GeoSentric

About GeoSentric

The story begins not with GeoSentric, but with a Finnish company called Benefon, founded in 1988 by Jorma Nieminen and two colleagues from Nokia. Benefon initially made mobile phones, even producing the first-ever phone with a built-in answering machine. In 1999, ahead of its time, the company launched the Benefon Esc!, one of the first devices to integrate a GPS navigator with a mobile phone. This pivot into GPS-centric devices marked the future direction of the company, which followed up with products like the Benefon Track in 2000. By the mid-2000s, however, Benefon faced major financial hurdles. After a re-organization, the company launched a new consumer-focused brand called Twig, offering devices that combined GPS and GSM technology for personal navigation. This attracted new investors, and in 2007, a company called GeoSolutions acquired Benefon, renaming it GeoSentric OYJ. The new entity, GeoSentric, was built on the foundation of Benefon's GPS technology. It focused on location-based services and personal safety devices. The company continued to develop the Twig line of products, which allowed users to load maps, track their location, and send their coordinates to emergency contacts. Despite the pioneering technology, the journey came to an end. In a significant strategic shift, GeoSentric divested its mobile handset business in December 2011. The Twig assets and business were sold to Twig Com Ltd., a new company formed by the division's own management team, in a buyout deal.