Built for Audi. Scaled to market leader. Exited to Baloise.
How a mobility-budget SaaS built for Audi Business Innovation became the DACH market leader — and was acquired by Baloise Insurance.
Intro
The shift from car ownership to mobility services opened a new market: flexible mobility budgets for employees, as an alternative to the company car. But the tool to run them — tax-compliant and easy to administer — didn't exist.
Audi Business Innovation (ABI) — Audi's dedicated unit for building new businesses outside the core — saw the opening. A B2B SaaS platform for HR and mobility budgets is a different world from designing and selling cars. It needed startup speed and product thinking ABI didn't want to build internally.
Situation
A new market, outside the core
Company-car policies were losing their appeal for urban, highly-paid employees who preferred multimodal mobility — putting larger fleet relationships at risk. And the German tax and social-security treatment of mobility benefits made budgets almost impossible to administer by hand.
ABI didn't want a concept. It wanted a real company that could own the category — built outside Audi's structure, at startup speed. That's where mantro came in.
Our job
One venture, built end-to-end
mantro built Mobiko as an independent company (Mobiko GmbH): venture architecture and the three-party consortium agreement, the full platform — a tax-compliant mobility-budget engine, provider integrations, analytics — the founding team, and go-to-market. Munich-built, with no external partner on delivery.
Institutional co-founder, not a consultant
Through incubation and scaling, mantro ran operations and hired the team that carried the company — holding a meaningful equity stake aligned to the outcome.
Built to find its natural owner
Our founding model was flexible by design. When Mobiko's natural home turned out to be an insurer, not an automaker, it gave the flexibility to bring Baloise on board as a further strategic partner and later majority shareholder — first as an Audi–Baloise joint venture, then a full exit to Baloise.
Our job
One venture, built end-to-end
mantro built Mobiko as an independent company (Mobiko GmbH): venture architecture and the three-party consortium agreement, the full platform — a tax-compliant mobility-budget engine, provider integrations, analytics — the founding team, and go-to-market. Munich-built, with no external partner on delivery.
Institutional co-founder, not a consultant
Through incubation and scaling, mantro ran operations and hired the team that carried the company — holding a meaningful equity stake aligned to the outcome.
Built to find its natural owner
Our founding model was flexible by design. When Mobiko's natural home turned out to be an insurer, not an automaker, it gave the flexibility to bring Baloise on board as a further strategic partner and later majority shareholder — first as an Audi–Baloise joint venture, then a full exit to Baloise.
Proud of what we built together
“We're proud that we took an idea born in our innovation process and, together with mantro, brought it to market readiness — and now get to see Mobiko become this successful.”
Michael Gick, Commercial Managing Director, Audi Business Innovation — Munich Startup, 2022
What Mobiko achieved
75+ enterprise customers
By 2022, 75+ companies ran their employee mobility budgets on Mobiko.
DACH market leader
Mobiko became the category leader for corporate mobility budgets across the DACH region.
Full cycle, positive return
Built as a corporate-funded venture from 2018 to a 2022 exit — with a positive return for mantro.
Learnings
Flexibility is king
A venture built for one corporate can become strategic to another. The structure has to allow it.
The venture finds its natural owner
Model A doesn't lock a company to the originating partner. Mobiko's home was an insurer, not an automaker.
The model works end-to-end
Sandbox → Incubation → Scaling → Exit, with real revenue and a positive return. Not a report — a company.
Get in touch
If you want to stress-test an idea, unblock an initiative, or simply see whether we're the right partner, let's talk. You can book a straight-to-the-point session with our CEO Manni, or leave us a message.
30-minute call. No strings attached.
