EIT Urban Mobility, Europe’s leading impact investor in sustainable urban mobility, today announced the selection of three strategic local startup ecosystem partners: Moove Lab in Paris, MotionLab.Berlin in Berlin, and Sustainable Ventures in London. These partnerships will deepen collaboration between local innovation ecosystems and EIT Urban Mobility’s pan-European network, helping mobility startups to scale across the continent. With a strong portfolio of over 100 startups, EIT Urban Mobility aims to invest up to €44 million in companies ranging from pre-seed to Series A stages.
EIT Urban Mobility works according to the network-based approach to venture capital, in which leading local innovation ecosystems across Europe are crucial to increasing investment capabilities. Local ecosystem players bring valuable knowledge, experience, and well-established networks of startups, investors, and other support organisations. Combined, it facilitates the international growth of innovative mobility companies and accelerates the sustainable urban mobility transition.
Denise Xifara, Impact Ventures Director at EIT Urban Mobility: “The three selected partners represent some of Europe´s most dynamic innovation hubs. By bringing them together, EIT Urban Mobility sets up a collaboration that goes beyond individual partnerships by creating synergies between the ecosystem partners themselves and stronger connections between European markets.
Proving the effectiveness of the network-based approach is the partnership with the Paris-based Moove Lab. Since the start of the collaboration in 2022, French applications to EIT Urban Mobility funding are overall higher than from other European countries. Over the years, the partnership has strengthened the visibility of European mobility innovators such as Elonroad (Sweden) and Bout (Finland) within the French ecosystem. Vice versa it has provided startups as Beev and Nelson with access to EIT Urban Mobility’s funding programmes, investor network and market opportunities across Europe.
“We are thrilled to extend our fruitful partnership with EIT Urban Mobility, which has already driven significant impact across the French mobility startup ecosystem since 2022. While Europe has the clear potential to build true industry champions, market fragmentation remains a major hurdle. This renewed collaboration is perfectly positioned to bridge those gaps and help our startups overcome these barriers to scale.”, said Clément Guillemot, Programme Manager, Moove Lab.
In Germany, EIT Urban Mobility will partner with MotionLab.Berlin, the country’s premier Innovation Hub and Makerspace. Known for its strong focus on hardware innovation, prototyping and industrial collaboration, MotionLab.Berlin provides startups with access to technical infrastructure, industry expertise and a vibrant entrepreneurial community.
“Our partnership with EIT Urban Mobility brings together MotionLab.Berlin’s hardtech infrastructure, including our €1M machine park and the upcoming 17,000 sqm ringberlin campus, with EIT Urban Mobility’s pan-European network and investment expertise. Our joint goal is simple: to support the next generation of European urban mobility startups with the physical space, mentorship, and strategic connections they need to move from prototype to market, faster and at lower cost.” according to René Giese, Director MotionLab.Berlin
The third partner, London-based Sustainable Ventures, joins the network as a leading ecosystem player focused on climate technology and sustainability innovation. With one of Europe’s largest communities of climate-tech entrepreneurs, Sustainable Ventures provides startups with specialist business support, investment readiness expertise, workspace and access to a powerful network of investors and industry partners. The collaboration will help mobility startups gain access to one of Europe’s most active investment ecosystems while further strengthening ties between the UK and European innovation markets.
Christopher Morris, Co-founder and Group Managing Director at Sustainable Ventures: “This partnership bridges the gap between the UK and European innovation markets, reducing the fragmentation that traditionally slows down commercial scaling. We’re excited to act as the UK gateway for the EIT Urban Mobility initiative – bringing the UK’s world-class strengths in mobility technologies to a collaborative European stage. By plugging into our established corporate, investor, and public sector networks, startups can bypass growth barriers and scale rapidly through high-impact commercial collaboration.”
