Global platform raised over $75 million since its inception
Rotterdam, The Netherlands, April 18, 2024 – MaaS platform umob, which fully integrates the use of shared mobility, taxi and public transport in one app, has acquired MaaS Global. The Finnish mobility scale-up, active in Vienna, Antwerp, Helsinki, Turku, Tokyo, Birmingham and throughout Switzerland, filed for bankruptcy last month. umob now acquires the technology behind MaaS Global and the by the company produced Whim app.
MaaS Global is the company behind the Whim app, which allows users to view all available travel options in one app. The company, founded in Finland in 2015, is considered the world’s first Mobility-as-a-Service company and Whim the first commercial MaaS service developed. The scale-up raised over $75 million in funding from NordicNinja, BP Ventures, Toyota and Mitsubishi, among others. The Whim app was rolled out in several major cities and counted 120 employees at its peak. Despite paving the road for MaaS around the world, its 1 million users and over 30 million rides made with Whim, bankruptcy was filed in March. The Rotterdam-based umob is appointed by the curator as the takeover party.
umob aims to continue the operation of Whim under its own name and build on the decade of MaaS experience of MaaS Global. “The acquisition of MaaS Global represents an acceleration in our mission to make umob a global MaaS platform. We soft-launched in the Netherlands last year, so that we could optimize our app, but now we are growing quickly. We successfully integrated shared mobility providers of mopeds and bikes like Cooltra, Donkey Republic and GO Sharing, in addition to public transport and taxi services. Our aim is to integrate all forms of mobility. Joining forces with MaaS Global, who has undoubtedly integrated more transport than anyone on a global level, enables us to faster scale throughout Europe,” says Raymon Pouwels, co-founder of umob.
“I am happy to see all the hard work and experiences of MaaS Global put into good use with umob. MaaS as a concept is still at its infancy and umob represents the consumer facing approach that will drive the concept forward,” says Sampo Hietanen, the founder of MaaS Global and the inventor behind the concept MaaS.
All providers in one app
umob’s MaaS platform fully integrates mobility providers into the umob app, meaning users only need one app to plan and pay for their trip, regardless of which provider is used and at the same price the provider charges. The integration requires extensive cooperation with providers, but also with government institutions that try to solve the mobility problems in their cities. Back in October 2023, umob raised $6.5 million to achieve this in The Netherlands.
“By integrating all mobility providers in one app, we not only make traveling easier for everyone, we also make mobility challenges more transparent for municipalities to solve them. We use data – anonymized of course – to map commuting patterns, see where bottlenecks are located and where opportunities are to make transport more sustainable. The acquisition of MaaS Global is also about knowledge and, important to us in today’s labor market, experienced specialists who are able to solve the global mobility challenges,” says Bibi Jorissen, co-founder of umob.