Daimler investment Blacklane launches new chauffeur service

The Berlin start-up is attacking Uber and Lyft with its new service. The service will soon also be available in Berlin.

The chauffeur start-up Blacklane is launching an attack on its major competitors Uber and Lyft. The Berlin-based company plans to launch its own service in 21 cities in eleven countries this month, as reported by the Wall Street Journal reported.

The service was already launched in New York on Monday, with Los Angeles, Paris and Berlin also on the list. The new service is primarily aimed at business customers, for whom Blacklane drivers will take care of luggage and hold the car door open, among other things. This puts the company in direct competition with the premium services offered by Uber (Uber Black) and Lyft (Lyft Lux Black).

Blacklane actually offers a chauffeur service for journeys to and from the airport; the service was last available in 300 cities. The business suffered greatly from the coronavirus pandemic, which brought air travel to a virtual standstill, as Blacklane CEO Jens Wohltorf explained: "As we are dependent on travel and airports, we were at the forefront of the pandemic.

Blacklane was founded in 2011 and its most important investor is Daimler AG. Wohltorf had actually planned an IPO for 2023, but this is now on hold for the time being, as he told the Wall Street Journal. At the beginning of the year, Blacklane acquired the e-car chauffeur service Havn from Jaguar Land Rover, which is intended to help electrify its own fleet.