The Russian company Samocat Sharing has begun its expansion into the Finnish market by opening its first automated scooter rentals in Helsinki.
As many as 30 such rentals began operating in the Finnish capital in May, offering a total of 300 vehicles, half of them electric. The facilities are located in the Vuosaari district, 15 km east of the city center on the coast of the Gulf of Finland, chosen for its landscape, which is ideal for riding scooters.
Manufactured by Samocat Sharing in Kaliningrad, these rental facilities do not require any personnel – they are fully automated, operated by scanning a QR-code with a mobile app. The rented scooter can be returned to any of the stations.
Last year, the Russian startup won the IdeaLab Contest for New Mobility Services organized by the Helsinki regional transport authority, HSL, receiving a €500K grant. Until recently, there were no scooter rentals in the Finnish capital; however, the service is not entirely new for the city residents because bicycle rental services are quite popular there.
According to the founder of Samoсat Sharing Vasily Bykov, the company first tested its scooter rentals in Finland in 2017, in the university city of Espoo. The pilot project showed that the scooters offered by the company are quite suitable for the climate and landscape of Finland.
The Samoсat Sharing rentals will operate in Helsinki until the end of October 2019, while the number of scooters can be increased.
Samoсat Sharing plans to expand to other foreign markets, including the European Union, Great Britain, Egypt, India and the Middle East. Today, 122 Samoсat Sharing rentals are already operating in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Krasnodar, Stavropol, Kazan and other Russian cities. During 2019, the company plans to increase the total number of rentals to 700, and the number of scooters, from 1,220 to 7,000. Samoсat Sharing is a Skolkovo resident.