Technology
Once profitable, carpooling platform BlaBlaCar secures a $108 million debt line

BlaBlaCar is an iconic name within the French startup ecosystem. The carpooling and bus ticketing company has been in the marketplace for thus long that it might probably not be considered a startup. Still, BlaBlaCar is an especially interesting company today due to its unique trajectory.
What began as a vibrant online community of hitchhikers was a startup that raised a whole lot of tens of millions and achieved unicorn status. It then expanded its operations to many countries on several continents before scaling back its ambitions and beginning to take into consideration profitability.
Today, the corporate proclaims that it has obtained a secured revolving credit facility in the quantity of €100 million ($108 million at today’s exchange rates). This will provide it with a latest war chest with which to plan for the longer term and proceed to grow, including through acquisitions.
“Debt is a tool that is relatively attractive, non-dilutive and at the same time very flexible,” Brusson told us. The €100 million credit line is obtainable to several large banks in France, the UK and the US
BlaBlaCar doesn’t pay interest for now since it has not yet used the debt limit. Brusson, nonetheless, said he plans to make use of the debt facility to amass smaller corporations. As many startups struggle to boost one other round of funding, BlaBlaCar will have the ability to step in and acquire these smaller corporations.
Profit from the last 24 months
Although BlaBlaCar isn’t a public company, it’s slowly accepting that it could share some data publicly. In this manner, BlaBlaCar can reveal for the primary time that it has achieved profitability – in actual fact, it has been profitable since April 2022.
This milestone must come as a huge relief, as 2023 has been a difficult 12 months for French startups – aside from working on AI-based products, after all.
“The whole business is profitable. We have been profitable for almost two years,” co-founder and CEO Nicolas Brusson told TechCrunch. “2022 was the primary almost full 12 months after Covid-19, except possibly the primary two months. We recorded revenues of EUR 195 million. We ended the 12 months mainly within the red, but that was often because the primary quarter was terrible.
“But starting in the second quarter of 2022 and beyond, we were profitable. Then in 2023 our revenues increased to over 250 million euros. So we’re seeing a little less than 30% revenue growth and yet we’re still profitable.”
Profitability can mean various things to different people. Many corporations like to say that they’re profitable although they speak about it EBITDA — a financial measure that doesn’t keep in mind the prices related to a company’s assets. And Brusson is a bit fed up with corporations pretending to be profitable but actually losing money yearly.
In the case of BlaBlaCar, the corporate was profitable on an EBITDA basis, however it also generates a net profit when the whole lot is taken under consideration – BlaBlaCar doesn’t own passenger cars or buses anyway.
In 2023, 80 million passengers booked a bus or ride with BlaBlaCar. The excellent news is that BlaBlaCar users are all around the world – not only in France.
“Brazil is larger than France in terms of number of users. “I think India will be bigger than France in terms of ridesharing next year,” Brusson said.
The company has not yet began monetizing its users in India, Brazil, Mexico or Turkey – it doesn’t apply any cuts to travel-sharing transactions. It will regularly add booking fees, which will even help increase the corporate’s revenue.
One wrinkle is Russia. When the war in Ukraine broke out, BlaBlaCar had tens of millions of users in Russia. Although many technology corporations have decided to sell their Russian subsidiaries, BlaBlaCar’s Russian business has been completely separated from the remainder of the business, but BlaBlaCar has no plans to sell it. Brusson argues that this might be counterproductive because it will essentially mean handing it over to its Russian owner.
“Today it is less than 5% of revenue, so it is quite small. It is still part of the group but is completely isolated and independently managed… The company is completely separate from the group. But if you want to sell it, in the current context, it’s like giving it away.”
Adding train tickets
In Europe, BlaBlaCar desires to aggregate all ground transportation methods. In addition to rideshare and bus rides, the corporate plans so as to add train tickets. Users will have the ability to buy tickets sometime next 12 months.
– Our idea is to mix it with carpooling. So we are going to have the ability to supply train travel and shared travel – almost door to door,” Brusson said.
Even in case you don’t book one other BlaBlaCar train ride, the corporate can also be experimenting with last-mile carpooling. “Then we now have one other model for barely shorter distances. The idea is to attach train stations to your destination. Typically, in case you arrive at Vannes Station, you frequently must get to Grandma’s house, holiday home or weekend getaway. You still have 10 to 40 km to go,” he noted.
Since many BlaBlaCar users are already traveling on this direction, the corporate will ping these drivers to see in the event that they can pick up a group of individuals from the train station and drop them off at their destination.
In non-European markets, the largest opportunity is bus travel. “The good news for us in these markets is that the bus industry remains a very fragmented and inactive industry,” Brusson said. He emphasized that in India and Brazil, people spend billions of dollars on bus tickets, which once more suggests that BlaBlaCar has a likelihood to grow.
Technology
The next large Openai plant will not be worn: Report

Opeli pushed generative artificial intelligence into public consciousness. Now it might probably develop a very different variety of AI device.
According to WSJ reportThe general director of Opeli, Altman himself, told employees on Wednesday that one other large product of the corporate would not be worn. Instead, it will be compact, without the screen of the device, fully aware of the user’s environment. Small enough to sit down on the desk or slot in your pocket, Altman described it each as a “third device” next to MacBook Pro and iPhone, in addition to “Comrade AI” integrated with on a regular basis life.
The preview took place after the OpenAI announced that he was purchased by IO, a startup founded last 12 months by the previous Apple Joni Ive designer, in a capital agreement value $ 6.5 billion. I will take a key creative and design role at Openai.
Altman reportedly told employees that the acquisition can ultimately add 1 trillion USD to the corporate conveyorsWearing devices or glasses that got other outfits.
Altman reportedly also emphasized to the staff that the key would be crucial to stop the copying of competitors before starting. As it seems, the recording of his comments leaked to the journal, asking questions on how much he can trust his team and the way rather more he will be able to reveal.
(Tagstotransate) devices
Technology
The latest model AI Google Gemma can work on phones

It grows “open” AI Google, Gemma, grows.
While Google I/O 2025 On Tuesday, Google removed Gemma 3N compresses, a model designed for “liquid” on phones, laptops and tablets. According to Google, available in a preview starting on Tuesday, Gemma 3N can support sound, text, paintings and flicks.
Models efficient enough to operate in offline mode and without the necessity to calculate within the cloud have gained popularity within the AI community lately. They will not be only cheaper to make use of than large models, but they keep privacy, eliminating the necessity to send data to a distant data center.
During the speech to I/O product manager, Gemma Gus Martins said that GEMMA 3N can work on devices with lower than 2 GB of RAM. “Gemma 3N shares the same architecture as Gemini Nano, and is also designed for incredible performance,” he added.
In addition to Gemma 3N, Google releases Medgemma through the AI developer foundation program. According to Medgemma, it’s essentially the most talented model to research text and health -related images.
“Medgemma (IS) OUR (…) A collection of open models to understand the text and multimodal image (health),” said Martins. “Medgemma works great in various imaging and text applications, thanks to which developers (…) could adapt the models to their own health applications.”
Also on the horizon there may be SignGEMMA, an open model for signaling sign language right into a spoken language. Google claims that Signgemma will allow programmers to create recent applications and integration for users of deaf and hard.
“SIGNGEMMA is a new family of models trained to translate sign language into a spoken text, but preferably in the American sign and English,” said Martins. “This is the most talented model of understanding sign language in history and we are looking forward to you-programmers, deaf and hard communities-to take this base and build with it.”
It is value noting that Gemma has been criticized for non -standard, non -standard license conditions, which in accordance with some developers adopted models with a dangerous proposal. However, this didn’t discourage programmers from downloading Gemma models tens of tens of millions of times.
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(Tagstransate) gemma
Technology
Trump to sign a criminalizing account of porn revenge and clear deep cabinets

President Donald Trump is predicted to sign the act on Take It Down, a bilateral law that introduces more severe punishments for distributing clear images, including deep wardrobes and pornography of revenge.
The Act criminalizes the publication of such photos, regardless of whether or not they are authentic or generated AI. Whoever publishes photos or videos can face penalty, including a advantageous, deprivation of liberty and restitution.
According to the brand new law, media firms and web platforms must remove such materials inside 48 hours of termination of the victim. Platforms must also take steps to remove the duplicate content.
Many states have already banned clear sexual desems and pornography of revenge, but for the primary time federal regulatory authorities will enter to impose restrictions on web firms.
The first lady Melania Trump lobbyed for the law, which was sponsored by the senators Ted Cruz (R-TEXAS) and Amy Klobuchar (d-minn.). Cruz said he inspired him to act after hearing that Snapchat for nearly a 12 months refused to remove a deep displacement of a 14-year-old girl.
Proponents of freedom of speech and a group of digital rights aroused concerns, saying that the law is Too wide And it will probably lead to censorship of legal photos, similar to legal pornography, in addition to government critics.
(Tagstransate) AI
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