LONDON and SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 09, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BP and RocketSpace, founders of the Mobility Tech Innovation Collaborative, are shaping the future movement of people, goods, and services in collaboration with global mobility and smart transportation industry leaders. Today, they are announcing the four startups from Israel, U.K. and U.S. selected to test and explore partnerships with Avis Budget Group, IBM and Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi during the Mobility Tech Innovation Collaborative’s 12 week program.
Technological advances in electrification, autonomous driving and connected cars are among the many emerging drivers transforming travel for consumers and businesses. The program’s incoming cohort of startups represent a technologically diverse group of advanced mobility technologies from advanced parking solutions to artificial intelligence-driven fleet management, electric vehicle fleet planning and simulated reality. There will be multiple real-world proof-of-concept (PoC) opportunities to test these products with corporates that could lead to expanded pilots, future partnerships or investments. BP recently invested $5 million in FreeWire, manufacturer of mobile rapid charging systems for electric vehicles, following its participation in the Mobility Tech Innovation Collaborative.
After reviewing hundreds of startups from around the world, the startups selected to pursue PoCs with the industry leaders are:
- Immense Simulations (Milton Keynes, U.K.) – Immense is a software company enabling intelligent mobility. Its software platform revolutionises how transport stakeholders use simulation to make fast informed decisions associated with the movement of people and goods around the transport system.
- Parkofon (Alexandria VA, U.S.) – Parkofon is the pioneering automated parking payment and guidance platform based on innovative GPS-based technology and Big Data analytics.
- Spark (Cambridge, U.K.) – Spark’s AI-based journey prediction software uses machine learning to help electric vehicles go further between charges using live data from the vehicle, driver and atmospherics. These more accurate predictions help overcome range anxiety and therefore drive greater adoption of electric vehicles by both businesses and consumers.
- Fleetonomy (Tel Aviv, Israel) – Fleetonomy offers artificial intelligence-based solutions to enable fleet owners, OEMs and mobility service providers to maximize their fleets by enhancing efficiency, generating more insights from their data, and creating new revenue streams by operating new smart mobility services.
“I see RocketSpace as a win-win for everyone involved. For startups, it provides the opportunity to work with BP to test their products and services in our environment. For BP, we get to experiment with new products and services that could help us transform mobility and ensure we are positioned to meet the needs of customers now and into the future,” said Roy Williamson, vice president of BP’s advanced mobility.
“This PoC helps us demonstrate the value of our Simulation-as-a-Service and enables technical due diligence of our capabilities," said Robin North, CEO, Immense Simulations. "It also gives us a chance to develop a longer term strategic partnership with BP whilst understanding their business drivers, requirements and key success factors."
New, tested solutions will be presented at a Demo Day in December. Startups participating the Mobility Tech Innovation Collaborative are not required to give up equity. Visit here for more information and to apply for the next cohort: https://www.rocketspace.com/accelerators/mobility-tech-innovation-collaborative.
Notes to editors:
BP established its advanced mobility unit to pursue emerging trends, technologies and opportunities in the future of transportation.
About RocketSpace
RocketSpace is a global ecosystem of people and ideas that provides the necessary velocity — both speed and direction — to help the world’s top innovators bring the future to market. Founded in San Francisco in 2011, its global network of technology campuses and services are designed to help tech startups scale. RocketSpace also helps corporations fuel their continuous growth by tapping into its ecosystem of top startups from around the world. Learn more at rocketspace.com.
Further enquiries:
BP press office, London: +44 (0)20 7496 4076, bppress@bp.com
RocketSpace: Deann Sonoda, dsonoda@rocketspace.com