing to pay a fee to share long-distance journeys. In July, the company, which is in 12 countries and claims over 8 million members, announced a $100 million Series C investment led by Index Ventures.
Headquarters: Munich, Germany
Gist: Like the name suggests, Carpooling.com wants to make carpooling easy for users. Created in 2001, the transport network is localized in 9 countries and has reportedly garnered 6 million registered users. In 2012, Carpooling.com raised a $10 million Series C financing round.
3) Carma
Headquarters: Cork, Ireland
Gist: Founded in 2007, Carma – formerly known as Avego – offers a platform and app that helps you find people who are travelling similar commutes in your area in order to share the ride costs. The company has reportedly secured about $10 million in funding to date.
4) Buzzcar
Headquarters: Paris, France
Gist: Buzzcar, a service that lets you rent out cars from other users by the hour or day, was founded in 2011 by Robin Chase, former CEO and founder of Zipcar. With a focus on the French market, the Buzzcar acquired Cityzencar last June.
5) Djump
Headquarters: Chaumont-Gistoux, Belgium
Gist: Social ride-sharing startup Djump offers a mobile app, available in Brussels and Paris, that helps users get around in the city by connecting them to a community of selected drivers.
6) Ants
Headquarters: Copenhagen, Denmark and Oslo, Norway
Gist: Established in 2012, Ants is a ride-sharing community on the web and mobile, which is available in six languages. Co-founder Aleksander Soender (ex-Nokia) got the idea to start a low-cost travel community when he was working as an intern at a software company in Manila.
7) Flinc
Headquarters: Ludwigshafen, Germany
Gist: Flinc is a social platform, founded in 2010, matching drivers with passengers looking for rides in Germany. The startup also offers a 'Corporate Mobility Solution' to help companies manage fleets in a sustainable way.
8) Tripndrive
Headquarters: Paris, France
Gist: Founded in 2013, Tripndrive enables travellers to rent out their car (which coes fully-insured, in case you were wondering) while on vacation, instead of leaving it idle in the airport parking lot or at home.
Taxi-hailing
9) Hailo
Headquarters: London, UK
Gist: Launched in 2011, Hailo is a taxi-hailing mobile app available in 20 major cities across the globe and one of Uber's key rivals. The company has raised over $80 million in funding and claims annual sales of more than $100 million.
10) GetTaxi
Headquarters: Tel Aviv, Israel
Gist: Founded in 2010 and operating in 24 cities across four countries, GetTaxi also lets users book a taxi ride with its mobile app. The startup has raised $52 million in funding (and is about to raise a ton more) and claims 10 million users.
11) Taxibeat
Headquarters: Athens, Greece
Gist: Taxibeat, founded in 2011, is slightly different from competitors in that it allows users to pick a driver based on customized preferences and reviews from other customers. The startup raised a $4 million Series A round last December.
12) MyTaxi
Headquarters: Hamburg, Germany
Gist: Taxi-ordering app MyTaxi, founded in 2009, is available in 40 cities around the world and claims 10 millions users. Intelligent Apps, the startup behind the app, raised 10 million euros in funding in 2012.
13) Cabify
Headquarters: Madrid, Spain
Gist: Founded in 2011, Cabify offers an on-demand high-end car booking service that has quietly been building out its presence in Spain and Latin America. It raised $8 million in Series A funding last April.
14) LeCab
Headquarters: Paris, France
Gist: With a focus on the French market (which is unsurprising, given its name), mini-cab ordering app LeCab was founded in 2012 and announced a 5 million euros Series B funding round last year.
15) Minicabster
Headquarters: North Barrow, UK
Gist: Founded in 2011, Minicabster – formerly known as Anycabs – offers an online search platform and app for users to compare minicab prices and book services in the UK.
16) Drive
Headquarters: Paris, France
Gist: Drive, founded in 2013, is another player in the chauffeur app space but with a bet on more premium service (with a fleet of Mercedes cars). In January, it announced a 2 million euros Series A funding round.
17) Talixo
Headquarters: Berlin, Germany
Gist: Founded in 2012, Talixo is a booking platform for taxis and limousines available in Germany. The startup announced a "low" seven-digit financing round in April 2014.
18) Blacklane
Headquarters: Berlin, Germany
Gist: Founded in 2011, Blacklane is a chauffeur portal for booking limousines. The service is available in 130 cities across 45 countries. Last May, the company secured an investment in the "several million euros" range.
19) Cabforce
Headquarters: Espoo, Finland
Gist: Cabforce, founded in 2009, offers a platform for users to book taxis, minibuses or executive cars. The service is available in 82 destinations across Europe and also in select cities in North America, the Middle East and Asia.
20) Kabbee
Headquarters: London, UK
Gist: Only available in London, Kabbee – which was launched in 2011 – provides a minicab price comparison and booking service. Last November, the startup closed a £3.8 million Series A funding round.
21) Snapcar
Headquarters: Paris, France
Gist: Created in 2012, Snapcar offers a fixed-orice chauffeured transport service for both businesses and individuals. Currently, it's available only in Paris but will launch elsewhere "soon".
22) Tinker
Headquarters: Schiphol, The Netherlands
Gist: Tinker transports passengers by car from and to airports in The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany at a low price, which it achieves by giving the option to combine multiple passengers who want to travel in the same direction.
23) Wheely
Headquarters: Moscow, Russia and London, UK
Gist: Founded in 2010, Wheely rivals Addison Lee by offering mobile apps for booking cars+chauffeur in London (and six cities in Russia). The startup presented at the DEMO Europe event in Moscow last year.
24) Taxify
Headquarters: Tallinn, Estonia
Gist: Taxi-ordering app Taxify, founded in 2013, just closed a $100,000 seed round. Currently it operates in Estonia, Latvia and Finland, with plans to expand in Eastern Europe. It also offers cab companies dispatcher and fleet management solutions.
25) CompareMyFare
Headquarters: London, UK
Gist: Founded in 2011, CompareMyFare is a platform that really does – unsurprisingly – compare your fares when it comes to booking a cab in London. The ultimate companion for Citymapper.
Any particularly interesting European transportation tech startups we missed? Let us know.
UPDATE: Here’s a couple more European transportation startups, suggested by tech.eu readers (thanks!), that fit into our criteria:
- WunderCar (Hamburg, Germany) – Founded in 2013, WunderCar is an app and network that connects drivers with passengers who need a lift. It's currently available in Hamburg, Berlin, Dublin and Budapest.
- Drivr (Copenhagen, Denmark) – Drivr is an on-demand taxi and chauffeur service founded in 2010. The startup offers a booking app as well as a suite of tools for chauffeur companies.
- CINQ-S (Paris, France) – CINQ-S is a chauffeur service focusing on corporate clients and offers the booking of personal drivers as well as private-hire cars.
Featured image credit: wavebreakmedia / Shutterstock
