MaaS Global Oy receives €14.2M in strategic investment from Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance Co., Ltd. and their global partner Toyota Financial Services.

MaaS Global, a Helsinki, Finland-based developer of the “Mobility as a Service” (MaaS) concept, announced raising over €14.2M ($16.9M) in a funding round.

The backers include Toyota Financial Services of Japan and its insurance partner Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance Company, as they become significant investors in the Finnish startup. In addition, significant investments were made by Transdev, Veho and Karsan, who are among the Finnish company’s older shareholders.

The capital investment will be used for further expanding internationally and scaling the Whim app, recently launched in the Helsinki region in Finland. The app is being launched in the West Midlands, UK and the Amsterdam region, Netherlands by end of 2017.

MaaS Global, founded in April 2015 by the CEO Sampo Hietanen, claims to be the world’s first mobility operator, as its Whim app allows users to plan journeys and purchase various mobility services through a single service. The phrase “Mobility as a Service” (MaaS), coined by Sampo Hietanen, is widely used when talking about the future of transport.

Prior to this investment, MaaS Global raised EUR 2.2M ($2.5M) in seed money from local investors including Tekes, Transdev and Veho.