April 11, “Forus”, a travel mobility app created in Estonia, announced the addition of a new company investor, and also presented a customer-friendly travel category “Forus Deal”, unprecedented in the Baltic States, where users will be able to determine the price of the trip themselves.
Mobility app “Forus”, created in Estonia in 2022, celebrates its first anniversary today. In just one year, “Forus” has not only achieved remarkable results in all Baltic countries – in Latvia, more than 110,000 customers and 2,000 drivers have already been registered in the app, the number of which is growing rapidly every day, but it has also changed the traditional business model of transport services.
“Forus” first year in the transport services market has been successful and filled with several new challenges. One of them has been the introduction of an innovative business model that will not be familiar to its users and will not be copied by competitors. “Truly innovative things are rarely created, but we worked hard to create a revolution in the Baltic transport services industry and business, and today we can say loudly – we have succeeded! In the coming days, we will provide users of the mobility app “Forus” with a new trip category “Forus Deal”, which will change the principle of the trip price formation. “Forus Deal” will allow the customer and the driver to mutually agree on a trip, without the app calculating the price and without using a price multiplier,” says Eduards Dubrovskis, manager of the “Forus Taxi” app.
According to Sander Sõõrumaa, head of US Token, the new solutions and improvements to the mobility app are mainly based on feedback from co-owners who have joined through US Token: “Among our customers, who are also future shareholders of the company, currently there are already more than 18,000 people with voting rights, each of whom can individually determine the direction of the company in the development of the app. Even today, co-owners’ ideas make a significant contribution to software development. Every suggestion you make helps the app grow, resulting in customers finding the vehicle they want faster and drivers earning more. With US Token, we transfer 30% of the shares of the app to customers and partners, thus creating a whole community where the winners and beneficiaries are all members of the US Token community,” emphasizes Sanders in Süruma.
On the other hand, the world champion, Estonian rally driver Ott Tänak has become the company’s new investor, who will also contribute to the company’s development in the future. According to Tanak himself, although “Forus” is a one-year-old company, it is very ambitious and in the future will not only completely change the transport services market and its operating principle, but also the perceptions of the traditional business model. “In Urmas Sürum, the intention to create an app together with a community that contributes to its growth and transfers part of the success story to the owners is truly unique. My contribution to “Forus” gives me the confidence that together with all the users who are also co-owners, we can move towards something much bigger. I have always strived for excellence in whatever I do, and as our ambitions are much bigger than just the transportation business, I am happy to be a part of making them happen,” comments Tanak.
Currently, 30 million tokens have been issued in Estonia, which is 30% of the platform’s business so far. Ott Tanaka’s investment does not reduce the share of tokens in the company, which means that as the number of investors increases, the share of shares allocated to customers and partners remains the same.
“Forus” is a family company established in Estonia and its founder, owner is one of the most successful Estonian businessmen in Urmas Sõõrumaa, who also owns Estonia’s oldest private traditional transport company “Forus Takso”, as well as a group of companies that includes both real estate development and management services, as well as security, energy efficiency and cleaning services. Seruma emphasizes that it is a great honor for the company to welcome Tanaka to the board and emphasizes that the company’s owners include everyone who uses “Forus” transport services on a daily basis.
