Mobal’s CEO: Incubators are of central importance for start-ups
Jakob Wikström
Mobal, founded in 2020, provides service and solutions to ensure that their customers' businesses rank highly on Google. The company focuses on business listings that are rapidly replacing websites.
Mobal's CEO and one of its founders Jakob Wikström emphasizes the importance of incubators for start-up companies, especially before and during the time when a company is founded.
“Hanken Business Lab has enabled us to meet the right people who we get well along with. It has also offered us rare opportunities to be a member of international business networks,” states Wikström, who has founded Mobal together with Alexander Silén. Both of them have a degree from Hanken.
Wikström spent a lot of time at Hanken Business Lab during his studies. He emphasizes especially the importance of mentorship during this time.
“I was lucky to meet Markus Wartiovaara, director of Hanken Business Lab, who acted as my mentor almost on a daily basis when I studied.”
Another factor that has significantly contributed to Mobal’s success is according to Wikström the technical expertise they have within the company.
Mobal is focused on taking care of location-based marketing so that their clients can focus on their business.
“This results in a seamless, unique customer journey that naturally inspires consumers to leave positive reviews, organically and exponentially improving the business's online health. Around 90 percent of the whole world population only look at the first-page results on the search engine. With Mobal, companies of all sizes, from local cafes to enterprises, can increase their discoverability, drive better engagement, and strengthen their brand reputation online," Wikström describes.
Lifeline Ventures invests in Mobal to support product development and international expansion – something that Mobal will now focus heavily on.
Mobal is currently located in Fazer’s old factory at Tehtaankatu in Helsinki. Mobal employs 16 people – a number that will already until January increase to 25. Mobal has currently customers in six countries, primarily restaurants, cafés, car and grocery stores and health stations, but also cities.
“Dare to try and dare to think big”, Wikström sends as greetings to entrepreneurs with growth plans.
Hanken Business Lab is a new form of university incubator aiming to help start-ups, scale-ups, non-profit organisations to achieve significant growth.
More information:
Jakob Wikström, CEO and co-founder, Mobal
Email: jakob@mobal.io
Phone: +358505977175
Markus Wartiovaara, director of Hanken Business lab
Email: markus.wartiovaara@hanken.fi
Phone: +358 40 820 2100