About our succesful accelerator programme – ZONE Cluster in Forbes

About our succesful accelerator programme - ZONE Cluster in Forbes

Startups, companies, research centres and city leaders are working together to make future cities able to offer sustainable, efficient and convenient mobility options. And EIT Urban Mobility is playing a key role in bringing the different players together. One of the founding members of EIT Urban Mobility is the ZONE Cluster, which is strengthening the innovation community's strategic activities with a startup accelerator programme that has been running since 2020 and has launched several startups, Forbes reports. The ZONE Cluster is a leading organisation at European level - responsible for the acceleration of energy and public realm startups within the knowledge and innovation community across Europe.
Rethinking urban transport is one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century. However, this thinking occurs simultaneously and often independently within city authorities, universities, research centres, and private companies. That is why it is great that the EIT Urban Mobility Innovation Community, co-funded by the European Union, was set up in 2019 to bring these efforts together.
'Cities are at the heart of everything we do. Our mission is to accelerate the transition towards a sustainable urban mobility model that can create a better quality of life for people living in cities', says Traian Urban, Director of the EIT Urban Mobility Innovation Hub East.
But there is much more than thinking going on through EIT Urban Mobility, which is active in innovation in 35 European countries and has supported 350 startups over the years, and through its partners, has been involved in running more than 240 pilot programmes in over 100 cities. 'By using cities as living laboratories, we enable startups, pioneering companies and research centres to run pilot programmes to address key urban mobility challenges, ' adds Traian Urban. Their calls for proposals will be published publicly online, so any company can apply for support.
Successful startups in the ZONE accelerator programme
One of the founding members of the EIT Urban Mobility is the ZONE Cluster, which is strengthening the strategic activities of the innovation community with a startup accelerator programme that has been running since 2020 and has launched several innovative companies. Among the companies participating in the EIT Urban Mobility Hub East Accelerator programme are Met3r, which makes energy companies more efficient through smart energy innovations; RoboGaze, which has developed a unique complex life-saving driving assistance solution based on driver camera surveillance; and BLOCK, which develops smart bike storage. Hiventures has also played a key role in developing all three companies.
'The programme has changed dynamically compared to previous years. Moving away from the initial urban mobility focus and the emphasis on the whole startup ecosystem in Central and Eastern Europe, we now concentrate on startups by professional themes rather than location. ZONE Cluster has thus become a leading organisation at European level, responsible for the acceleration of energy and 'public realm' startups within the knowledge and innovation community across Europe', emphasises Veronika Erős, Vice Chair of the EIT Urban Mobility Board. The solutions in the 'public realm' segment aim to answer the changing needs of public spaces and their user-friendly application due to the spread of electromobility.