♦ The application redirects the cost of the rides to NGOs, charging a fixed rate, currently limited to 50 money per kilometer for each person ♦ The project was officially launched in the fall of 2025, being fully supported by its own funds, and the monetization model is based on a commission withheld from the funds directed to social causes.
The local start-up LinkToRide, which developed a carpooling type mobility application with an integrated social component, aims to attract 10,000 users in a first phase, while also preparing the launch of a functionality dedicated to companies so that they can offer their employees access to the application as an extra-salary benefit. Officially launched in September 2025 on the iOS and Android platforms, following an initial investment from own funds estimated at around 100,000 euros, the application has already managed to gather a base of 1,000 registered accounts and has listed 20 social causes to which users can direct money. Unlike classic transport platforms, where drivers generate their own income, the LinkToRide model is built exclusively around donations. The drivers offer their free seats in the car on their daily routes, and the amounts paid by the passengers are fully directed to an NGO chosen by the driver. «What we want to do is to create a community of people who consciously choose to take someone with them, who is going in the same direction. And in this way they can do themselves a favor, do the environment a favor, reduce their stress, the time spent in traffic. And in addition, in addition to that, we wanted to bring a social part. Probably everyone is familiar with the concept of «running for a cause» or «swimming for a cause», we seen more recently. Why not drive every day for a cause? And then we decided that an additional element to convince people to do this as drivers is to support the causes in which they believe», said Cătălin Mazilu, founder of LinkToRide. The idea of the project arose from observing the congested traffic in Bucharest, where most cars carry only one person. To encourage repeat behavior, the costs borne by passengers are fixed and kept at a low level, not being influenced by traffic conditions. «That donation that the passenger pays is not at the level of an ordinary ride. I think you know very well that, maybe in the morning or in the evening in Bucharest, if we call a taxi or if we call an Uber, the prices can be very high. They can easily exceed 50 lei for a 10 km ride. We thought of the pricing as something fixed, without any variable element of it depending on the traffic. And we limited it to a maximum price, at the moment, of 50 money per person. That means that for one person, a 10 km ride in Bucharest does not seem like much, and you will think that it will have no impact. But what we want to do is to make people aware that 5 lei with 5 lei can make a difference for the cause they believe in», he explained. The B2B solution: dedicated pages, benefit platforms and ESG impact In addition to individual users (B2C), the start-up is preparing to launch a functionality dedicated to companies (B2B), directly integrated into the current architecture of the application. «Each company will have the possibility to have a dedicated page in the application, where they will be able to have a budget allocated to their employees», emphasized the founder of LinkToRide. However, in order to access company funds and travel as passengers, employees – who validate themselves with their company e-mail – must first make a trip as a driver. This facility simultaneously solves several problems for the corporate environment: it offers an extra-salary mobility benefit, supports social causes and brings an impact in sustainability policies. In order to speed up the adoption in companies, the start-up also negotiates the integration in the already established networks: «We have plans to list in the benefits platforms and we are already in discussions with several of them and we have agreed, I would say, with at least one of them the integration», emphasized Cătălin Mazilu. For organizations focused on sustainability reporting, the platform provides concrete data. «For those companies that have clear CSR and ESG objectives, it is a great advantage to use the application, because the impact is immediately quantifiable. That is, we can see both the number of kilometers saved, the CO2 footprint and what is the impact of this, as well as where and how the funds they allocate for this go – because they go to some social causes», he detailed.
Monetization model, investment and adoption objectives
At the level of monetization, the application will not charge fees from the partner companies, the business model being based exclusively on the withholding of an administration commission from the funds directed to NGOs. This commission is percentage and decreasing: it starts from 40% for small amounts (under 500 lei) and decreases to a minimum threshold of 20% for amounts exceeding 4,000 lei. «The model is not currently intended to monetize the relationship with B2B. It is intended to try to cover our costs at this time through some commissions charged for the funds that reach the NGOs. The NGOs that are listed with us in the application and that can be selected by users will, of course, as I said, receive the percentage of the funds. On the other hand, for the listing there is an application commission that will be charged depending on the value of the funds. And when I say depending on the value of the funds, it is a percentage of the value of those funds, but also a decreasing percentage. Which means that, as the value of the funds will increase, that percentage will decrease – so that we try to make the difference as much as possible for them, but on the other hand, we also try to cover the costs we have», pointed out the founder of LinkToRide. Regarding the development of the project, the initial investment was supported from his own sources by Cătălin Mazilu, who has a professional background of over 17 years in financial consulting and auditing, currently being the managing partner of his own company Mazilu & Partners. «I think we probably exceed 100,000 euros as an investment. (…) All were the undersigned's own and personal funds. It was a project that I wanted to do as a «give-back», he explained. Application adoption remains the immediate priority. «The initial target is to try to reach 10,000 users in the first year, of which 1,000 are active accounts», he added, defining active accounts as users who generate at least 100 lei in revenue per month. Although he does not rule out attracting future investments to scale the application regionally, the founder of LinkToRide emphasized that profitability is not the main driver of this endeavor, looking only for partners that resonate with the start-up's social mission.