KONE

KONE, founded in 1910 and headquartered in Helsinki, designs and manufactures elevators and escalators and the digital systems that accompany them. The company describes its remit as complete People Flow experiences - combining physical hardware with smart digital systems to make urban life safer, more convenient and more sustainable. Its equipment operates in buildings and high-rises worldwide, and it moves some 2 billion people a day.

The business spans 60+ countries and employs more than 60,000 people. Its industrial footprint covers elevators, escalators, urban mobility and smart cities, high-rise construction, and building services and maintenance. KONE holds more than 3,000 patents and invests in research and development across IoT, AI, cloud architecture, mechanical and hardware engineering, and high-rise technology. Work is carried out in high-rise laboratories and local service centres, with cross-functional teams that combine hardware and digital disciplines.

KONE states that it operates on safety-first principles and an innovation-driven culture, with teams given ownership of their work and an emphasis on learning and collaboration. The company is publicly recognised, on its own account, for innovation and sustainability. Its origins lie in a small machine repair shop in Helsinki.