On 31 January 2019, Digia Plc and the owners of Starcut Oy signed an agreement whereby Digia Plc will acquire Starcut Oy’s entire share capital. With this acquisition, Digia bolsters its Digia Digital service area, which employs nearly 200 staff and comprises service design, analytics, e-commerce and agile application development.
Starcut has 19 employees and its largest customers include Alma Media, SM-Liiga, Tamro, Ticketmaster and HIFK. In its current incarnation, Starcut Oy has been in existence since 2014, but the company’s roots go back to the turn of the millennium. They are pioneers in their field and have witnessed all phases of the mobile application market’s transformation, especially drastic in the past decade.
”The smartphone has evolved into the most popular tool for using the internet and digital services. Mobile has become one of the most important business channels for our customers. For example, Helsinki Region Transport’s (HSL) mobile application, partly developed by Digia, is gradually replacing all other methods of buying tickets. Starcut’s mobile development team has rock-solid expertise in iOS and Android, the two principal mobile platforms. This improves Digia’s ability to implement business-critical mobile services, an area in which integrations, cloud services and backend systems are already some of Digia’s strongest points”, says Harri Vepsäläinen, Senior Vice President, Digital Digital.
The next step on the growth path
Digia has been systematically improving its capability to offer ever more diverse digital service solutions. In the last three years, Digia has acquired, in this area, the analytics company Avarea, Nord Software software house and Igence, a specialist in e-commerce.
The top professionals working for Starcut will be transferred to Digia’s agile application development unit, whose credentials include the HSL app, various Stockmann’s web services, Ramirent’s Raimo service, the upcoming public transport journey planner of the City of Oulu and the Frank student card of Frank Students.
“We are thrilled about joining Digia. Merging us into Digia’s agile application development unit seems like the right choice, as Starcut’s native mobile app development and cloud environment expertise is a great complement to the unit’s application development methods and specialisation in modern technology, such as React. Joining Digia will open more diverse and extensive projects to us
and offers fascinating work and development opportunities to our experienced team”, says Managing Partner Hannu Hiilamo of Starcut.
The parties have agreed that the sale will be completed on 1 February 2019 and that the sales price will not be disclosed.
Further information:
Harri Vepsäläinen
Senior Vice President, Digia Digital Services, Digia Plc
Tel. +358 50 571 8585
Hannu Hiilamo
Managing Partner, Starcut Oy
Tel. +358 40 574 3323
Starcut in Brief
The net sales of Starcut Oy, a specialist in mobile applications and cloud services, amounted to EUR 1.28 million in the financial period ended in 8/2018. The company’s customers include Alma Media, SM-Liiga, Tamro, Ticketmaster, HIFK and Etsimo Healthcare. Starcut is based in Helsinki and employs 19 experienced professionals in agile development. https://www.starcut.com