Shaping the Future of Innovation in Europe: EIT Urban Mobility joins the new Start For Future Cooperative

EIT Urban Mobility is delighted to join the Start For Future (SFF) Cooperative, recognising it as a significant milestone in fostering long-term collaboration and cooperation among European universities and innovation actors.

Our organisation proudly stands among the 18 prominent founding partners from the existing alliance, which consists of universities, incubators, research organizations, business entities and cities. The inaugural meeting held during the SFF Varna Summit on June 24, 2023, marked a momentous occasion as the Start For Future Cooperative officially became a unified legal entity, set to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of innovation in Europe. 

“We believe that volume is required to achieve excellence. Volume is achieved with an inclusive and democratic model, where success benefits the entire network rather than just a select few. A scalable and democratic approach – such as the one taken by the Start for Future Cooperative- is essential for promoting an eco-centric rather than an ego-centric view. As already demonstrated by the organizations involved in SFF, potential for innovation and entrepreneurship is to be found and nurtured in every corner of Europe, leveraging European Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in combination with regional stakeholders.”

stated Martin Vendel, Academy Director of EIT KIC Urban Mobility. 

What is this cooperative about? 

Among the ambitious goals set forth by the cooperative: nurturing 1 million start-ups in Deep Tech, training and mentoring 2 million talents, involving 1,000 universities in Europe and globally, and fostering connections between 3,000 industry partners by 2035. By actively promoting collaboration and knowledge exchange between universities and innovation actors, the SFF Cooperative cultivates an environment that nurtures innovation and entrepreneurship, characterised by openness and democracy.

The cooperative’s unwavering focus on systemic innovation perfectly aligns with EIT Urban Mobility’s broader commitment to address societal challenges and enhance the well-being of European citizens.  

This alliance marks an inspiring new chapter in the European innovation and entrepreneurship landscape, where collaboration thrives, paving the way for a brighter and more prosperous future. 

Who are the founding members?

How did everything started?

In 2020, Start for Future (SFF) – a Pan-European student incubation programme – took its initial steps, fuelled by support and funding coming from the EIT´s HEI initiative and backed by Germany´s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK). EIT Urban Mobility has been actively supporting the alliance’s development since then.  

Over the past few years, SFF has emerged as one of Europe’s most vibrant and rapidly expanding innovation alliances, bringing together academia, start-ups, industry, and public organizations. Now, it is embarking on its next phase, by formally establishing itself as a European Cooperative Society / Societas Cooperativa Europaea (SCE). With an ambitious vision to boost systemic innovation, the SFF Cooperative is poised to drive transformative advancements that will shape the future of innovation in Europe. 

Learn more about Start for Future here.

The 5 European start-ups in electric mobility to keep in mind in 2023

Transport and mobility services are an important part of the EU economy, accounting for at least 5% of total value added and employing approximately 10.5 million people[1].  As transport transitions to climate neutrality, it will continue to be the base of Europe’s economy. EIT Urban Mobility, an initiative of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union, invested in more than 60 start-ups in 2022 alone. By funding solutions with a variety in mobility subsectors, European regions, and team diversity, EIT Urban Mobility accelerates the innovation needed to reach climate neutrality.

As a result, passenger mobility is undergoing major changes and shifts to new paradigms and there is growing concern about the long-term sustainability of major transportation systems, particularly those in cities. Ride hailing (23%), and ridesharing (12%)1 are the most used new mobility services in Europe in 2022, while the electric vehicle market still a much smaller sector, is exploding. The Electric Vehicles market in Europe is projected to grow by 17.05% (2023-2027) resulting in a market volume of US$332.80bn in 2027.

Fredrik Hånell, Impact Ventures Director: “Europe leads not only in green and green-digital innovation, but also in innovation overall. To keep this up, EIT Urban Mobility boosted its investments to fund these 60 early-stage start-ups, which not only create a possible financial return but allows for us to also push for a strong focus on team and regional diversity, and environmental and social impact. European start-ups need to consider diversity and impact, to keep ahead of the curve, and defend our worldwide advantage.”

A closer look at 5 start-ups that are making an impact across Europe in electrical mobility: 

Elonroad (Sweden)

  • Elonroad’s disruptive technology is the first electric road with a ground level feeding system tested in an urban environment with a city bus and other vehicles in the city of Lund. Their solution is enabling the reduction of the vehicles batteries size, making electric vehicles more sustainable and accessible and creating the most significant impact in the direct reduction of GHG emissions. 

Circu Li-Ion (Luxembourg)

  • By 2030, the EU will become second in demand for batteries worldwide yet increasing the number of new batteries isn’t a sustainable option. Circu-lion is upcycling batteries for the mobility sector and maximizing the value of each lion cell and consequently reducing the need for new batteries production. Not only does their solution have a positive environmental footprint, but they are also creating a significant impact on the circular economy in the battery industry. 

Waybler (Sweden)

  • Waybler is accelerating the Electric Vehicle adoption and its infrastructure. By having an intelligent load balancing and phase distribution technology, they are directly creating a positive impact in energy savings and efficiency. 

Chainge (Denmark)

  • Chainge is replacing diesel vans with electric cargo bikes in last mile logistics. Due to the decrease on the number of vehicles around the city (no road congestion) and consequently massive reduction of hazardous emissions produced and air pollution, their product has a positive environmental impact. 

Inbalance Grid (Lithuania)

  • Inbalance grid is focusing on electric vehicle charging with the goal of making charging available everywhere. Their cloud balancing solution improves energy efficiency as well as reduces environmental impact of cities in terms of air quality by indirectly contributing to the reduction of GHG emissions. At the same time, their solution promotes the adoption of clean technologies and reduces the material consumption/waste due to extending the grids’ lifetime.

More information about these start-ups, and our other  33 start-ups working on electrical vehicles, and the complete EIT Urban Mobility portfolio can be found: Portfolio – EIT Urban mobility 

In 2022, a staggering 87% of all VC funding in Europe continues to be raised by male-only founding teams, while the proportion of funding raised by women-only teams has dropped to 1%, according to the State of European Tech. Within EIT Urban Mobility’s portfolio, 40% of the total funding is assigned to female-led and co-led start-ups.   

More information 

By focusing on investing in all European regions, EIT Urban Mobility supports innovation to improve urban mobility and the creation of livable cities for all European citizens. Examples of these new geographical investments are Estonia (Lightcode and Fyma), Hungary (M3ter and FolderGo) and Lithuania (Walk15 and Inbalance Gri). In 2022, EIT Urban Mobility also diversified its portfolio with investments in new verticals, e.g. ConTech (Propergate), InsurTech (GoCleer), Hydrogen (Digas) and Water Mobility (Hyke and Zeabuz).  Mioo Cycling solution enables easy access to bicycle repair and maintenance, which creates a positive impact on people’s health and safety. By encouraging active mobility, they are also contributing to a positive environmental impact.  EIT Urban Mobility keeps looking for the most prominent entrepreneurs to disrupt the European mobility industry. The next open call for investments will open in March. Sign up to receive a notification when the call opens.

[1] 2022 New Mobility Patterns in European Cities Task A Final report.pdf (europa.eu)

Rebel and EIT Urban Mobility start-up Vianova launch a new AI tool for CO2 emissions reduction

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.

Eleven new entries to EIT Urban Mobility’s equity portfolio

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.  

Having EIT Urban Mobility as an investor has been extremely valuable for Skyroads’ journey so far. Their support has not just been monetary, but they have also provided us access to their wide business network, along with offering us multiple opportunities to grow as a start-up and increase our visibility to the world of customers, strategic partners, and other investors. Skyroads would like to thank EIT Urban Mobility for their extraordinary services and we highly recommend EIT Urban Mobility to other start-up founders

Tim Krieglstein, Co-founder & Chief Strategy Officer, Skyroads AG

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.  

The Scale-up programme has selected its 13 participating start-ups

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:

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/ 

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. 

New Podcast released: Designing safe urban mobility!

How do we design our urban spaces to be and feel safer? It’s not as simple as installing cameras everywhere to watch over everyone. In this episode, our wonderful host Brittany Atkins chats with expert guests Marianne Weinreich, Debbie Dekkers, and Dan Campsall about how the presence (or absence) of safety in mobility and urban planning can be affected by gender, age, lifestyle, and more.

Marianne Weinreich is a Market Manager of Smart Mobility at Ramboll, a Danish (but international) engineering and design consultancy that aims to create sustainable solutions across transport. She has spent the last 20+ years working in mobility as a consultant and manager, and is also the co-founder and chairman of the Cycling Embassy.

Debbie Dekkers is a Programme Manager and “innovatiemanager” at the Innovation Office for the city of Amsterdam. The organisation aims to make the city more efficient and evolved for the benefit of its residents, using the power of technology to prepare for future mobility. As a programme manager, Debbie works mainly within smart mobility with a focus on MaaS, trends analysis, and anticipating new mobility concepts.

Dan Campsall is the Chairman of Agilysis, a transport behaviour and safety consultancy, with the goal to transform lives through healthier and safer communities via intelligent solutions. He also is the Vice-Chair of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for transport safety in the UK, and has been involved in the transport safety sector of mobility for about 20 years.

This episode delves into the complex subject that is safety in urban design and urban mobility, and examines it from a variety of different angles and perspectives.

A main theme our guest spoke on was how safety and the perception of safety in urban mobility can vary based on a number of demographics – Marianne spoke about how automotive safety features are structured to accommodate the average man, leaving women out of the safety equation. Debbie notes how not all urban infrastructure bears in mind the elderly or the disabled, who might need longer time and digital assistance at crosswalks and complex road crossings. Dan also commented how minorities and those living in deprived communities can be at greater risk of road injury, as well as facing lower quality infrastructure. However, they all note that there is still a sense of excitement and ambition as newer, smarter technology and strategy come to light as  solutions to these existing issues.

This is just the surface, and there are so many more levels of discussion and conversation on this episode – that we are proud to sponsor. You can hear the full discussion on Apple Podcasts, as well as anywhere else you find your podcasts.

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 EIT Community 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/

Opportunities for Startups

EIT Urban Mobility innovation Hub South Partner, BGI, presents its two acceleration programmes dedicated to supporting tech startups in validating their business and scaling it.

BGI Accelerator: Acceleration programme of 10 months, dedicated to startups from all over the world in the areas of Medical Devices and Health Care; Smart Cities and Industry 4.0; Blockchain Applications and AI; and Water Economy. The startups benefit from two national boot camps, a mentorship programme and an immersion programme in Boston.

More information is available here.

Get in the Ring: Startup competition, sponsored by EIT Urban Mobility and Vodafone Portugal, dedicated to supporting startups from RIS Countries in the areas of smart mobility, big data, XR Solutions, and Automation and Gamification. Startups benefit from one physical event to pitch their idea, access to Vodafone Power Lab and an award of up to 20k€.
More information is available here