The registrations for Mobility Lab 2021 are open. Entrepreneurs who want to test their concept in practice can register up to and including 5 May for the start-up program in the field of mobility. The first registrations have already been received. In a nine-month program, Mobility Lab connects entrepreneurs with an appealing first customer, where they can prove their innovation in practice. In the four previous editions, the program led to more than 17 million euros in funding and hundreds of jobs. Well-known participants from previous editions include Cargoroo, Felyx, Amber and Juuve.
pilot with a first customer
The pressure on our mobility system will also continue to increase post-corona and innovation in mobility is needed. Mobility Lab helps startups with this. Startups are given the opportunity to prove their mobility concept in practice. The pilots are taking place in the regions of Rotterdam, Noord-Brabant and Limburg at organizations, municipalities and companies with a mobility issue. Previously, Mobility Lab had already set up pilots at various municipalities, Ahoy, Efteling, Eindhoven Airport, RET Rotterdam, and Dura Vermeer, among others.
Mobility Lab was founded 5 years ago in Rotterdam. And that has not gone unnoticed. A large number of pilots have taken place in recent years. “In recent years, fifty startups have already participated in Mobility Lab. We offer startups from home and abroad the opportunity to test their product or service in practice with a potential customer. This gives them the opportunity to prove themselves 'in real life': in a realistic environment with real users. That evidence helps a startup enormously in growing and attracting growth capital. Examples that show this are Felyx and Juuve ”, says Hans Stevens, program manager of the Traffic Company.
Mobility Lab has been active in Brabant since 2018. Various tests and pilots took place, such as with the electric car sharing service Amber and with Mobility Sensing at the municipality of 's-Hertogenbosch, which counts the traffic with sensors in the road and monitors the condition of the road surface. “Testing is not only useful for the startups, we are also learning from it. The smart innovations can offer solutions for the mobility challenges we face, including post-corona, ”says program manager Gertjan Koolen of SmartwayZ.NL.
From 2021, the province of Limburg will also be a partner of Mobility Lab. A first for Limburg. Nevertheless, pilots have taken place before. In 2019, Peazy helped the municipality of Venlo with decisions regarding their parking policy, using an algorithm that makes analyzes with data from, among other things, parking meters and parking apps. And last year Citysteps in Roermond tested the first electric shared scooters in the Netherlands. “After positive experiences with pilots in the past, we want to give even more startups the opportunity to get off to a flying start this year,” said Hubert Mackus, deputy of the province of Limburg.
register here
Startups can register until May 5, 2021. From the registrations, 25 startups will be selected for the Mobility Lab program. For nine months they are matched to a first customer, also referred to as a 'launching customer' in start-up terms. The participants can also count on legal, marketing and communication advice and help in finding funding. You can register via mobilitylab.nl.
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