Starting from next summer, electric scooters and kick-scooters will be available for short-term rental in the Finnish capital. Fifty docking stations will be created by Helsinki’s regional transport authority (HSL) with the rental system provided by Russian startup Samocat Sharing.
The initiative comes as a result of IdeaLab, a Helsinki tech contest which was launched in June this year, aiming to find smart services for city mobility. HSL is offering one million euros for piloting the services with a 3-6 month pilot at the end of this year and during next year.
Samocat Sharing won the first prize.
“We’re happy that our scooter rental system was deemed to be of value in a city as focused on innovations as Helsinki,” Vasily Bykov, founder of Samocat Sharing, told Sk.ru, the news portal of the Skolkovo Foundation.
The Samocat service is currently being tested in the campus of Aalto University School of Science, in Helsinki, where students may use it for free.
A resident of the Skolkovo tech hub near Moscow, Samocat has strong international ambitions. It has been distinguished at several international competitions in Russia, New York and Berlin, in addition to HSL’s latest contest.
Sources: Skolkovo Foundation, Yle.fi
