EIT Urban Mobility has invested in 35 ventures since 2020 and keeps up

EIT Urban Mobility just opened an ongoing investment call for early-to-seed stage ventures. Selected scale-ups and start-ups can receive up to €500,000 capital. More importantly, the offer goes beyond funding. Ventures will benefit from fast-track introductions into the urban mobility community via the extensive regional and pan-European network, including cities, mentors, and industry leaders. This allows start-ups to validate their solutions, network with key decision-makers and scale their company with increased visibility.

The current portfolio contains companies developing technologies and solutions which are shaping the future of the urban mobility landscape. While financial return is essential, as an impact investor EIT Urban Mobility selects ventures where social and environmental impact grows with revenue. Start-ups in EIT Urban Mobility’s equity portfolio contribute positively to at least one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to sustainable cities and communities, clean energy, and climate action. Based on the call for actions related to these goals, EIT Urban Mobility is linking key performance indicators to the expected impact of the start-ups to indicate their contribution to improved sustainable and liveable cities.

In addition, EIT Urban Mobility focuses on inclusive and gender-balanced teams when selecting start-ups. Research indicates that new businesses led by women are more likely to succeed and more likely to exceed expectations for growth. Since EIT Urban Mobility made inclusive and gender-balanced teams a key priority in 2020, internal reports show that the number of female-led ventures in the EIT Urban Mobility portfolio has grown from 16% to 27%, and the share of gender-balanced start-up investments has risen from 28% to 52%.  

Finally, to stimulate the talent and entrepreneurial mindset in all of Europe, EIT Urban Mobility pays special attention to start-ups incorporated in the Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS), where conservative and risk-avoiding policymaking can slow down change and innovation. 

For more information about the investment call: EIT Urban Mobility Startup Investments – EIT Urban mobility 

Discover the selected startups of the accelerator programmes 2022

Out of the 244 applications, 62 startups were selected to participate in the five thematic accelerator programmes of EIT Urban Mobility. With their wide variance of innovative ideas, the startups aim to solve challenges regarding sustainable city logistics, urban air mobility, e+mobility, energy and public realm, and 5G technologies. Together they represent various mobility subsectors – from cybersecurity and software-based products enhancing connectivity and autonomy, to hardware that shapes and visually changes the public realm.

In the next six months, the startups will receive support and training via our partner run accelerator programmes. Among other offerings, the programmes include personalised business coaching, access to investment initiatives and funding instruments, and participation in the EIT Urban Mobility community of pan-European cities, corporates, and sister organisations. 

All startups contribute to the goal of EIT Urban Mobility to have a sustainable impact while creating more liveable cities. Furthermore, they cover all European regions by coming from 20 countries. Below, grouped per accelerator programme, you can find the full list of participating ventures.

5G Turbo 

The 5G TURBO Accelerator will support 20 startups working on 5G technologies and connectivity services so that they develop technologies in the field of urban mobility. The selected startups are: 

This programme is run by: NextMove, Carnet, CTAG, Niedersächsisches Forschungszentrum Fahrzeugtechnik, Mobile World Capital Barcelona and FundingBox.  

E+ Mobility 

The E+ Mobility Accelerator has a specific focus on mobility & energy, micro-mobility, and shared mobility thematic fields to introduce these startups-led solutions in the market. 

The partners of this programme are Barcelona Activa, Carnet, CERTH, Connected Mobility Hub, CTAG, ENEA, Ferrovial, UPC and Universitat Pompeu Fabra.  

Energy and Public Realm 

The Accelerator provides support for innovative mobility solutions, focusing on creating a better public space and improving the wellbeing of residents by addressing energy- and mobility-related aspects. 

The programme partners are ZONE Cluster, PowerHUB and SpinLab Accelerator.  

Sustainable City Logistics 

This programme is for startups facing the challenges of creating more sustainable freight and goods transportation in cities and overall sustainability in city logistics. 

The consortium consists of: FutureBox, Technion Drive Accelerator, Technische Universität München, UnternehmerTum, Isbak, PoliHub, and AZO.  

UAM Plazza 

With a consortium made of international company experts in the field of mobility, aeronautics and developing urban air mobility as well as the city of Toulouse, the UAM Plazza Accelerator programme is looking for startups in urban air mobility. 

The consortium partners are Toulouse Metropole, Aerospace Valley, Carnet and Ferrovial.  

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

EIT opens call for participants in Women2Invest

Women2Invest aims at helping women start their careers in venture investment, both through training and access to funds. At the same time, it gives investors access to a group of promising women with technical background that will add diversity to their investment teams.

Women2Invest is an access and training activity aimed at helping women with STEAM university studies and no or little knowledge of investment become familiar with the fundamentals of venture capital. The training part of the activity includes a combination of masterclasses, practitioners experience, simulation of investment processes and practical work.

The ultimate goal is providing participants with a paid internship or job in a venture capital fund, a corporate venture capital fund or a corporate venturing unit. Participants will also have the opportunity to build a network of future colleagues, top-notch practitioners and key players in the venture industry. The activity is powered by Diversity VC Iberia and will run online for 8 weeks starting in mid-October 2022.

Women2Invest is looking for participants with these characteristics:

  • Recent graduates and young professionals from STEAM careers:
    • Up to 7 years after completing undergraduate & master studies
    • Up to 2 years after completing PhDs
  • Holding a passport from either one of the 27 EU member states or the eligible associate countries
  • Fluent in English
  • With genuine interest in the venture capital industry / investment in startups

The call for applicants is now open until 30 June 2022 and can be accessed here. More details can be found in the terms and conditions.

Women2Invest is part of the Supernovas programme of EIT Urban Mobility, EIT Manufacturing and EIT Food, which has the ultimate goal of increasing the presence and role of women in the EU entrepreneurship ecosystem.

In case of any questions or inquiries, please contact Ana Alcaine at ana.alcaine@eitfood.edu

Supernovas: Unleashing female’s entrepreneurship potential!

We welcome Supernovas, the new programme that thrives for an entrepreneurial ecosystem with more women!

Supernovas is EIT Urban Mobility’s new programme that, along with EIT Manufacturing and EIT Food, has the ultimate goal of increasing the presence and role of women in the EU entrepreneurship ecosystem. Participants in this programme will have access to financial support, training and networking opportunities.

This initiative has been carefully designed to tackle the existent gender-gap and reaching a balance amongst the key pieces of the ecosystem. To do so, we have built a set of activities to unleash the female potential by identifying groups of women of different ages, backgrounds and aspirations, and supporting them with specific initiatives to enter and scale positions in the ecosystem.

The 4 activities included in the programme are:

  • Startup Stairway: We identify startups and scaleups from high-tech or deep-tech fields and match them with young women from STEAM careers. We want to expose them to a startup experience early in their careers, in order to inspire them and foster their entrepreneurial spirit.
  • Rocket-up: We support entrepreneurs to entry a new European market with a solid strategy and local validation of the product and service. The goal is to have more women entrepreneurs growing and getting funded.
  • Women2Invest: We train a group of women with STEAM studies in venture investment and connect them to firms active in this space (both venture capital and corporate venture capital/venturing) so that they get an internship or job with them.
  • Women Leadership: this activity, coordinated with EIC, offers EIT community women access to a broad network, mentoring, coaching and training opportunities to take their managerial and leadership skills to the next level.

The programme is included within the Strategic Synergies Cross-KIC cluster, which has been created by EIT to support the EU’s mission to build a healthy, sustainable and inclusive Europe.

Interested in joining? Check all the information related to the activities and open calls here.

Rocket up programme

Female founders, it’s your time to rocket-up!

As part of Supernovas, the Rocket-up programme has opened a call for female-led startups to support their access to new European regions. Ten startups will be selected to participate in the activities, which will promote international outreach and sales to the most innovative ventures. The deadline for the call is 19 June 2022.

Gender balance in the entrepreneurial ecosystem has been historically poor with male founders accounting for most successful international companies. Accessing new markets can be more difficult for women due to normally having fewer connections. Through activities like Rocket-up we support ventures to achieve growth, as part of our compromise to reach gender balance in the European startup ecosystem.

Rocket-up is a 3-month programme that supports women-led startups in accessing a new country or region by connecting them with experts and networking opportunities all around Europe. We seek mature startups based in the EU or EU related countries, that add to the Sustainable Development Goals and address challenges related with EIT Urban Mobility, EIT Manufacturing or EIT Food focus areas.

The programme offers:

  • Internationalisation squad: Tailored and individual mentoring with three handpicked local experts for a new market entry
  • Organised mission: Introductions with potential stakeholders of the preferred target city
  • Online group events: Four online events with training activities, successful female entrepreneurs as speakers and opportunities for networking and connection with other entrepreneurial women.
  • EIT pan-European network: Access to the EIT network (including European cities, industries partners, investors) and financial opportunities
  • Visibility: More visibility of the startups through EIT communication channels as an EIT Community supported venture

The programme is held inside Supernovas, a project of EIT Food, EIT Urban Mobility and EIT Manufacturing, that aspires to promote a more gender balance entrepreneurial ecosystem. Applications are done via AwardsForce.

Looking for 99 female entrepreneurs in the Nordics to increase funding opportunities

Are you a female founder of an urban mobility startup? Did you know that of the €3.2 billion of venture capital (VC) invested in the Nordic countries 6% went to mixed gender founded teams, and only 1% to founding teams made up entirely of women? And these numbers are not new, they have been this low for years. Through years of experience, the founders of Position99 know that female founders are out there, they want to raise capital, and have an enormous potential to help solve our societal challenges. 

Aiming to be the reference in the market for supporting and funding gender-balanced startups, EIT Urban Mobility has recently partnered up with Position99, to identify 99 female founders in urban mobility in the Nordics and help them get access to venture capital through increased visibility and match making. 

Over the next months, EIT Urban Mobility and Position99 will give several workshops in Sweden, Denmark, and Estonia to bring more awareness about the topic and to introduce the list of 99 female founders. Follow our journey via https://www.linkedin.com/company/eit-urban-mobility  Become part of the list and apply via https://www.position99.com/en 

“Research show that female founders are perceived differently, and that the VC-world is full of outdated cultures and norms. It is also a question of communication and investors seldom have the time or will to change their own perspectives. This is unfortunate since it is our firm belief that without a gender diverse innovation scene, we will not be able to solve the climate crisis”. Something which got confirmed by the theme of the United Nations Observance of International Women’s Day 2022: “Gender Equality Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow”. 

Anna Branten, initiator of Position 99

During the last two years, EIT Urban Mobility has made gender-balance a key objective when selecting startups to invest in. Since this active focus, the number of female-led ventures in the EIT Urban Mobility portfolio has grown from 16% to 27%. At the same time, the share of gender-balanced startup investments has improved from 28% to 52%. 

“With this partnership we are taking the next step to give female founded startups better chances to receive funding. More than half of our investments last year were in gender-balanced startups. Although good, this is not enough, and initiatives like this will lead the way to changing the investment scene by improving visibility for female founders and the deal flow for investors“. 

Fredrik Hanell, Business Creation Director at EIT Urban Mobility

The Scale up programme is looking for 12 urban mobility startups

The Scale up programme, financed by EIT Urban Mobility, opened up a call to identify the 12 most promising startups with solutions for sustainable urban mobility. The programme aims to take the selected startups to the next level by helping them find funding and partnerships through attendance at major European events, giving them visibility to potential investors, and bringing them closer to implementing their solutions in real environments. The application period is open until 12 June 2022.

The programme supports the startups in the introduction of their solutions to the market through two different paths.

Path A: will provide international growth to startups with attendance at high-impact events, networking opportunities, increased visibility, and additional services valued at 25.000€ to 5 selected startups.

Path B: includes the benefits of path A and aims to implement seven pilots with industry and city partners with the opportunity of being funded up to 50.000€ by EIT Urban Mobility.

When applying for path B, participating startups have the opportunity to solve one of the 15 challenges raised by top European cities and industry companies from the urban mobility sector. The startups will get support from the public authorities and organisations that have raised the challenges, and from the consortium members developing the Scale up programme.

The Scale up programme is 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, the description of the challenges, and to apply for the programme, visit https://www.eiturbanmobility.eu/business-creation/scale-up-programme/

Grow your start-up by joining our Accelerator programmes!

Are you and your start-up solving some of our mobility-related challenges? And can you use support from a European network with cities, industries and experts? Then check out our five Accelerator programmes related to sustainable city logistics, urban air mobility, e+ mobility, energy and public realm and 5G technologies for urban mobility.

Via the Accelerator programmes, EIT Urban Mobility intends to help at least 50 start-ups to grow to the next level. We are looking for early-stage start-up teams with all possible ideas that help to solve mobility-related problems and create more liveable cities in Europe and worldwide. As an impact investor, the programmes from EIT Urban Mobility align with several of the Sustainable Development Goals like Sustainable cities and communities, Climate action and Good health and well-being.

All our six-months Accelerator programmes include support services worth between € 20,000 and € 30,000, such as:

  • Facilitated access to living labs, cities and the EIT Urban Mobility community​
  • Personalised business coaching 
  • Mentoring by industry experts and experienced founders 
  • Virtual start-up workshops & education​
  • Finding your product-market fit 
  • Access to EIT Urban Mobility investment initiatives and funding instruments

The programmes and services are led by our partners: UPC, UnternehmerTUM, Mov’eo, ZONE cluster and Toulouse Metropole.  

Veronika Giacko, CMO of Mileus and alumna of an EIT Urban Mobility Accelerator programme:

“I’d recommend the programmes to urban mobility start-ups that want to gain access to a wealth of workshops, coaching sessions and business development opportunities to accelerate their growth.” 

The start-ups applying to the programmes should have clear, scalable business models and products/services, preferably within the range from TRL 4 to 6. All requirements can be found in the guide for applicants on the dedicated accelerator programme pages of the different themes. We especially welcome applications from female and diverse teams. 

To get a first impression of all the five programmes, we invite you to our Accelerator programmes overview page. Make sure to apply before the closing date for your preferred open call to not miss out on this opportunity!