IMPACT Connected Car announces the 15 startups selected for funding and acceleration in its first batch

• These startups, whose projects are related to smart driving and urban mobility and have been selected among 500 applications, will receive up to €60,000 equity-free funding as well as expert mentoring services
• The acceleration program, funded by the European Commission, aims to respond to societal and industrial needs in the landscape of the connected car

April 25, 2018

IMPACT Connected Car, the acceleration programme funded by the European Commission and that aims to respond to the industrial needs in the automotive industry, has announced the 15 startups selected from the first open call in the three-day Disruptive Bootcamp that took place this week in the Automotive Technology Center of Galicia (CTAG), in Vigo, Spain.

The first open call, launched in October, had a participation of over 500 startups and SMEs coming from 41 countries. 25 projects were selected from this announcement to go through a smartization programme starting with the Disruptive Bootcamp, the first programme stage, that has been held in Vigo (Spain) from Monday to Wednesday.

The bootcamp included one-to-one and speed meeting sessions and concluded with a jury day during which the 25 participating startups pitched in front of a panel of experts, including the coordinator of the program (FBOX), the business coaching leaders (ISDI), technical coaching providers (CTAG, INSERO, MOVEO, and the clusters AUTOKLASTR and LPNT) and big corporations (PSA Group, Ferrovial Servicios, FIA, FIWARE Foundation). Ultimately, 15 companies were selected for the Ignition Plan, the second stage of the IMPACT Connected Car programme:

· BOHR.TECHNOLOGY (Warsaw, Poland): A traffic simulation & route planning system powered by AI & Quantum Computing.

· CardioID Technologies (Matosinhos, Portugal): Enabling safer drivers and vehicles through a technology that is able to biometrically identify the driver and produce fatigue and drowsiness alerts.

· CARFIT (Lille, France): AI based technology that reads the vibration of the vehicle to make the car maintenance easier and mobility safer.

· Carricare b.v. (Chargetrip) (Amsterdam, The Nederlands): Development of predictive deep learning models for fleet managers and energy operators around the world.

· Eccocar sharing S.L. (Madrid, Spain): Car Sharing solution that optimizes and digitalizes the use of the existing fleets.

· HOMYHUB SL (Madrid, Spain): Universal plug and play solution for garage openers that turns the smartphone into a Smart Garage Remote enabling users to control, monitor and manage access to the garage, anywhere at anytime.

· Motor Ai (Berlin, Germany): A developed device which enables digital services in vehicles by collecting data of parked and driving vehicles.

· Parkbob GmbH (Vienna, Austria): Parkbob enables a seamless last mile experience by delivering context-aware parking rules & restrictions as well as real-time on-street parkability.

· Situm Technologies SL (Santiago de Compostela, Spain): indoor positioning provider that enables corporations developing new location-based services.

· Spark Horizon (Tournus, France): Universal charging solution. Spark Horizon conceive, install and operate the 1st European network of free charging stations for electric vehicles, sponsored through AI based advertising.

· TRAFFIC NETWORK SOLUTIONS SL (Barcelona, Spain): Using connected floating car data for optimizing mobility in junctions, roundabouts, work zones…

· Worldsensing SL (Barcelona, Spain): Platform to provide Operational Intelligence to cities through a plug and play approach which creates a customized solution to solve problems such as traffic or public space safety.

· Xapix Software GmbH (Berlin, Germany): Helping enterprises to drive sales and partner engagement by creating easy-to-integrate digital services with their legacy data

· Ximantis AB (Onsala, Sweden): The project aims to forecast and anticipate, exact traffic congestion hot spots, before they have a chance to form.

· Share S.r.l. (Milano, Italy): The only patented off the shelf technology to share the car, optimize its usage and turn it into a profit machine.

Six-month acceleration program to disrupt the industry

All the selected startups will receive up to €60,000 in equity-free funding and will now begin a six-month acceleration program led by ISDI (business coaching) and CTAG (technical coaching).

The entrepreneurs will also have access to an international network of more than a hundred recognized mentors as well as founders and investors who are experts in different key areas of knowledge, both in the digital sector and in the automotive industry.

The selected companies will be showcased at top international events organized over the course of the year by 4YFN and Mobile World Capital Barcelona.

New mobility solutions

Due to the increased importance of mobility solutions, Europe is placing priority on finding ways to tackle the arising opportunities and challenges posed by these technologies. The new market is expected to represent a €141 billion business opportunity by 2020.

IMPACT Connected Car supports, connects and funds with €2.1 million companies with innovative projects in the fields of wireless chargers, cyber security measures and smart mobility. The program provides a direct link between entrepreneurs and large corporations, as well as addresses the fragmentation in the automobile industry, which until now has hindered its digital transformation.

IMPACT Connected Car is supported by the collaboration of 17 partners from across Europe: HEVO, Little Electric Cars, BOTCAR, Argus, ISDI, FundingBox, Mobile World Capital Barcelona, Federation Internationale de l’Automobile, Ferrovial Servicios, FIWARE Foundation, Groupe PSA, INSERO, Moravskolslezský Automobilovy Klastr, Lublin Science and Technology Park, CTAG, Mov’eo, PARP.