The post Meet the RAPTOR 2025 winners appeared first on Raptor Project.

The RAPTOR 2025 Call for startups and SMEs is launching soon!

Register to attend our RAPTOR 2025 call information webinars and learn more about the call, niche city challenges, timeline, eligibility, funding and more!

RAPTOR 2025 Information Session: Monday 16 December, 10-11.30h

RAPTOR 2025 City Challenge Presentations Part 1: Tuesday 17 December, 10-11.30h

RAPTOR 2025 City Challenge Presentations Part 2: Wednesday 18 December, 10-11.30h

RAPTOR 2025

The RAPTOR 2025 call will award €40k to the 15 startups/SMEs with the most innovative, feasible, and impactful solutions to the 15 niche city mobility challenges. Startups/SMEs will have the opportunity to develop and pilot their solution over a 5-month period.

WHAT IS RAPTOR?

Rapid environmental changes are impacting our cities and require rapid and innovative actions. The Rapid Applications for Transport (RAPTOR) Programme seeks to do just this via its agile competition. The RAPTOR competition matches European cities facing urban mobility challenges with startups with innovative mobility solutions. While each of the city challenges and proposed solutions are different, the common theme woven throughout is the urgency of the transition to more sustainable transport. 

Since 2022, RAPTOR has run 44 pilots across 36 cities in Europe and continues to shake up the status quo, as you can read in this Impact Story.

WANT TO KNOW MORE?

For questions, please contact the RAPTOR team via [email protected].

The post RAPTOR Call 2025 Info Sessions   appeared first on Raptor Project.

Rapid environmental changes are impacting our cities and require rapid and innovative actions. The Rapid Applications for Transport (RAPTOR) Programme seeks to do so via its agile competition. The RAPTOR competition matches European cities facing urban mobility challenges with startups with innovative solutions.  

Meet your RAPTOR 2024 cities!

In 2024, 13 cities from across Europe with niche mobility challenges requiring innovative solutions have been selected to participate in the Rapid Applications for Transport (RAPTOR) programme.

We are excited to welcome the cities of Bacău, Brasov, Brussels Capital Region, Fingal Country, Ghent, Graz, Helsinki, Košice, Konya, Las Rozas de Madrid, Liepāja, Vila Nova de Gaia, and Vitoria-Gasteiz to the RAPTOR family! These cities will work with competition winners to pilot solutions in-situ.

• Bacău, Romania: Active mobility for seniors
• Brasov, Romania: Inner city logistics
• Brussels Capital Region, Belgium: Delivering in low traffic neighbourhoods
• Fingal County, Ireland: Data Collection in School Street / Quiet Street
• Ghent, Belgium: Traffic safety analyses
• Graz, Austria: Smart accident prevention
• Helsinki, Finland: Mapping accessible pathways
• Konya, Türkiye: Improvement of multi-modal commuting experience
• Košice, Slovakia: Traffic management optimisation
• Las Rozas de Madrid, Spain: Pedestrian crossings accessibility
• Liepāja, Latvia: LEZ CO2 monitoring
• Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: Enhanced active mobility with MOB+ active
• Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain: Bike tracking technology for enhanced security measures

RAPTOR 2024 Call

Within EIT Urban Mobility, cities are our driving force and enablers of faster innovation adoption.

Rapid Applications for Transport (RAPTOR), an agile, entrepreneurial challenge-based innovation with rapid development timelines, is a powerful tool in the EIT Urban Mobility Innovation agenda.

On 29 February 2024, the competition was launched for startups and SMEs to propose solutions addressing these city mobility challenges. Each city, supported by technical and business advisors, will select the most promising startups/SMEs to receive funding, to develop their solution to be tested in the city within five months of award.

A maximum of 13 awardees, one per city challenge, will be selected and supported by EIT Urban Mobility financially, technically, and commercially, from August to December 2024. In addition to funding of up to €40,000, awardees will receive technical and business mentoring, and support to market and promote the project. Applicants are sought from EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated states.

Applications close 6 May 2024, 17h CET.

To learn more about the RAPTOR 2024, how to apply, and conditions

The post RAPTOR 2024 Call Now Open appeared first on Raptor Project.

Helsingborg, Sweden

Europe is one of the most urbanised regions in the world, and as such, European countries face numerous and diverse challenges. From road congestion and emissions to last-mile connectivity and accommodating micromobility solutions, cities traditionally had to solve issues internally; with lengthy bureaucratic processes slowing the speed of progress.

However, the innovative solutions and technologies offered by startups and SMEs have the potential to contribute to solving the unique challenges our cities face. By partnering city bodies with these agile and fast-moving startups, cities can test solutions and even scale them for greater impact.

This is the idea behind EIT Urban Mobility’s Rapid Applications for Transport (RAPTOR) programme. The agile, challenge-based programme invites cities to identify a niche urban mobility challenge, and startups and SMEs are invited to propose promising solutions. Winners are then awarded funding and receive customised mentoring to develop and pilot their solution in the city over a five-month period.

The RAPTOR programme pilots projects across Europe in 2024

In 2023, 12 European cities from 10 countries joined the third edition of the RAPTOR programme. Each of the cities identified a unique challenge they face, ranging from cycling safety to measuring carbon dioxide emissions. The participating cities were Akureyri, Iceland; Ankara, Türkiye; Ajka, Hungary; Barcelona Metropolitan Area, Spain; Capital Region of Denmark, Denmark; Debrecen, Hungary; Dubnicka nad Váhom, Slovakia; The Hague, Netherlands; Helsingborg, Sweden; Mechelen, Belgium; Munich and Stuttgart Region, Germany. The startups and SMEs that participated came from eight different countries and the programme produced 12 pilots across Europe.

Gareth Macnaughton, Director of Innovation for EIT Urban Mobility explains, “RAPTOR uses agile, innovative solutions to solve concrete urban mobility challenges in European cities. RAPTOR brings innovation to a local level freeing cities up from their dependence on big consulting or technology multinationals.”

While every RAPTOR 2023 pilot brought new learnings and provided opportunities for collaboration between cities and startups, the following is a brief overview of three particular pilots.

Helsingborg gets a nudge towards active mobility

Despite substantial investments in infrastructure, an awareness of the climate crisis and high fuel costs; the people of Helsingborg, Sweden travel by bicycle to a lesser extent than people in similarly sized cities. The focus of Helsingborg’s RAPTOR 2023 challenge was to understand the behaviours of citizens and to develop a “bicycle culture” in the city.

The Swedish startup, Nudgd, answered the call with their Smart Nudges Mobility platform, which focused on encouraging active modes of transportation for school commutes by highlighting and incentivising the benefits of active mobility. The pilot aimed to shift the commuting habits of elementary students and their parents and staff.

Helsingborg, Sweden

After the pilot, Nudgd found the 39% of participants changed, or planned to change, to a more active mode of transport; exceeding their target goal of 30%. Over 2,400 parents and/or guardians and school staff from 25 different schools were engaged in the pilot testing, and participants were twice as likely than non-users to switch from a car to an active transportation mode.

Participants not only received health benefits from choosing more active modes of transport, Nudgd anticipated that there would also be positive environmental knock-on effects of the programme. For example, with decreased car traffic around schools, there would in turn be an increase in safety and air quality in the areas around the participating schools.

Digital twins for data-informed decisions

The German city of Munich, with 1.5 million inhabitants, faces environmental and congestion issues due to the growing population and commuting traffic, necessitating more attractive public transportation options. However, before RAPTOR 2023, the public transportation operator in Munich (MVG) had limited knowledge of the behaviour of commuters in the city. Only 15-60% of public transport vehicles were equipped with counting devices, offering an incomplete overview of ridership behaviour.

Munich, Germany

The proposed solution, provided by Transcality and piloted as part of the RAPTOR 2023 programme, was to deploy a digital twin of Munich; essentially a multi-modal simulation of the city. To do so, the startup fused data from automated passenger counting devices with 82,000 road segments and 3000 public transport stops to create and calibrate a digital twin. Importantly, the digital twin had to be tailored to the requirements of MVG, with a defined roadmap for implementation. Therefore, Transcality used historical passenger count data and an existing static macroscopic model to analyse and thus create a dynamic mesoscopic multimodal transportation model. The developed digital twin concept can provide deep insights on travel behaviour in Munich, which will allow MVG to make data-informed decisions about their public transportation offering.

Changing EV charging in the Capital Region of Denmark

Denmark is aiming to electrify more than a million vehicles by 2030, but in order to do so, electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure must be improved. Namely, there needs to be more transparency for EV drivers to make educated decisions. The country currently has extensive public and on-street charging infrastructure for EVs, but the price of charging in the Capital Region of Denmark is regulated by charging operators themselves, not the government. As there are numerous operators, and each has its own pricing policies, this creates opacity for EV owners – with very little clarity on what the price of charging will be.

The Chargeprice App, image courtesy of Chargeprice

This was the Capital Region of Denmark’s RAPTOR 2023 challenge: to create more visibility through a holistic, real-time overview of the price of charging across all EV charging operators. To realise this goal, Chargeprice’s app of the same name, was successfully tailored to the Danish market and language. Moving away from manual price checks, the app now offers automated price updates twice a week for 10 e-mobility service providers. Data quality has been improved for over 16,600 charging points in Denmark, 900 of which are in parking zones in Copenhagen. By the end of the pilot over 4,200 Danish EV drivers had tested the service that allows them to search for charging stations based on compatibility, availability, time of day or night, and type and charging speed. Depending on the charging station, this allows EV drivers to save up to 50% of charging costs, hence contributing to the wider adoption of cleaner vehicles.

Three years of RAPTOR

Since 2021, the RAPTOR programme has encouraged cities to collaborate with startups and SMEs to solve their tricky urban mobility challenges. In the three years of the programme, 31 pilot projects have been completed in 24 cities across 17 countries.
Find these solutions, and over 400 others, on EIT Urban Mobility’s Mobility Innovation Marketplace.

This article orginally appeared on the EIT Urban Mobility webpage https://www.eiturbanmobility.eu/impact-story/raptor-2023-offers-solutions-to-urban-mobility-challenges/

The post RAPTOR 2023 offers solutions to urban mobility challenges appeared first on Raptor Project.

The RAPTOR 2024 Call for startups and SMEs is launching soon! REGISTER to attend our RAPTOR 2024 Call City Challenges Description and Live Q&A session (Part 2) information webinar and learn more about 7 of the niche city challenges!

During this Part 2 session city challenges will be presented by:

• Bacău
• Brasov
• Brussels Capital Region
• Ghent
• Graz
• Helsinki
• Košice

Don’t forget also to REGISTER for Part 1 of the presentations which will take place on Wednesday 6 March 2024, 11:00 – 12.30 CET. Cities presenting during Part 2 session will be:

• Fingal County Council
• Konya
• Las Rozas de Madrid
• Vila Nova de Gaia
• Vilnius
• Vitoria-Gasteiz

RAPTOR 2024

The RAPTOR 2024 Call will award €40k to the 13 startups/SMEs with the most innovative, feasible, and impactful solutions to the 13 niche city mobility challenges. Startups/SMEs will have the opportunity to develop and pilot their solution over a 5-month period and receive customised mentoring sessions.

WHAT IS RAPTOR?

Rapid environmental changes are impacting our cities and require rapid and innovative actions. The Rapid Applications for Transport (RAPTOR) Programme seeks to do just this via its agile competition. The RAPTOR competition matches European cities facing urban mobility challenges with startups with innovative mobility solutions. While each of the city challenges and proposed solutions are different, the common theme woven throughout is the urgency of the transition to more sustainable transport. 

Since 2022, RAPTOR has run 31 pilots across 24 cities in Europe and continues to shake up the status quo, as you can read in this Impact Story. Previous cities include Tallinn, Prague, Istanbul, Tel Aviv, Munich and Barcelona – read more about our past projects.

WANT TO KNOW MORE?

For questions, please contact the RAPTOR team via [email protected].

The post RAPTOR Call 2024 – City Challenges Description and Live Q&A (Part 2) appeared first on Raptor Project.

The RAPTOR 2024 Call for startups and SMEs is launching soon!

The RAPTOR 2024 Call for startups and SMEs is launching soon! REGISTER to attend our RAPTOR 2024 Call City Challenges Description and Live Q&A session (Part 1) information webinar and learn more about 6 of the niche city challenges!

During this Part 1 session city challenges will be presented by:

• Fingal County
• Konya
• Las Rozas de Madrid
• Liepāja
• Vila Nova de Gaia
• Vitoria-Gasteiz

Don’t forget also to REGISTER for Part 2 of the presentations which will take place on Thursday 7 March 2024, 11:00 – 12.30 CET. Cities presenting during Part 2 session will be:

• Bacau
• Brasov
• Brussels Capital Region
• Ghent
• Graz
• Helsinki
• Kosice

RAPTOR 2024

The RAPTOR 2024 Call will award €40k to the 13 startups/SMEs with the most innovative, feasible, and impactful solutions to the 13 niche city mobility challenges. Startups/SMEs will have the opportunity to develop and pilot their solution over a 5-month period and receive customised mentoring sessions.

WHAT IS RAPTOR?

Rapid environmental changes are impacting our cities and require rapid and innovative actions. The Rapid Applications for Transport (RAPTOR) Programme seeks to do just this via its agile competition. The RAPTOR competition matches European cities facing urban mobility challenges with startups with innovative mobility solutions. While each of the city challenges and proposed solutions are different, the common theme woven throughout is the urgency of the transition to more sustainable transport. 

Since 2022, RAPTOR has run 31 pilots across 24 cities in Europe and continues to shake up the status quo, as you can read in this Impact Story. Previous cities include Tallinn, Prague, Istanbul, Tel Aviv, Munich and Barcelona – read more about our past projects.

WANT TO KNOW MORE?

For questions, please contact the RAPTOR team via [email protected].

The post RAPTOR Call 2024 – City Challenges Description and Live Q&A (Part 1) appeared first on Raptor Project.

The RAPTOR 2024 Call for startups and SMEs is launching soon!

REGISTER to attend our RAPTOR 2024 Call information webinar and learn more about the call, niche city challenges, timeline, eligibility, funding and more!

RAPTOR 2024

The RAPTOR 2024 Call will award €40k to the 13 startups/SMEs with the most innovative, feasible, and impactful solutions to the 13 niche city mobility challenges. Startups/SMEs will have the opportunity to develop and pilot their solution over a 5-month period and receive customised mentoring sessions.

WHAT IS RAPTOR?

Rapid environmental changes are impacting our cities and require rapid and innovative actions. The Rapid Applications for Transport (RAPTOR) Programme seeks to do just this via its agile competition. The RAPTOR competition matches European cities facing urban mobility challenges with startups with innovative mobility solutions. While each of the city challenges and proposed solutions are different, the common theme woven throughout is the urgency of the transition to more sustainable transport. 

Since 2022, RAPTOR has run 31 pilots across 24 cities in Europe and continues to shake up the status quo, as you can read in this Impact Story. Previous cities include Tallinn, Prague, Istanbul, Tel Aviv, Munich and Barcelona – read more about our past projects.

WANT TO KNOW MORE?

For questions, please contact the RAPTOR team via [email protected].

The post RAPTOR Call 2024 Info Session   appeared first on Raptor Project.

Original version published on EIT Urban Mobility website

German language version

Stuttgart, Germany, (27 September 2023) – Lokit Technology, an innovative Italian start-up, has unveiled its cutting-edge E-Bike parking stations in the Stuttgart region. The installation of these stations was executed in collaboration with the Wirtschaftsförderung Region Stuttgart GmbH (WRS) as part of the RAPTOR (Rapid Applications for Transport) programme, an initiative by EIT Urban Mobility, an initiative of the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union.

The Lokit Technology E-Bike parking stations offer a convenient and sustainable solution for commuters and residents alike. Users can effortlessly park their E-Bikes at these stations, contributing to a greener and more accessible urban environment.

The RAPTOR project, backed by EIT Urban Mobility, aims to revolutionise urban transportation by introducing innovative and sustainable solutions like Lokit Technology’s E-Bike parking stations. This initiative aligns perfectly with EIT Urban Mobility’s mission to drive innovation and sustainable mobility across Europe. To learn more about Lokit Technology and download their app for using the E-Bike parking stations, please visit:  Lokit Technology App

The mobility challenge answered

The RAPTOR programme by EIT Urban Mobility, matches niche city urban mobility challenges to solutions from start-ups and SMEs. The Region of Stuttgart entered the RAPTOR programme with this mobility challenge: “How can we change the arrival and departure culture to big events to relieve congestion?”

This year’s edition empowered each of the twelve participating cities, with the support of technical and business advisors, to select the most promising start-ups and SMEs to fit their mobility challenge. The selected innovators then have now the opportunity to develop and test their solutions within the city over a five-month period, with funding of up to €35,000.

The start-up Lokit will install the stations and launch the service for the first day of the festival Cannstatter Volksfest on 22/09. The Lokit team will be present from the 20-26/09 and from the 2-8/10 when the festival ends. They will do targeted online marketing campaigns for the Stuttgart region to announce the service to festival visitors for the 3 weeks.

The Stuttgart Region hosts a multitude of major events throughout the year, attracting tens of thousands or even millions of visitors. Historically, most visitors have relied on personal vehicles or crowded public transport options, often enduring traffic congestion in the process. Regrettably, other mobility alternatives, including bicycles and shared transportation, have played a limited role, largely due to inadequate infrastructure. This congestion during major events not only hampers the overall experience but also poses safety risks for attendees, especially pedestrians and those with mobility challenges. Additionally, it exacerbate the events’ environmental footprint when unsustainable transportation options are the norm.

The post Start-up Lokit Technology Designs E-Bike Parking Stations in Stuttgart Region   appeared first on Raptor Project.

RAPTOR Winners 2023

Rapid environmental changes are impacting our cities and require rapid and innovative actions. The Rapid Applications for Transport (RAPTOR) Programme seeks to do just this via its agile competition. The RAPTOR competition matches European cities facing urban mobility challenges with start-ups with innovative mobility solutions. While each of the city challenges and proposed solutions are different, the common theme woven throughout is the urgency of the transition to more sustainable transport. 

And the 2023 start-ups with innovative mobility solutions are…

EIT Urban Mobility is excited to announce the winning start-ups/SMEs of the 2023 RAPTOR Competition. Over 150 applications were received for the 12 city challenges. Following a rigorous two-phase evaluation process, we are pleased to present the 12 winners: Meep, Instant System, Hergele, Kentyou, Chargeprice, Asistobe, Rastel.io, Kobla, Nudgd, Everimpact, Transcality and Lokit! 

Following the agile methodology of the programme, the projects will kick off in August and run until December 2023. During these 5 months, winners will work closely with their respective city. Firstly the innovative start-up solutions for mobility challenges will need to be developed and tailored to the city specific requirements. Then they will be tested and validated in real-life demonstrations.   

What are the innovative mobility start-up solutions?

City of Ajka, Hungary + Meep

Every day around half of the population of the city of Ajka, commute to its centre. The insufficient and unreliable public transport routes contribute to the high congestion rates caused by car usage. Consequently this creates a disruption to mobility flows in the city. Spanish SME Meep will work with the City of Ajka to increase the use of public transport by improving the reliability and experience of public transport. They will do so by providing real-time information to users and enhancing communication with citizens. 

City of Akureyri, Iceland + Instant System

Despite a free public bus system, citizens of Akureyri prefer to travel by private car. The city is seeking to enhance intermodality between the public buses and micromobility solutions to promote modal shift to more sustainable transport. French SME Instant System will pilot its MaaS platform to provide users the best journey combinations of public transport, personal bike and shared mobility. Information on the CO2 emissions on these journeys compared to use of a car, will work to incentivise users.  

City of Ankara, Türkiye + Hergele

Capital city Ankara, is facing challenges in optimising the field operations of their electric bike sharing system. With more than 500 bikes and 40 charging stations, route optimisation of the bicycle maintenance vehicles via an integrated software is required for efficient and smart management. Turkish start-up Hergele will develop the route optimisation features of its Opp app which acts as a bridge between management and staff. The app provides an extensive micro-mobility fleet management solution by automating processes, facilitating communication, and providing real-time tracking and data analysis for informed and effective decision making.  

Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, Spain + Kentyou

The Metropolitan Area of Barcelona is facing challenges in getting the most value from data collected by their own app monitoring loading/unloading zones, to make data-driven decisions. French start-up Kentyou will demo its holistic data platform, AI-powered data analytics tool, and a visualisation and decision-making tool. The solution will provide forecasting of parking demand or occupancy, routing optimisation, and traffic management recommendations. 

Capital Region of Denmark + Chargeprice

The Capital Region of Denmark is working to electrify 1.5 million vehicles by 2030. Thus the accessibility and transparency of electric vehicle charging infrastructure is key. The price of EV charging in the region is regulated by the charging operators, each with their own pricing policy and app. Therefore charging can vary significantly depending on the time of day, type of charging station, operator, and roaming policies. French start-up Chargeprice, will pilot its EV charging price comparator which precisely calculates and predicts charging prices among the thousands of charging operators in Europe. Consequently, the app allows EV drivers to find the best charging station and prices based on personal choices.    

City of Debrecen, Hungary + Asistobe

Like many cities, Debrecen faces challenges caused by the extreme growth of car traffic. Norwegian start-up Asistobe will work with the city to create an optimised, sustainable transport network that connects low-density areas. By using mobile network data, historical public transport data, and demographic data, Asistobe will create a predictive model of the transport demand. As a result, Asistobe’s AI and machine learning algorithms, will propose the optimal intermodal transport systems, including organisation, capacity, routes, and timetables.  

City of Dubnica nad Váhom, Slovakia + Rastel.io

The central city of Dubnica nad Váhom, is in the process of developing its first bicycle infrastructure and a strategic approach to increase modal share. One of the challenges they face is to provide safe and accessible infrastructure for bicycle users. Addressing this challenge, Romanian start-up Rastel.io will pilot its modular, smart, and secure bike parking units which have a digital twin for real-time data. Additionally, the solar powered parking units are accessible through an app which can enable 3^rd party organisations to reward active mobility.  

The Hague, Netherlands + Kobla

Norwegian start-up Kobla will pilot an incentive system that validates the use of public or shared transportation for travel to Scheveningen Beach, and offers a variety of rewards. Accordingly, Kobla’s solution will promote more sustainable travel to the beach and reduce traffic congestion issues, key elements of the challenge faced by the Hague.  

City of Helsingborg, Sweden + Nudgd

Winning local start-up Nudgd will work alongside the City of Helsingborg to increase cycling rates using its Smart Nudges platform. Specifically Nudgd will develop a school-focused version of the platform, using behavioural science and nudging techniques to encourage active mobility. The digital platform targets parents, children, and school staff, offering personalised interventions and soft incentives. 

City of Mechelen, Belgium + Everimpact

The city of Mechelen is undertaking an ambitious transition to zero-emission city logistics by 2030. In order to achieve this target, the city requires a data-based solution to monitor interventions. Selected winner, French based SME Everimpact, will test 15 IoT sensors. Specifically these sensors will provide real-time data on CO2 emissions from freight transportation. Thereafter, allowing for powerful insights, informed decision-making, and targeted interventions.  

City of Munich, Germany + Transcality

The city of Munich faces the challenge of understanding the travel behaviour of the ever-increasing number of inhabitants and commuters. Zurich start-up Transcality will implement a digital twin to leverage advanced data analytics and multimodal traffic simulation. Thus providing the City of Munich with a profound understanding of its citizens mobility patterns. 

Stuttgart Region, Germany + LOKIT

For the Stuttgart Region, Italian start-up LOKIT will pilot secure universal micro mobility charging stations. These stations will contribute to diversifying sustainable transportation options to relieve congestion at large events. 

We look forward to sharing upcoming news about their solution development from August to December 2023. 

Are you a city* with a mobility challenge? Do you have an innovative start-up^ solution for mobility challenges? Contact us via our contact form.

Learn more about the EIT Urban Mobility opportunities available for start-ups via its Impact Ventures and Innovation programmes.

*City must be located within an EU member state or third country associated to Horizon Europe.  

^Start-up/SME must be registered within an EU member state or third country associated to Horizon Europe.  

The post Meet the 12 start-ups with innovative solutions that will solve urban mobility challenges across Europe!   appeared first on Raptor Project.