MaaS Global declares bankruptcy

MaaS Global, the pioneering mobility-as-a-service organization set up by Sampo Hietanen, has filed for bankruptcy with the Finnish Legal Register Center.

The news comes following an announcement earlier this month that it was to discontinue its flagship Whim app.

Hietanen is well known across the industry as the father of the MaaS concept, which advocates for transportation services to be interlinked and easy to access via dedicated platforms on a subscription or seamless ticketing model, which radically reduces the need for private car ownership.

MaaS Global’s Whim app successfully bundled various transportation services including public transport, taxis, city bikes, electric scooters, shared cars, and rental cars. But, despite amassing approximately 10,000 active monthly users in Helsinki, MaaS Global has struggled with financial losses for some time. In 2022 these were reported to be €9.3m against a turnover of €3.8m. At the time the company employed 38 individuals, though this was much reduced from its workforce peak of 120 at the start of 2020.