Urban Mobility Incubator Program – Apply Now!

The Urban Mobility incubator is a 8-week long program of active individual work and mentoring, providing participants with the toolkit that allows startups to sharpen their skills and grow their business potential, develop their prototype and expand the network. Startup solutions demonstrating the best alignment with challenges and the greatest potential may qualify to deploy their prototype in the Riga urban environment. Each participant will have a personalized progress plan depending on their situation at the program start. Therefore, they are equally welcoming to completely new teams with high-potential ideas as well as already established startups interested in their business acceleration.

The program will offer up to 5 teams hands-on workshops with recognized mentors on go-to-market strategy, revenue streams, marketing, prototyping, etc., with up to 2400 EUR financial support for each team’s prototype development and piloting to build their solution on a real scale.

Why Apply?

As cities grow, the demand for mobility increases. Today urban mobility accounts for 40 % of all CO2 emissions of road transport and up to 70 % of other pollutants from transport within the European Union. By fostering innovation and transforming urban mobility, they can cut unnecessary costs, improve quality of life and contribute to achieving climate targets thus helping cities become climate neutral by 2030, and making cities more livable, inclusive and safe.

• Financial pool of 12 000 EUR
  • 5 teams receive up to €2 400 for prototyping and piloting.
• Support in prototype development & fast track deployment
  • Getting your prototype from the lab to the city streets is a complicated process that can take up to 18 months. They can help in accelerating your time to market.
• Personalized mentoring
  • Personalized 8-week development plan with individual coaching, 1:1 mentoring sessions and workshops by startup consultants from Two Dots Consulting.
• Scale product to EU
  • They can help you to scale your business to EU level. EIT Urban Mobility network enables access to many European cities.

Challenges

• Logistics
  • Last mile delivery solutions
  • Consolidation transshipment nodes, transshipment centers, micro hubs in the city
  • Drone application and noise reduction solutions
  • Autonomous delivery robots
• Energy & Electric Charging
  • Renewable energy sources in the charging infrastructure
  • Electric charging infrastructure (including how to effectively deal with inaccurate parking of vehicles in electric car charging stations)
  • Solutions for the infrastructure of public transport stops
• 5G
  • Autonomous vehicles
  • Involvement of drones in the urban mobility system – how to promote public acceptance of the use of drones.
• Other priorities
  • Involvement of citizens in recording infringements (e.g. a car parked on a cycle lane, etc.)
  • Parking monitoring (user knows where a space is available)
  • Public transport stops on request
  • Innovative solutions for street cleaning (including cycle lanes in winter)

Modules

• Module 1: Business set-up and roadmap
• Module 2: Product market fit development & GTM strategy
• Module 3: Target audience and revenue streams models
• Module 4: Marketing and communication
• Module 5: Business pitch
• The Modules will be tailored to startup needs and can vary based on the knowledge and development of the participating teams.
• Additionally, practical prototyping workshops and individual consultations will be organized for interested startups. Workshops will take place at the Riga Technical University open-type workshop theLab, powered by RTU Design Factory.
• This Urban Mobility Incubator is co-funded by EIT Urban Mobility Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS) an initiative of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union. The program is organized by the innovation movement VEFRESH in partnership with the Riga City Council and the Riga Technical University.

Eligible Countries

• EU Member States: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Greece, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia
• Horizon Europe Associated Countries: Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Türkiye, Ukraine
• Outermost Regions: Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Réunion, Martinique, Mayotte and Saint-Martin (France), the Azores and Madeira (Portugal), and the Canary Islands (Spain)

Is Urban Mobility Incubator right for you?

• Expectations
• They are open to beginner entrepreneurs with a passion and strong drive to succeed as well as to already established startups looking for that extra push to get their prototype improved and deployed in real urban conditions. Our team selection is based on the following criteria:
  • High potential business idea that addresses the city challenges
  • Clear focus on sustainability and innovations
  • Business model
  • Team capacity (at least 2 people team with business and tech competences)
  • Capacity to devote time and energy to the development during the 8 week program.

Qualifications

Eligible candidates hold the following qualifications:

• Have an interest in technology, innovation and sustainable urban mobility,
• Are open-minded and determined to succeed,
• Have an interest in entrepreneurship and leadership,
• Are willing to make an extra effort alongside their other activities,
• Business/team is based in EIT RIS eligible countries,
• Fluency in English.

For more information, visit European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).