The Pooly Story

Before founding Pooly, Vince and Ben had separately been thinking about building a carpooling platform for years. Ben is originally from France and Vincent had spent several years living in Germany. It works overseas, so why not in Aotearoa?

The idea is simple: drivers post the trips they’re already taking, so passengers can join. This helps the driver recover some of their driving costs and gets the passenger to their destination at an affordable price.

Others have tried to make carpooling work in New Zealand before. We think the challenge has never really been the technology: it’s behaviour change. For Pooly to work, people need to become comfortable sharing cars with people they don’t already know. Like Airbnb, Couchsurfing or Facebook Marketplace, there was a time when these ideas felt a little strange too. Then enough people tried them, they worked, and gradually they became normal.

In March 2026, as the Hormuz fuel crisis rocked the world, Ben got in touch with Vince saying this is the time to change behaviour. Most of us don’t change unless we have to, and high fuel prices are exactly the kind of thing that will make us reconsider sharing the drive, and quickly.

So we got to work building Pooly. We reviewed overseas and Aotearoa examples to learn what works and what doesn’t. We’re moving fast because Kiwis are hurting at the pump and we want to help them save on fuel as soon as possible.

We care about community. Through careers in Transport and Urban planning we’ve been on our own paths to reduce emissions and help communities share resources. So it’s only logical that Pooly started in Nelson-Tasman where we live. It’s a strong rural and high trust community, making it an ideal launchpad for Pooly, and it’s still our base as members take Pooly further afield.

Something happens when you start carpooling. You save some money, sure. But you also meet people. You have conversations you wouldn’t otherwise have. You discover connections. A trip that would have been an hour sitting alone in a car becomes something social. That’s the future we want Pooly to help create.

We dream of an Aotearoa where people see shared travel as the norm. By carpooling, we can all save money, make friends, and go places. This is community working at its best.

New Zealand is a country with limited public transport options between towns and cities, only a few major roads, but lots of cars. This is huge potential. Our private transport infrastructure is already here, it’s just under-used. At the same time bus and shuttle services are often hard to find or are disconnected. Pooly is the missing link which will connect and activate New Zealand’s transport network.

We’re excited to grow Pooly together with its members. We started here in Nelson-Tasman, and members are already sharing rides to Christchurch, Wānaka and beyond.