The EIT Urban Mobility start-up DIGAS, a global trailblazer in instant decarbonisation solutions for the railway sector; and Iarnród Éireann Irish Rail, operator of the national railway network of Ireland, have signed a contract to retrofit a freight diesel locomotive from diesel fuel to hydrogen as a proof of concept. The purpose of the €1.5m project is to help decarbonise the operations of Iarnród Éireann diesel locomotives and increase the competitiveness of the company.

Petro Dumenko, CEO & Co-founder of DIGAS: “We see the same challenge over and over again with all railway operators – the need to decarbonise their operations but having an extremely long lifecycle of their assets which still runs on diesel fuel. This project will showcase a cost-effective and practical way for operators like Iarnród Éireann to decarbonise their existing fleet of diesel locomotives”. 

Summarized, this is a cleaner, cheaper, and more practical initiative towards decarbonisation goals:

• CLEANER: Iarnród Éireann Irish Rail is providing a locomotive and will test a retrofitted hydrogen locomotive using a cleaner-burning renewable fuel 
• CHEAPER: DIGAS will provide a cost-effective way to introduce hydrogen in the fleet of existing diesel locomotives by retrofitting diesel locomotives with a specialised internal combustion engine (ICE) hydrogen system
• PRACTICAL: The collaboration will demonstrate a practical path towards complete decarbonisation of the diesel locomotive fleet

Unlike other hydrogen projects in the rail sector where hydrogen is used to run locomotives via fuel cells or through specially produced hydrogen engines, this project will showcase a unique approach where hydrogen will be used in the locomotive’s current internal combustion engine. This innovative technology requires minimal change to be done to the locomotive. If successful, the project will showcase a more practical and cost-effective way to decarbonise and run the existing diesel locomotive fleet with hydrogen-powered engines.

Based on the agreement, Iarnród Éireann will provide the 071 Class Diesel Locomotive for the conversion as well as make the workshop available for the installation, testing and commissioning activities. DIGAS will manufacture, deliver and install a Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engine (H2 ICE) retrofit kit to convert the diesel locomotive to a hydrogen-powered locomotive. The conversion will allow the locomotive to run on renewable, emissions-free fuel instead of diesel fuel. As part of the agreement, the two companies will share technical and commercial information necessary for DIGAS to design, manufacture, install, and support the commissioning of the Hydrogen conversion kit and allow Iarnród Éireann to properly test a retrofitted locomotive.

The project is currently in the design process and scheduled for two testing phases across 2024 and 2025. Phase 1 will focus on static testing of the locomotion to check power and emissions output. Phase 2 will follow in 2025 and focus on service trials of the locomotion out on the rails. All designs and testing standards are subject to approval from the Commission for Railway Regulation (CRR).

The project is funded by Iarnród Éireann and DIGAS, and co-funded by EIT Urban Mobility, and Mechanical Engineering Competence Center, a Latvian body receiving funding from the European Recovery and Resilience Facility.

Thanks to the collaboration between EIT Urban Mobility and the Moove Lab, Bout, a Finnish start-up specialising in nautical mobility, settles in Paris to tackle the French market.

Founded in 2018, Bout is a platform that connects people looking for boat trips and those who offer them through an app (Mobility-as-a-Service). The platform makes it possible to centralise the fragmented market of water taxis and large boats into a single service; simplifying the purchase process on the customer side and increasing the efficiency of sales and operations on the service provider side.

During 2023, Bout will offer its service to towns located along the Seine, a river which connects Troyes, Paris, Rouen and Le Havre. By using the Seine as a circulation channel, the objective is to improve the mobility of people based in the cities bordered by this river, centralising the local offer of river transportation.

By settling in Paris, Bout is targeting an important river market which is still little exploited while having high numbers of tourists and inhabitants to tap in. For Peik Lehtonen, co-founder of Bout: “Paris has an excellent balance between tourists, citizens, underused waterways and service providers. Many river towns have wonderful services, but they are hard to find. By using modern technologies and a central platform, our goal is to help service providers find customers and sell their services through one single app.”

The expansion of Bout to France takes place within the framework of the collaboration between EIT Urban Mobility and the Moove Lab (reference accelerator for mobility start-ups located at Station F in Paris).
For Peter Vest, Senior Investment and Portfolio Manager EIT Urban Mobility: “The Nordic countries are famous for their beautiful archipelagos. With its origin in Helsinki, Bout is a good example of what this type of environment can bring in terms of river innovation. Within EIT Urban Mobility, we see great potential for mobility by water, which makes it possible to transport people and goods in busy urban environments, such as rivers, lakes and ports.”

Bout is also preparing the ground for nautical mobility in the run-up to the 2024 Olympic Games. Utilising water mobility can allow traffic to flow more smoothly in Paris and have people avoid being subject to traffic jams.

Discover more about Bout.

Five Knowledge & Innovation Communities of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) are launching today the New European Bauhaus Booster 2.0.

On a mission to foster the New European Bauhaus transformation, EIT Digital, EIT Climate-KIC, EIT Food, EIT Manufacturing and EIT Urban Mobility are looking for the most innovative ventures developing solutions that make Europe more sustainable, inclusive and improve citizens’ quality of life, to support their business growth and help them become international gamechangers.

European startups or scaleups driving sustainable change for cities, industries, climate, food, wellbeing and overall quality of life are encouraged to apply.

The 20 best companies will receive acceleration support services worth a total of 1 million Euro (€50,000 each). They will benefit from business coaching, mentoring, internationalisation- and fundraising support as well as access to the vast network of the most prominent innovation community in Europe.

Applicants must demonstrate the social and economic impact of their solution and how it embodies the three core principles of the New European Bauhaus:

• sustainability, from climate goals, to circularity, zero pollution, and biodiversity
• aesthetics, quality of experience and style, beyond functionality
• inclusion, from valorising diversity, to securing accessibility and affordability

Initially announced by President Von der Leyen in her State of the Union address and launched by the European Commission in early 2021, the New European Bauhaus, or ‘NEB’ in short, translates the European Green Deal into a tangible, positive experience in which all Europeans can participate and progress together.

The EIT Community is ideally placed to support implementation of the NEB as it has created Europe’s largest innovation ecosystem with over 2,000 partners (business, research, education, cities) cooperating in over 60 hubs across Europe.

By engaging with European innovators and civil society at large, the community is promoting business through startup creation and growth, as well as contributing to citizens’ education and engagement.

Join the New European Bauhaus Booster 2.0 and let your innovative solution contribute to the realisation of a carbon-neutral, digital, circular, and inclusive European society!

Applications are open until March 13, 2023. Click here to learn more and apply

Saying you want to become the leading impact investor in Europe in the mobility sector is one thing, proving it another. How do you define impact, and how do you measure it? Together with the Upright Project, Katapult and geoFluxus, EIT Urban Mobility has discussed this topic during a panel session at Slush 2022.  

The definition of impact 

The session kicks off with the so-called elephant in the room question “What is impact?”. While the answer often is “it depends”, Annu Nieminen, CEO of the Upright Project, is clear “It does not depend at all. We have huge amounts of science on this topic. It is an area where proper mathematics, logic and rigorous thinking has taken place for a clear definition”. Impact is not only the negative or positive effect on the environment, but also on economic, health and knowledge that are all measurable.  

Therefore, impact shouldn’t be based on personal opinions or stories. Annu: You wouldn’t take a financial story as the truth, you want data, so why take an impact story as such?”. Fredrik Hånell, Impact Venture Director at EIT Urban Mobility, continues: “When you meet an entrepreneur as an investor and you have to ask them about the impact they create, they tend to have a nice story prepared for that.  Others start by mentioning what they dream of and the change they want to achieve: All other aspects of the business have almost become secondary. The big problem we are facing is that we are often presented with a good story which doesn’t mean they also create real positive impact.”  

Even though impact should be based on data, this is not easy with early-stage companies. Jørn Haanæs, Investment Director at Katapult: “With late-stage companies you can make clear predictions, but with pre-seed companies it is still guessing on the impact. Either way, the most important question remains: can a company go from zero to one, will it work?”.  When a company is not arriving at positive financial results at some point, there won’t be any other positive impact at all. 

Adding to this perspective from a different angle, Arnout Sabbe, CEO of geoFluxus states: “I believe that the most sustainable outcome of your company should also be the most positive business outcome. If this isn’t the case and sustainability hinders your financial returns, then it is time to tweak your business model since there is something wrong with the DNA of your company.”  

Greenwashing 

Over the last years, the importance of impact has increased significantly. “Companies start to understand that they can’t solarpanel their way out of the impact question anymore. They need to change for real and become more transparent”, says Annu. Unfortunately, at the same time there is also a rise in so-called greenwashing. Arnout: “It’s not only large companies who pretend to be green, but there also exist labeling companies which you can just pay to receive a green label. What is then the value of having such a label?” 

Annu: “When we review webpages, the more we come across the word sustainability, the less impactful these companies actually are. So don’t say you are sustainable, do it and be the best at it.” This is something Arnout fully confirms: “geoFluxus has shifted its narrative from saying that it is the most sustainable way handle your waste to the easiest and quickest way. We don’t say sustainable anymore, even though the algorithm still works in the same way.”

As a result, the company now sees that also companies that are not interested in sustainability or the ones who don’t want talk about it, are onboarding their platform. “We don’t look like a hippy-washed company, it’s basically something that makes waste easier to handle and by coincidence it’s also the most sustainable solution for rest materials.” So instead of talking a lot about sustainability, simply integrating it at the core of your business works a lot better.  

The future of investing in impact startups 

Looking at the next decade, Jørn states that investing in impactful startups is the best thing as it also leads to superior financial results. “I think that impact ventures will only scale if we make it also the most profitable. We have investors in our fund that don’t care much about impact, so they get that as an extra and they can stay for the financial performance. You don’t need to only focus on impact and get stigmatized for it.”  

During this time period, Fredrik is foreseeing a change in the investment focus from software applications to hardware solutions. “While hardware will always have a negative impact due to the resources needed, they will enable technologies and solutions which will lead to a net positive impact. This implies for me that our investment thesis and the way we evaluate startups will have to change since evaluating a deep-tech startup is quite a different deal than evaluating a software company which often are seen as positively impacting.” 

Annu: “Don’t forget that also apps have an impact. They use energy, mobile devices and talented people. Especially looking at human capital, resources are now used for many not-so-necessary services and products like apps where cats make funny faces. We need to consider the opportunity cost of highly educated people which is also a limited resource. How much can we afford to use on secondary important things?” 

Accelerating the change to impact 

Climate change has been seen as something of the future, something that our grandchildren will have to witness. However, it is already happening today. Annu: “The planet doesn’t have the time to make it complicated. It doesn’t have 20 years left. As such, startups should not be filling in questionnaires about ESGs for investors. Running a company is hard enough and founders should focus on building a net positive business.” 

“Well, besides specific investments, we need policy changes with big issues to incentivize good behavior”, states Jorn. “Specially to deal with the emotional side of human nature.” 

So how do we get people to change? Jørn: “Don’t ask the people. For example, if you ask most people, they want a Tesla. Even though there are a million times more efficient ways to move people around both in cities as in rural areas. The whole point should be to let innovators do their thing and finance new projects and new experiments and then see what works.” 

Fredrik: “I would actually recommend getting rid of cars completely and having more bicycles. By reshaping cities like Barcelona with superblocks and low speed areas, we give the cities back to the citizens.” 

Arnout adds a different point of view: “I would say we need more crises. We see that only real things and systems will change after extreme disruptions. For example, with our company we now see that suddenly companies, instead of having to pay for their waste, get money for their waste materials due to the gas crisis and material shortage. This has never happened before and makes them treat waste differently.” 

Annu: “I believe that change will come slowly but surely now that it is becoming financially more profitable to run and own a company that creates more value for its surrounding world. Due to where talent wants to work, where investments want to go, what do founders really want to run. And I see this change already happening, so many cool things are accelerating and that is what I’m betting on.” 

The French start-up Urban Radar, specialised in urban transformation and sustainable city planning, has won the Greentech Innovation label. The label is issued by the French Ministry of Ecological Transition to start-ups and entrepreneurs for their commitment to green and sustainable innovation. Companies are selected based on their ability to demonstrate positive impact on sustainability goals, which is also one of the reasons why EIT Urban Mobility decided to invest in Urban Radar. 

Founded in 2019, Urban Radar is a cloud platform that is revolutionising the way cities manage and regulate their mobility. In 2020, it was selected by EIT Urban Mobility to participate in the Scale-up programme, which allowed the start-up to launch a pilot in Barcelona on curb management and urban logistics.

After this first testing, Urban Radar has decided to expand its markets to Spain. EIT Urban Mobility is glad to support this expansion by offering office space in our headquarters in Barcelona. And the start-up is off to an incredible start. During the BNEW – Barcelona New Economy Week 2022, they were awarded Best Mobility Start-up and received the prize from the Spanish Minister of transportation, Raquel Sanchez. 

Today, the start-up offers three solutions to observe local trends and make data-driven decisions to meet the needs of citizens. With Citizen’s Need they help cities placing proximity-based urbanism at the center of their policies to answer citizen’s needs. Fret impact builds an understanding of freight paters in the peri-urban logistics hubs. And Flexcurb reveals how curb space is allocated and used to highlight opportunities for improvement. 

Discover more about the solutions of Urban Radar on the EIT Urban Mobility Marketplace. 

Paris based tech company Vianova just released an innovative tool to measure and reduce carbon emissions due to overall transportation in cities. This tool, powered with advanced AI algorithms, is designed to help cities and mobility operators efficiently curb transport CO2 emissions by identifying areas where shared mobility can be deployed to maximise chances of mode shift from private cars.

The tool, Mobility Policy Auto-Tuner (MPAT), has been developed in collaboration with global transport consultancy Rebel Group, and is built on top of Vianova’s platform in order to map carbon reduction potential across cities.

The feature represents a significant potential for urban planners in cities to incentivise mobility operators to deploy vehicles in the “right” areas – where it would lead to maximum net CO2 savings. With the MPAT feature they can:

• identify those areas where regulations or infrastructure (such as mandatory device rebalancing, or a mobility hub) should be implemented in order to nudge citizens into greater shared mobility usage, shifting travel to light low-carbon travel modes
• anticipate the “alternative carbon footprint” of a trip that would be taken by a shared transport mode
• model the potential impact of the policy from a CO2 perspective over time
• monitor whether the implemented policies truly achieve the predicted CO2 emissions reductions
• recalibrate the AI algorithm to suggest better regulations given the tracked outcomes

Operating in more than 60 cities across the globe, Vianova was able to model potential carbon savings and forecast that the MPAT feature could help cities save up to 1’000 tons of CO2 per city yearly, representing more than 10% of the average total carbon footprint in these cities. This considerable potential would substantially participate in the global sustainability goals of reducing transport emissions by 30% by 2030 to stay below the +2 C° threshold according to the 2022 IPCC Global Report. 

Read more about how Vianova has grown in the last years with the support of EIT Urban Mobility in this article on Data for better urban planning.

All over Europe, entrepreneurs are working on innovative solutions to cope with urban mobility challenges. However, circumstances differ across the continent resulting in unequal number and quality of funding opportunities for locally emerging businesses.

Through the Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS), EIT tackles such disparities by spreading its activities more evenly. More precisely, the RIS region defines a group of countries with a low performing innovation capacity. Despite the talent and entrepreneurial mindset available in such countries, change and innovation in the RIS region tend to slow down due to the conservative and risk avoiding policy making, as well as the drawbacks of engaging in an entrepreneurial career and the limited mechanisms to support start-ups.

By setting up a dedicated budget to invest in start-ups incorporated in RIS countries, EIT Urban Mobility is now contributing to the faster development of their innovation ecosystems and, more importantly, to the fundraising process of their local start-ups. As an impact investor, EIT Urban Mobility fosters positive social and environmental change across Europe, which among other things translates into paying special attention to those vulnerable innovation ecosystems.

To date, EIT Urban Mobility has invested in more than 20 start-ups from the RIS region like Mosaic from Czech Republic, Meight from Portugal, and Deeptraffic from Greece, and keeps looking for the most prominent entrepreneurs to disrupt the European mobility industry in those countries. If your company is incorporated in a RIS country seeking for capital, we highly encourage you to apply to our open investments call!

Check out EIT Urban Mobility’s investments landing page for more information or apply directly through the AwardsForce platform.

EIT Urban Mobility’s equity portfolio keeps growing! During the first half of 2022, EIT Urban Mobility has invested in eleven innovative start-ups. Furthermore, four follow up investments have been made in existing companies from our equity portfolio.

The common factor between all these top-tier entrepreneurs is their impact on reshaping the mobility landscape. They are showcasing the major market trends such as sustainable city logistics, future mobility and connectivity.   

Pablo Garrido, investment manager at EIT Urban Mobility says: “Being an impact investor, we believe the best way to achieve a sustainable future is through system change, bridging a positive correlation between financial returns and social impact. Therefore, we only invest in companies that contribute to one of the Sustainable Development Goals, related to sustainable cities and communities, clean energy, and climate action.” 

EIT Urban Mobility welcomes the following ventures to its equity portfolio: 

• Bout: a digital platform for water transportation, increasing the accessibility of maritime locations for consumers. 
• Chainge: reduces inner city CO2, NOx, PM and noise pollution and traffic congestion by replacing delivery vans with cargo bike driven sustainable last mile logistics (LML). 
• Cogo: an app gathering all shared scooters, bikes, cars and moped as long as they are human or electric powered, making it easy and seamless to move around cities the green way. 
• Eccocar: a platform to launch, operate and scale digital mobility services, designed hand in hand with Rent-a-Cars, Dealers and Fleet Managers around the world. 
• GeoFluxus: maps, analyses and predicts where, how and which materials can be saved from becoming waste. 
• Jonna: offers quality bikes/e-bikes which they make themselves, on monthly subscriptions with insurance and service included. 
• Luna Systems : an ‘Edge AI’ / computer vision technology, to keep micromobility vehicles safely in the correct lane and/or parking zone. 
• Mioo : provides safety and bike (repair) services for everyday cyclists to have more people to use the bicycle as a means of transport. 
• Solum: develops last-generation solar-backed charging stations for light electric vehicles. 
• Transition One: retrofits light ICE cars (passengers, commercial) into electric cars. 
• ZipForce: a portable electric motor that turns any regular bicycle into an e-bike. 

Jonna, Luna, Transition one, and existing equity start-up Nudgd have received capital as part of the New European Bauhaus programme 2022. Nudgd, nominee for the EIT Venture Award 2022, offers a digital platform using behavioural science to establish climate-friendly habits such as switching from cars to active mobility and public transportation.  

The other equity start-ups receiving follow-up investments are: 

• Allihop: provides the first green business travel platform with direct booking capacity for trains, buses, e-cars, e-scooters and bikes.
• Skyroads: enables advanced air mobility to scale safely and efficiently. 
• Vonzu : empowers the digitalization in the urban distribution of goods with a last mile logistics management platform.  

Besides capital to scale, internationalise and grow, the invested ventures have now access to the largest pan-European mobility network, including cities, corporates and other European organisations such as the EIB, the EIC and the EIF. 

Is your company looking for capital? EIT Urban Mobility keeps looking for the most prominent entrepreneurs to disrupt the European mobility industry with our year-round open call for investments.  Check out the investment page for more information or apply directly via AwardsForce.  

EIT Urban Mobility and the Moove Lab are joining forces to accelerate the development of mobility start-ups. Their goal? Foster innovation in the European urban mobility landscape.

The Moove Lab is the leading mobility start-up incubator in France, founded in 2017 by MOBILIANS, the French aftermarket automotive professional association and Via ID, the new ventures arm of Mobivia. Based at Station F, the world’s biggest start-up campus located in Paris, the Moove Lab has contributed to the growth of 69 start-ups in 9 promotions, including 6 from other European countries (Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, etc.).

The main purpose of this collaboration is to support the development of the mobility start-up ecosystem in France as well as in Europe. It will open up numerous opportunities on a European scale for French mobility start-ups as well as to EIT Urban Mobility’s pan-European portfolio companies who wish to expand to the French market.

EIT Urban Mobility will choose to invest in certain early stage start-ups recommended by the Moove Lab in order to accompany them throughout their product and business development. These young companies will have access to capital of up to 500.000 euros as well as fast-track introductions to the largest pan-European mobility network. The selected French companies will now have the necessary means to deploy their solutions throughout France and Europe.

Since its creation, EIT Urban Mobility has already invested a total of 3 million euros in 32 mobility startups from 16 European countries. Thanks to the intervention and expertise of the Moove Lab, the organisation will now be able to better target the nuggets that have innovative projects with high potential for tomorrow’s mobility.

As a specialist in coaching, training and mentoring start-ups, the Moove Lab will offer its services to young companies from EIT Urban Mobility portfolio. The selected start-ups will benefit from tailored support from a team of experts from the MOBILIANS and Via ID team, offices in Station F and collaboration opportunities with the Moove Lab’s partners in order to rapidly expand on the French market. Thus, the collaboration will allow European start-ups to discover the French innovation network and eventually establish themselves there.

“We are very pleased about this new collaboration with  EIT Urban Mobility. In 5 years, the Moove Lab has become the leading acceleration programme for all start-ups innovating in mobility. This programme is well established in the long term, with a stronger presence at Station F, and this new partnership reinforces its internationalisation. As a professional organisation, MOBILIANS has a major mission to anticipate changes in mobility and accelerate innovation. Thanks to this new partnership, the Moove Lab brings together all the conditions – in terms of business, benchmarking, coaching and training – for the successful development of our start-ups.” Xavier Horent, Managing Director of MOBILIANS.

“We are particularly pleased to announce this ambitious partnership between the Moove Lab and EIT Urban Mobility, which holds promising opportunities for the French start-up ecosystem. It is clearly in line with the European development of the programme already initiated at the beginning of the year with our partnership with Business France Germany, and more generally with the DNA of Via ID, co-founder of the European Startup Prize for Mobility.” David Schwarz, CEO of Via ID

To help mobility start-ups, EIT Urban Mobility has chosen, through the Moove Lab, a partner located in a strategic place: Paris. The City of Light has become a showcase for urban mobility and a launching pad for start-ups in the field. According to the latest 2021 State of European Mobility Tech Start-ups report published by the Mobility Club report by Via ID in partnership with Dealroom, the capital is ranked in the TOP 5 of mobility start-up hubs in Europe in terms of financing. It even ranks first in terms of the number of mobility start-ups.

“As a leading global ecosystem, the Moove Lab and Station F offer a unique opportunity for Horizon Europe start-ups to gain access to mobility expertise and the French market. This partnership strengthens our mission for more liveable cities by providing support, hot leads and investments for the best start-ups in our field”, says Fredrik Hånell, Business Creation Director at EIT Urban Mobility.

Finally, the goal of this partnership is also to establish the EIT Urban Mobility brand in the French mobility ecosystem. To this end, three Moove Lab x EIT Urban Mobility events will be organised over the next 18 months (conferences, workshops, networking, etc.). Keep an eye on our events calendar to hear more about them.

The EIT Community Supernovas welcomes its 2022 cohort for its Rocket Up programme. This first year’s selection will bring pioneering ideas and business to different markets over Europe as they expand through the continent and become the leaders and role models of the future.

In the coming months, the chosen start-ups will benefit from top business and industry expert advice, tailored training, and face-to-face introductions to potential stakeholders  to internationally expand with a structured and validated entry strategy. The Rocket Up programme also includes access to the respective EIT Community with other investment initiatives and funding instruments. 

All start-ups contribute to the goals of EIT Urban Mobility, EIT Food or EIT Manufacturing to have a sustainable impact while innovating and creating economic development. Furthermore, we have paid special attention to the EIT RIS regions – countries with moderate or modest innovation scores as defined by the European Innovation Scoreboard, where we also find lower numbers on female entrepreneurship and leadership.

The complete list of participating ventures:

• Wicow: A smart early monitoring and warning system for easy, efficient, and risk-free cattle rearing.
• Rival Foods: Production of plant-based alternatives to animal meat, without compromising on texture, juiciness, and taste.
• SEEMS PC: IoT and Artificial Intelligence solution to monitor, analyse and control industrial data in real time.
• Vienna Textile Lab: Production of organic textile dyes using natural occurring bacteria.
• Beev: Platform for searching, comparing, and contracting EVs and their financing, insurance, and charging stations.
• HySiLabs: Hydrogen storage and transportation solution through an innovative hydrogen liquid carrier.
• Alcyon photonics: Design of high-performance photonic devices that can be applied to integrated chips for a broad range of applications.
• Hoop Carpool: SaaS carpooling platform for companies, universities, and city-halls by connecting people who live and work nearby.
• Innoplant: Scientific-technological solutions for the agri-food sector and its auxiliary industry.
• Greenroads: Artificial vision solution for traffic monitoring, visualisation, and simulation for road planning.

To follow the progress and results of the programmes, connect to our social media channels. In case of interest applying for the next open call for Rocket Up, please register here. 

Out of 100 applications, the Scale-up Programme has identified the 13 most promising start-ups with solutions for sustainable urban mobility. These companies will now take part in one of the two programme paths. 

Path A will focus on providing visibility. Path B is oriented towards the performance of a pilot within a European city which allows the start-up to showcase their solution in a real environment, in addition to the exposure benefits. Moreover, the programme will help all the selected start-ups to boost their business to the next level by supporting them in finding funding and partnerships through attendance at major European events, giving them visibility to potential investors and bringing them closer to implementing their solutions. 

Path A:

• me energy (Germany)
• Mioo Cycling (Sweden)
• Don Cicleto (Spain)
• Eljun (Sweden)
• Jonna (Sweden)
• Allihop (Sweden)

Path B:

• Isarsoft (Germany) – Challenge 01, raised by Hamburger Hochbahn AG: Push the transport revolution by offering customers information about the occupancy of public transport vehicles in real-time by analysing the videos of security cameras.
• CycleAI (Portugal) – Challenge 03, raised by Prague 1 Municipal District: Digital regulation: Find harmony between promoting active clean micro-mobility in cities and operating these sharing services in a way that is consistent with other users of the area.
• SHQUARED (Germany) – Challenge 04, raised by the City of Munich: Gather insights and develop a digital B2B marketplace that brings together operators of private or commercial spaces.
• Vadecity (Spain) – Challenge 06, raised by the City of Madrid: Implement safe and secured bicycle parking with the possibility of charging e-bikes, located at strategic points.
• SOLUM (Spain) – Challenge 09, raised by the City of Madrid: Implement parking and docking stations for micro-mobility (bikes, e-bikes, e-scooters) of private customers or sharing companies that need users to park or charge their devices.
• PhySens (Germany) – Challenge 11, raised by IDIADA: Design a system to be installed between the charging station and vehicle that will allow data collection, viewing, evaluation and validation of the charging process.
• Tirn Technology (Slovakia) – Challenge 14, raised by TUSGSAL: Test an innovative solution into a sample of TUGSAL’s electric vehicle to provide insights into the state-of-charge of the buses.

The Scale-up Programme will be a gateway for participant companies to make themselves known to potential investors, customers and partners by participating in key urban mobility events in Europe, such as the Future Mobility event in Berlin, Disraptor in Prague, and the Tomorrow Mobility World Congress, part of the Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC22), taking place in Barcelona.

In addition, the Scale-up Programme participants will receive support services worth more than €25.000 provided by the programme partners. The Scale-up Programme is financed by EIT Urban Mobility and led by CARNET, with the collaboration of PowerHub, Fraunhofer Society for the Advancement of Applied Research, UnternehmerTUM, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Niedersächsisches Forschungszentrum Fahrzeugtechnik (NFF), Digital Hub Logistics Hamburg and the City of Hamburg, Xpreneurs, UnternehmerTUM Digital Hub Mobility.

For more information about the Scale-up Programme visit https://www.eiturbanmobility.eu/business-creation/scale-up-programme/ 

HOPU (HOP Ubiquitous), one of EIT Urban Mobility’s first equity startups, has been acquired by Libelium. With its Internet of Things (IoT) solutions for monitoring air quality, noise pollution, and meteorological parameters, HOPU makes a good match with Libelium, a leading company in the design and manufacturing of wireless sensor network devices to deliver reliable IoT, M2M and smart cities solutions. The high compatibility of both companies stands for a huge leap forward in their strategy to lead the IoT market, with the intention to float the company in an initial public offering. 

Since its starting point in 2014, the Spanish venture HOPU has grown to a 40 staff company, working with over 100 cities and customers, and has more than 700 devices deployed in Europe. With the data provided by HOPU, cities get insights and suggestions on how to transform their urban spaces to create more sustainable living areas. For these reasons, EIT Urban Mobility decided to invest in HOPU in 2020. Over the years, HOPU has taken part in several of our programmes, like the Scale up programme in 2020 and Raptor in 2021, where they were the winning startup for the air quality challenge of the city of Sant Joan Despí, Spain.  

HOPU is highly competitive in their sector and has positioned itself as a valuable collaborator for large partners such as Telefónica, Suez and Signify (Philips). Besides enriching Libelium’s technological portfolio and know-how on Smart Cities, Infrastructure and Sustainability, it gives the opportunity to HOPU to expand its market outside of Europe to Central and North America.  

This successful transaction solidifies the commitment of EIT Urban Mobility towards urban mobility transformation powered by data and digitization.