The problem
Turkey moves by bus — hundreds of operators run the intercity network — but for years each one sold from its own counter or call center, so travelers queued at stations or phoned around just to compare departure times.
How it works
Obilet aggregates 500+ bus operators into a single search-compare-book flow on web and app, then added flights, trains, ferries, hotels, and car rental on top. Underneath, it sells ticketing infrastructure software and B2B data distribution to the operators themselves — software plus marketplace in one business. In 2024 it distributed about 45 million tickets across 50 countries.
Pain points
Station queues, blind price and schedule comparison, and operators stuck with paper-era sales systems.
Business model
Take-rate on every ticket sold, plus software and data fees from bus operators using its ticketing stack.
Challenges
Ticket retail margins are thin and seasonal; its acquisition of rival Biletall drew conditional Turkish Competition Authority clearance; and under BlaBlaCar majority ownership it must deliver global-multimodal synergies without losing the local execution that won Turkey.
Funding
- Raised: about $10M within one year through the EBRD round (fourth round in five years, with Earlybird Venture Capital participating); earlier rounds undisclosed.
- Valuation: MISSING.
Latest — December 2024
On 12 December 2024 BlaBlaCar announced it had closed a majority investment in Obilet — a top-3 intercity bus marketplace globally — with founders Ali Yilmaz and Yigit Gurocak staying on as co-CEOs and the company keeping operational autonomy.