Skip to main content

MaaS Finland aims to revolutionise the global transportation market

Mobility-as-a-service company MaaS Finland commenced operations on 1 February with funding from private investors and the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation Tekes. Other investors are Transdev, a French transportation organisation, Karsan Otomotiv Sanayii and Ticaret, a Turkish car-industry company. Other shareholders include InMob Holdings of Cyprus; Neocard; Korsisaari; GoSwift; MaaS Australia; Goodsign; IQ Payments; and Delta Capital Force. MaaS Finland founder Sampo Hietanen holds a
February 9, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
Mobility-as-a-service company MaaS Finland commenced operations on 1 February with funding from private investors and the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation Tekes.

Other investors are Transdev, a French transportation organisation, Karsan Otomotiv Sanayii and Ticaret, a Turkish car-industry company. Other shareholders include InMob Holdings of Cyprus; Neocard; Korsisaari; GoSwift; MaaS Australia; Goodsign; IQ Payments; and Delta Capital Force. MaaS Finland founder Sampo Hietanen holds a ten percent stake in the company.

Sampo Hietanen, MaaS Finland’s CEO and the original developer of the concept, has set himself the goal of reshaping the world’s transportation markets.

He says MaaS Finland intends to serve as an operator between transport services providers, users and third parties. It will combine all the existing transport services into a single mobile application on the ‘single-ticket principle’ and offer personalised transport plans tailored to customer needs.

“Digitisation will reshape the transportation industry. Our goal is to form a ‘Finnish Netflix’ in transportation and change the way people use transport services. In a couple of years, MaaS will either be Finland’s new Nokia and a major employer or I’ll be out of work,” remarks Hietanen.

The Government’s ambition is to turn Finland into a pioneer of smart digitized transportation and make it a major export product.

“We need to seize this opportunity and move ahead quickly before somebody else beats us to it with a competing concept,” warns Hietanen.

ITS Finland estimates that by 2020, the new transport services could give work to 20,000 people in Finland.

Related Content

  • April 16, 2014
    Mobile transport information across the Finnish–Russian border
    The smart transport corridor between Helsinki in Finland and St Petersburg in Russia will bring new services for passengers, car drivers and public transport. Development of the Vedia multi-service concept, led by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and Vediafi, unites newly opened mobile services that will result in smoother passenger traffic across the Finnish–Russian border and enhance passenger experience and traffic safety. Vedia multi-service is a key element of the Finnish–Russian intelligent
  • March 25, 2020
    Tech giants could herald loss of MaaS policy control
    With tech giants targeting the transport sector, could local authorities lose control of their means of delivering policy?
  • December 16, 2016
    Transport for West Midlands and Whim set to pioneer MaaS in the UK
    The West Midlands region in the UK is to pilot Mobility as Service (MaaS) to its residents. The service, Whim by Finnish MaaS operator MaaS Global, will be launched in the West Midlands metropolitan area in early 2017. The launch follows a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), transport service providers National Express and SilverRail, Birmingham City Council and MaaS Global. Other transport companies will be welcomed onboard the Whim service in the future. Th
  • June 5, 2018
    MaaS must be seamless and invisible - or forget it
    MaaS experts from around the world converged on ITS International’s MaaS Market Atlanta conference to talk about how MaaS can be implemented in the US. Andrew Bardin Williams had a front row seat. Transportation experts from around the world gathered in the US earlier this month to discuss the future of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) and how it could be deployed in the US market. While most attendees at ITS International’s MaaS Market Atlanta conference were familiar with the MaaS concept, the US’s highly