MaaS Global, a pioneering mobility-as-a-service platform provider, is looking for a buyer, as it faces the prospect of running out of cash, Mobility Payments has learned.
The Finland-based company, known for its groundbreaking Whim app, has approached such companies as the Siemens Mobility subsidiary of Germany-based Siemens AG and Cubic Transportation Systems, part of U.S.-based Cubic Corp., Mobility Payments has learned. The MaaS start-up also is believed to have solicited offers from other companies in the mobility industry, including possibly U.S.-based Conduent Inc.
MaaS Global founder and CEO Sampo Hietanen did not name the prospective buyers he’s talked to, but did confirm that he’s seeking an acquisition of the company as an option, in addition to trying to raise more funding from investors. “We’re looking for solutions like we’ve been looking for ever since Covid,” he told Mobility Payments. “We have some solutions on the table, but it wouldn’t hurt to get more.”
But he acknowledged that the company’s cash situation is serious. And it’s been difficult to raise additional capital. Venture capital firms have become much more risk averse following the “financial crisis” brought on by the Russian war in Ukraine, he said. That followed the Covid-19 pandemic, which nearly dealt a fatal blow to MaaS Global by itself, he said. “After Covid, the financial crisis has taken a toll on us,” Hietanen said, but adding: “What is serious? We are a start-up; we’ve been pretty much in a serious situation all our lives.”
Founded in 2015, MaaS Global has become the best known of the MaaS start-ups. Its platform brings together public and private transport mobility providers, enabling users to plan, book and pay for end-to-end journeys in the same app. The company has expanded from its Finnish base to several other European markets, in addition to Japan and, earlier this year, Brazil.
But even before the pandemic, MaaS as a technology was not living up to its promise. Then Covid caused use of mobility, especially public transit globally, to plummet. Usage has been returning, with Hietanen noting that MaaS Global revenue exceeded €1 million (US$1 million) last month, fueled by growth in such markets as Finland, Switzerland, Belgium, Brazil and somewhat in Japan. That is much higher than the monthly revenue the company recorded just months earlier, in December 2021, he said.