André Schwämmlein was born in Franconia in Bavaria and studied in Franconia and China. In 2011 he formed a partnership under German civil law (GbR) in Munich with Daniel Krauss and Jochen Engert.
The founders spent about a year debating how to run intercity buses before the first trip. By the end of 2012 the team had 30 employees. In February 2013 they launched three routes in Bavaria with a first bus.
A price war with MeinFernbus followed in 2013 and 2014. In January 2015 the two companies merged. FlixBus carried 20 million passengers in 2015 and bought Postbus in August 2016.
Later rounds included a Series F in 2019 and a Series G in 2021 at a valuation of $3 billion. In 2024 a deal involving EQT and Kuehne + Nagel followed. Schwämmlein is co-founder and CEO of Flix, which is privately held.