Voland Partners accelerates Biila Solutions' growth with EUR 3.5 million equity investment

Biila grew to be the largest car delivery service platform in the Nordic countries.

Voland Partners makes a EUR 3.5 million investment in Biila Solutions, a Finnish company that revolutionises car logistics.

With this investment, the company will continue the technological development of its service platform and accelerate its internationalisation.

"Corona pandemic was the turning point of growth for us in Finland. At the same time, however, it messed up our first attempt to enter the Swedish market. Now the time is right for us to bring on board an investor-partner who brings vision and experience in technology development, scaling and internationalisation", Biila Solutions founder and CEO Kallunki Aapeli says.

There is significant potential and competitive advantage in optimising the platform to meet the needs of different stakeholders through the application of machine learning and artificial intelligence.

"Biila's innovative platform solution will revolutionise car logistics and, at the same time, benefit both the environment and society. The solution allows customers to get a faster, more accurate and comprehensive service while avoiding unnecessary and polluting deliveries", says Jyrki Laune, founding partner of Voland Partners.

Biila Solutions aims to triple its turnover to €30 million by 2025.

"The company has excellent opportunities for scaling abroad. In addition, Biila's ambitious entrepreneurial culture, its ability to grow profitably and good people management resonate with Voland Partners' values," Laune continues.

Different needs are connected on the platform

Biila uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to optimise the logistics demand and supply of car transport capacity in the car trade with unprecedented efficiency.

The platform optimizes routes and concatenates rides. In this way it is also possible to combine the mobility needs. By optimising deliveries, unnecessary mileage and nature will be saved.

The core idea of the platform is to combine two mobility needs: the movement of people from one place to another and the need of car dealers to move cars. Nowadays, car deliveries are mainly done by truck or by train.

"We provide the capacity needed by car dealers in the right place at the right time. This enables not only cost savings, but also emission reductions in traffic," Kallunki says.

On average, a car delivery ordered from the Biila platform gets to the destination within 29 hours.

Last year, a total of 90 000 cars were moved on the platform. The delivery volume has increased by 50% since 2022.

The platform offers extra income for students and pensioners, for instance, who need to move from one place to another anyway.

"Instead of buying a train ticket to their home town, a student books a convenient time with the platform to move the car and earns the agreed fee. Or, if you are going to visit relatives who live miles away from you, see if there is a car transfer between both locations. Instead of travel costs, the transfer offers extra income," Kallunki says.

For example, the delivery fee between Tampere and Helsinki is typically about 60 euros.

International growth

Biila Solutions has quickly grown into the largest player in the Nordic countries. Next, the company will penetrate the Swedish market, where the platform has attracted interest already before the official launch.

The company received as many as 2,000 driver applications in a few months after announcing that it was looking for drivers to deliver cars in Sweden.

Biila drivers have already made several hundred deliveries in Sweden since last autumn.

The service will be officially launched in Sweden on 30 January 2024.

Used car deliveries is among the fastest growing services on the market. In addition, the delivery of cars to and from car service provides a significant workload for the drivers registered on the Biila platform.

"Used car dealerships need fast, cost-effective, scalable and predictable logistics. Our platform offers the best solution that traditional truck-based logistics is unable to provide," says Kallunki.