Transport app FlixMobility has raised around 500 million euros (£449.46 million) in Germany’s biggest tech funding round to date to back investments in its expansion, sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
Chief Executive and founder Jochen Engert declined to comment on the size of the investment, but told Reuters he would spend the money to launch operations in Latin America and Asia, and to build a car-pooling service.
Engert founded the company as FlixBus in 2013, and its green intercity coaches have since become a familiar sight on Germany’s autobahns, while its FlixTrains have plied European routes since last year.
Running an Uber-like app that has sold cheap tickets to 100 million travellers, FlixMobility works with local transport partners in 30 European countries, and launched long-distance bus services in the United States last year.
The funding round, co-led by private equity houses TCV and Permira, “will put us into a position where we really have all the liberty and freedom to execute our strategy and vision to build Flix into a global mobility platform,” Engert said in an interview.
It values Flixmobility at more than 2 billion euros, three sources said, ranking the company as a “unicorn” worth more than $1 billion. Proceeds topped the $500 million raised when investors led by Japan’s Softbank invested in Berlin travel startup GetYourGuide earlier this year.
Existing investor Holtzbrinck Ventures also participated in the so-called Series F funding round jointly with the European Investment Bank. Earlier backers include General Atlantic, Silver Lake and carmaker Daimler.
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