Native Mobile App Development and White-Label Platform for a Nordic Public Transport Provider

About the Client

Semel Oy, founded in 1971 and part of the KG Knutsson Group since the 1990s, is a Nordic provider of taxi, public transport, parking, and EV charging solutions, with expertise spanning dispatching, payments, management, and information systems.

Reissu is Semel’s mobile app for journey planning and contactless public transport ticketing, used across Finnish transit regions including Kotka and Lappeenranta. Passengers add a payment card once and purchase tickets on demand, with each ticket protected by a dynamic QR code validated on local transit vehicles.

Challenge

Reissu was built on PhoneGap and Apache Cordova and had gone some time without a major update. As the hybrid stack became harder to maintain and scale, Semel faced growing technical debt and limited flexibility to adapt the app for new operators and markets.

Main Goals

The challenge went beyond replacing the technology. Semel wanted to transform Reissu from a single-purpose ticketing app into a reusable, white-label mobility platform supporting multiple operators, brands, languages, and feature sets from a shared foundation, while modernizing the passenger experience, preserving familiar user journeys, and minimizing changes to the existing backend.

Solution

Edvantis rebuilt Reissu as native Android and iOS applications, replacing the legacy hybrid codebase while preserving established business logic and core passenger journeys. The new platform introduced a multi-tenant, white-label architecture, letting Semel launch branded apps for different operators and regions from a shared codebase instead of building a separate product for each customer.

We Achieved Great Results Together

• Native Android & iOS apps, replacing the PhoneGap/Cordova stack, creating a maintainable foundation for future development
• Multi-tenant, white-label architecture, supporting multiple operators, brands, and regions from a single codebase, enabling faster onboarding and scalable expansion without a rebuild per customer
• Four configurable platform modules: App Theme (operator-specific branding); Localization (multi-language, multi-market support); Feature Gate (controlled rollout by user or tenant, for safer releases); Dynamic API Configuration (tenant-specific endpoints managed without a new build)
• Existing .NET backend integration, reused with minimal changes — reducing migration complexity and protecting prior investment
• Contactless ticketing preserved, including dynamic QR-code validation, keeping the core passenger experience familiar through the rebuild