Winner Gets $15,000; Finalists from Spain, United Kingdom, Canada, and U.S. to Pitch at LA CoMotion Mobility Festival on November 18, 2017

Los Angeles, CA – October 30, 2017 – The NewCities Foundation and the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) today announced fifteen finalists from the L.A. New Mobility Challenge, a global startup competition focused on identifying the most innovative zero-emissions transportation technologies, smart infrastructure, and shared mobility solutions that will define the next era of sustainable urban transportation. The fifteen urban mobility startups from the U.S., Canada, Spain, and the United Kingdom were narrowed down from more than 100 applicants from 15 countries.

Finalists will have the chance to share their innovations at the LA CoMotion Mobility Festival, a multi-day event focused on the future of urban mobility on November 16-19 in the Arts District of Downtown Los Angeles. Pitch sessions will be judged by a high-level jury in front of a wide audience.

Each startup will pitch its urban mobility solution for a chance to win $15,000 and the opportunity to receive mentorship, skills development, and market entry assistance from LACI’s Executives-in-Residence (EIR) team. Winners will be announced by LACI and the NewCities Foundation at the LA CoMotion Mobility Festival on Friday, November 17.

“Thanks to the voters who approved Measure M to provide over $120 billion for transit, L.A. has an incredible opportunity to lead the world in smart mobility solutions while reducing pollution in our most disadvantaged communities,” stated Matt Petersen, President and CEO of the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator. “LACI is looking for ways to accelerate zero emissions and shared mobility goals by the time the 2028 Olympic games arrive in Los Angeles, and these 15 finalists are helping to lead the way.”

John Rossant, Chairman of the NewCities Foundation and Chief Curator at LA CoMotion said: “The success of the world’s greatest cities will be measured by how well people and goods move from one place to another. The finalists of the L.A. New Mobility Challenge represent some of the brightest leaders at the cutting edge of new mobility. The Challenge also highlights the growing global importance of Los Angeles as a capital of transportation technology.”

Meet the L.A. New Mobility Challenge finalists:

 Category 1: Smart Infrastructure

Swiftly — San Francisco, California
Swiftly develops enterprise software to help transit agencies and cities improve urban mobility. Built by transportation experts for transportation professionals, the Swiftly platform harnesses billions of data points and sophisticated algorithms to improve transit system performance, service reliability, and real-time passenger information.

Roadbotics — Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Roadbotics applies recent advances in AI and cloud-based technologies in a system using simple dash mounted cellphones or cameras to collect and analyze highly accurate, image and location-based data on roadways and infrastructure throughout the city.

See.Sense — Belfast, Northern Ireland
See.Sense is a cycling technology and data company that develops connected cycling technology products improve the safety of urban cycling. Through its products, See.Sense provides never-before-seen crowdsourced data for cities that includes road surface monitoring accident and near miss events, helping both cyclists and cities make better decisions.
 

 Category 2: Shared Mobility

SHARE — Columbus, Ohio
SHARE provides a platform for scheduled and recurring rides, and personalized transit services, providing mobility to those underserved by current transportation networks. Through optimized, and shared transportation service, SHARE aims to transform communities and improve access to jobs, education and healthcare.

SPLT — Detroit, Michigan
SPLT is a transportation management platform changing the way people meet and commute worldwide. SPLT partners with corporations, universities and municipalities to develop customized carpooling programs in a closed network, integrating multiple modes, and helping to promote green initiatives, attraction & retention of employees and inter-corporate networking.

REVMAX — New York, NY

REVMAX builds intelligent fleet management tools that predict demand based on historical transit data and current conditions such as temperature, precipitation, traffic, events and holidays. REVMAX uses big data and applies machine learning to maximize fleet efficiency and therefore save time, money and fuel while reducing street congestion and CO2 pollution.

 Category 3: Electrification

Ampaire — Los Angeles, California
Ampaire is designing, developing and building high performance zero-emission electric aircraft to overcome the greatest burdens of aviation – high operating cost, noise, and pollution. Ampaire is building towards a zero emissions future in aviation, starting with the first commercial, nine passenger, fully electric aircraft capable of flying from LA to San Francisco in less than 90 minutes.

Advanced Vehicle Manufacturing (AVM) — Los Angeles, California
AVM is leading the effort towards a 100% green transportation society by providing public and private transit operators with fully electric, and technology-enabled solutions. AVM manufactures and distributes a suite of EV products, including multiple models of intra-city shuttles as well as HYPERcharging products, able to charge shuttles in under 10 minutes.

ConnectMyEV — Fremont, California
ConnectMyEV has developed the world’s first robotic, conductive electric vehicle (EV) charging system that combines the high power and safety of conductive charging with autonomous charging capabilities. ConnectMyEV enables autonomous vehicle fleets to park and charge themselves.

 Category 4: Autonomous Vehicles

what3words — London, United Kingdom
what3words is a global addressing system that has divided the world into 57 trillion 3m x 3m squares, each with a unique and fixed three-word address, providing a simple and human-friendly way to talk about precise locations. More universal and more accurate than street addressing, what3words has been built into navigation and transit systems, autonomous vehicles and drones.

AutoDrive Solutions — Madrid, Spain
AutoDrive Solutions is an early stage startup specialized in developing low cost and accurate vehicle-guidance systems for all modes of transportation. With nine registered patents in technologies for high-frequency radar, sonar, and optical technologies, AutoDrive Solutions has designed a coded system similar to Braille for vehicles to read their precise positioning using 3D paint-drops painted on city streets.

HAAS Alert — Chicago, Illinois
HAAS Alert is a mobility and smart city data service provider keeping emergency crews, drivers and the public safe through R2V™ (Responder-to-Vehicle) communication that alerts motorists when emergency responders are in the vicinity or en route to a call. Drivers and emergency crews use the real-time information to avoid collisions and reduce traffic delays, an important feature of a safer, more effective autonomous vehicle future.
 

 Category 5: Personal Mobility

ShareRoller — New York, NY
ShareRoller uses an innovative friction-drive technology to add electric power to conventional bikes and scooters. ShareRoller is a portable device that can motorize bikes, kick scooters, and the bike share fleets of over 20 cities interchangeably, can be installed or removed in seconds.

Scooterson — San Francisco, California
Scooterson is building an intelligent and connected electric scooter with a vision of making it self-drive for efficient ride-sharing operations, and is using A.I. to bring an enhanced user experience.

SmartHalo — Montreal, Canada
SmartHalo Technologies Inc. designs devices to make any bike a smart bike, equipped with navigation assistance, fitness tracking, and theft protection, while generating important cycling data.

About LACI

The Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) is a private non-profit organization helping to accelerate the commercialization of clean technologies and ensuring an inclusive green economy by unlocking innovation, transforming markets and enhancing community. Founded as a cluster-driven economic development initiative by the City of Los Angeles and its Department of Water & Power (LADWP), LACI is recognized as one of the most innovative business incubators in the world by UBI. In just five years, LACI has helped 65+ companies raise $135M in funding, create 1,500 jobs, and deliver more than $335M in long term economic value. LACI operates out of the La Kretz Innovation Campus in downtown LA with satellite offices in Northridge and the Silicon Valley, and is founder of the Network for Global Innovation NGIN. LACI recently acquired the Cleantech Open to amplify and expand their positive impact toward building an inclusive green global economy. For more information, please visit http://laci.org and follow us on Twitter and Facebook @LACIncubator.

About NewCities

NewCities is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to making cities more inclusive, connected, healthy and vibrant. Focusing on people, places and policies, we bring together a global network of public and private sector leaders and Urban Tech innovators to foster results-oriented collaboration. We also produce actionable research that can be implemented by decision-makers across sectors.

About LA CoMotion

LA CoMotion is a unique five-day event bringing together the global leaders of the urban mobility revolution – a revolution that is set to transform every city in the world, large and small. The first edition of LA CoMotion takes place in Downtown Los Angeles’ vibrant Arts District from November 15-19 2017. The immersive event features cutting-edge discussions, demos, test drives and exhibitions – an unforgettable glimpse into our urban future.

Media Contacts:

Laurie Peters, LACI Communications Director
+1 (818) 635-4101
lpeters@laci.org

Andreia Furtado, NewCities Communications Coordinator
+1 (514) 987-0029
afurtado@newcitiesfoundation.org