The Story of BABLE Smart Cities
How does one company cooperate to drive urban change and solve the most pressing problems of cities?
After 8+ years of research at Fraunhofer IAO, BABLE was conceived and brought into the Smart City world, metamorphosing into a mechanism to drive urban change. Now, four years to the day from the official launch, the founder and three colleagues reflect on the uniqueness and motivation of the company.
The Gap, the Bridge and the Puzzle
Every successful company begins with the discovery of a gap — a void needing to be filled, two pieces worth fusing. So how did this all begin? What was the gap that needed to be filled?
Alexander Schmidt, Founder and CEO of BABLE, explains:
“While still at Fraunhofer, we learned in our work on the European Smart Cities and Communities projects funded under the Horizon programme (with 100+ cities) about the problems that innovative urban solutions have when trying to scale. There is a need for technical innovation in cities. There is a need for fewer carbon emissions, and there is a need for better use of our infrastructure. There are lots of ideas [on how to solve these challenges] but these ideas are often tested and not implemented because they are also dependent on someone else’s money or public funds. About four years ago, we had hundreds and hundreds of pilots across Europe and none were going to be continued because of missing funds and missing business models. We needed to bring true change with market-ready implementations.
I remember when I studied, one of the first conversations that I remember with one of my professors: I thought these ideas were amazing but I was confounded. Why could I not see them anywhere? My professor told me that the funds were not available. And so, to make this not just successful for the environment but also scalable in the sense of impactful for companies and cities on a large-scale, we needed to make a move into the market and out of science.”
The move into the marketplace became the foundation of the BABLE platform, a place for cities and companies to interact and facilitate a free flow of high-quality information and ideas.
“I think there are quite some things that make us unique. One thing is the data that we have on our platform. The data structure of having Use Cases, Solutions and Products, and having that all linked in a unique way and based on standardised templates. We connect the needs of cities and the solutions of innovators based on the actual needs in our cities. This is then the common base for cities and companies to talk and collaborate, a bridge between the sectors, so to speak.”
– Jana Helder, Head of Operations, BABLE
In addition to the unique functional logic of the platform, BABLE also works to form bridges using other methods. For instance, the education and training behind Smart City projects and the drive to innovate with and for cities on projects that can be sustained and scaled:
“We don’t deliver products, so we can be neutral. We only offer the platform and advisory support services, and both are focused on connecting the needs of our public sector with innovations.”
– Nikita Shetty, Consultant — Smart Cities and Energy Technologies, BABLE
Being uniquely positioned to understand both the public and the private sector from a neutral position, BABLE can efficiently link the sometimes disjointed sectors. For instance, it is for this reason that BABLE is currently engaged as a key partner in projects such as ENTRANCE, an H2020 project launching a common and legitimate European matchmaking platform to accelerate the market access and scale-up of “first of a kind” sustainable transport solutions.
Another challenge when working with cities is the high level of complexity that each ecosystem faces. The many different pieces and people that have to be brought in to find solutions to the most pressing problems in our cities are not square puzzles, but rather tangrams requiring moving pieces of people and resources to be brought together to form tailor-made solutions.
One example of how true cooperation between key institutions can break down complexities is with BABLE’s work (in partnership with the Eindhoven International Project Office) to help guide partnership formation in Belfast. Earlier this year, Innovation City Belfast, a new partnership formed by six of the city’s key institutions to establish Belfast as a globally significant destination for innovation, was formalised. The partnership brought together the public sector, private sector and academia to work towards an ambitious common goal.
Over the last four years, BABLE has been a part of projects worth 2.2 billion EUR, from vision to implementations to scale-ups.
The People Solving the Puzzle
Named in 2020 as one of the fastest-growing start-ups in Germany, the BABLE team has grown into 26 creative problem-solvers. The consistency in the spirit of the team and the agility to translate problems into scalable solutions has remained and even further blossomed from its infancy. Every interviewee found that the team was the defining factor in the way that BABLE can overcome the challenges that each client faces.
“The other thing that I think is quite unique is our team and how we work together, our working structure and different expertise and motivation… and how every one of us tries to bring their best and bring different angles.”
— Jana Helder
The story of BABLE would not be what it is without the diversity of fields and backgrounds that the BABLE team brings and represents. Over the last four years, the team has added colleagues from 15 different nationalities and from a wide variety of different fields, having trained at top universities all over the world. This diversity and strength of experience add unique perspectives and insights that would be lost in a team of uniformity. This means that the team is full of problem-solvers who add unique angles and thus create a vast array of viable options for clients.
“I read this quote recently from Steve Jobs that said, ‘It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do’. I think the most amazing part of that journey is that every person that comes along and joins the team has brought a bit of themselves and propelled the company into a new direction. The speed of this is just amazing. If you give the right circumstances to the right minds all working on the same target to improve urban life, it is just amazing what can happen. And that is all we do.”
— Alexander Schmidt
The inspiration fuelling the often very intricate work that BABLE does comes from the meaningfulness of the work and the evolution of the team as coherent partners.
“What inspires me every day is that I genuinely believe in what we are doing. I believe in our purpose to improve urban life. And every task and every project that we do, we do keep this in mind. It is a very purpose-driven organisation and every day that I wake up I know that I am doing something good and something I believe in. The second thing that inspires me is the people that I work with. I think that the team plays a very important role where I feel like my colleagues are true partners.”
— Nikita Shetty
This team spirit and partnership translates directly into the projects and work that is done with and for cities. A functioning and highly cohesive team bring no additional complexities into an already inherently convoluted project. There are absolutely no solutions that will be solved alone in cities, which makes cooperation within the team, as well as between organisations, of the utmost importance.
“Of course, we have project managers, but we are not working alone. I think that for many of the challenges that cities are facing, we probably won’t solve them alone. It is the creativity and capacity and tapping into people’s minds, ideas, thoughts and experiences that can help translate our working environment into something that is extremely impactful for cities and companies. And I also think that something that we are constantly learning along the way is how to be even more productive and agile. We want to communicate to our city partners that we are also constantly learning how to work with more novelty and in more open ways to really tackle these upcoming challenges that not many have an answer to.”
— Gretel Schaj, Smart Cities Consultant (Data & Governance), BABLE
It’s been four years and involvement in 2.2 billion Euros worth of projects. It has been bridging gaps, solving puzzles and ultimately working and striving together to bring innovation and change into cities.
Here’s to the BABLE team, the partners and the community members working to drive the change for more innovative, sustainable cities — we are looking forward to seeing what more can be achieved together during the next four years and beyond!
Interested to learn more about what our community is already doing? Have a look at www.bable-smartcities.eu
Planning your next implementation in Smart City projects? Let’s talk! Book an appointment with us.
