Daimler and carpooling.com Forge Strategic Partnership

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• Publié par: carpooling-com
• Nombre de lectures: 26
• Langue: English

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Daimler and carpooling.com Forge Strategic

Partnership

PR Newswire

STUTTGART and MUNICH, Germany, July 26, 2012

STUTTGART

and

MUNICH, Germany

,

July 26, 2012

/PRNewswire/ --

Pioneer in urban mobility concepts and carpooling market leader bundle their

know-how

Daimler AG takes minority shareholding in carpooling.com GmbH

Strong international growth planned - expansion to the US

Daimler AG is investing in the world's leading ridesharing network,

carpooling.com GmbH. The main shareholders 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.

carpooling.com is the world's leading ridesharing network, transporting 1

million people a month across

Europe

. The platform is available on the Internet,

on smartphone apps and Facebook. The company possesses the most profound

experience globally in bringing together ride-sharers for both medium- and

long-distance trips, as well as for commuting. By reviewing profiles and ratings

users know exactly who they are traveling with. In addition to rides, the

company's platform also offers bus, rail and airline tickets.

This strategic partnership bundles the know-how of two leading players in the

mobility sector. In addition to its 126 years of expertise in automotive

engineering and automotive systems applications, Daimler is also the market

leader in fully flexible short-term car rental models with car2go which has over

130,000 customers. Since early 2012, Daimler has also held a share in MyTaxi.

In

July 2012

Daimler launched the mobility platform moovel. Moreover, Daimler

has gathered experience in the ridesharing market in two pilot projects in Ulm

and Aachen with its car2gether ad-hoc ridesharing system.

The goal of the partnership is to further expand carpooling.com's platforms and

intelligently integrate the offerings within Daimler's mobility solutions. The

partners will be benefiting from each other's experience in connection with

customer needs, technical systems development, as well as in international

rollouts of successful mobility concepts.

"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," notes

Wilfried Steffen, who heads up Business Innovation at Daimler AG. "We are

pleased that this strategic partnership will enable us to support

carpooling.com's growth and further development."

"The partnership gives us an unprecedented opportunity to grow the

carpooling.com marketplace. As a leading automotive player Daimler will serve

as a strong partner in further establishing the role of modern carpooling in

Europe

and overseas. 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," is the way carpooling.com CEO Markus Barnikel

explains the reasoning behind Daimler AG's investment in the company.

In mid

July 2012

, both companies announced a technical cooperation for the

pilot project moovel. The moovel mobility platform allows users to choose the

best way to get from A to B in urban areas.

Further information

about

Daimler

is available on the Internet at:

http://www.media.daimler.com and http://www.daimler.com

Further information

about

carpooling.com

is available on the Internet at:

http://www.carpooling.com

About Daimler:

Daimler AG is one of the world's most successful automotive companies. With

its divisions Mercedes-Benz Cars, Daimler Trucks, Mercedes-Benz Vans, Daimler

Buses and Daimler Financial Services, the Daimler Group is one of the biggest

producers of premium cars and the world's biggest manufacturer of

commercial vehicles with a global reach. Daimler Financial Services provides

financing, leasing, fleet management, insurance and innovative mobility

services.The company's founders, Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz, made history

with the invention of the automobile in the year 1886. As a pioneer of

automotive engineering, Daimler continues to shape the future of mobility

today: The Group's focus is on innovative and green technologies as well as on

safe and superior automobiles that appeal to and fascinate its customers. For

many years now, Daimler has been investing continually in the development of

alternative drive systems with the goal of making emission-free driving possible

in the long term. So in addition to vehicles with hybrid drive, Daimler now has

the broadest range of locally emission-free electric vehicles powered by

batteries and fuel cells. This is just one example of how Daimler willingly

accepts the challenge of meeting its responsibility towards society and the

environment. Daimler sells its vehicles and services in nearly all the countries of

the world and has production facilities on five continents. Its current brand

portfolio includes, in addition to the world's most valuable premium automotive

brand, Mercedes-Benz, the brands smart, Maybach, Freightliner, Western Star,

BharatBenz, Fuso, Setra, Orion and Thomas Built Buses. The company is listed

on the stock exchanges of

Frankfurt

and

Stuttgart

(stock exchange symbol

DAI). In 2011, the Group sold 2.1 million vehicles and employed a workforce of

more than 271,000 people; revenue totaled

euro 106.5 billion

and EBIT

amounted to

euro 8.8 billion

.

About carpooling.com

Carpooling.com is the world's leading ridesharing network with 4 million

registered users and daily access to more than 650,000 rides. Rides can be

accessed by computer, mobile phone (iPhone, Android) or social network

(Facebook). A staff of some 45 people support the company's platforms that

afford carpooling opportunities for both short and long trips. In addition,

carpooling.com also offers custom-tailored commuting solutions for

municipalities and private-sector organizations. By sharing a ride, people save

gas and money, reduce carbon emissions and meet new friends. Thanks to

carpooling.com, 860,000 tons of C02 and 430 million liters of gas have been

saved; not counting the millions of savings by users and the thousands of

friendships created (including more than 16 marriages!).

Media contact at carpooling.com GmbH:

Odile Beniflah

Telephone: [phone]

Email: [e-mail]

Media contact at Daimler AG:

Shirin Emeera

Telephone: [phone]

E-Mail: [e-mail]