Iomob steams past 240 startups to score Renfe Trenlab Accelerator!
Iomob placed to support the unification of the European railway area in new Renfe-Wayra mobility accelerator, TrenLab.
Spanish state-owned railway company Renfe, in partnership with Wayra, is the force behind a new startup acceleration program called TrenLab. Renfe wants to embrace digital transformation in mobility and created Trenlab with the idea to identify disruptive startups to work with. Wayra are the startup specialists selected to run it.
In momentous news for the future of iomob.net and a decentralized internet of mobility, we are proud to announce that we were successful at our endeavour to be selected for the program.
Iomob CEO Boyd Cohen commented on the win:
We at Iomob are excited to have been selected to help Renfe with their digital transformation by leveraging our tech stack and providing Renfe with a white label end user app to support the new, bold vision of an integrated “door-to-door” mobility experience which Manel Villalante, General Manager of Development and Strategy at RENFE, refers to as Renfe as a Service (RaaS).
Boris Lunoff, VP of Operations for Iomob, and our CEO, Boyd Cohen, spent the past few days in Madrid meeting with Renfe to develop an initial scope for a pilot with the massive rail company with 17 million annual passengers! Also, the other 3 selected startups, Zeleros, nixil, and Limmat Group joined Iomob for a formal launch of TrenLab at Wayra’s offices in Madrid.
To put the achievement into perspective, The Renfe TrenLab accelerator attracted 240 startups from 27 countries including Israel, USA, United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, India and France, as well as Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Argentina, among others.
A team of experts from Renfe and Wayra selected 15 finalists, including Iomob, who had to present their projects in a “pitch” format before a jury that will was composed of executives of the two companies, and from these, four winners were chosen — including, of course, US!
“The jury has assessed how the four startups solve the group’s business challenges, their potential for growth, scalability and the differentiating value they bring to the market by incorporating new approaches, business models, products and / or services,” Renfe and Telefónica said through a press release.
The purpose of the TrenLab accelerator will be to promote the digital transformation of Renfe, as well as reinforce its position in view of the upcoming liberalization of the passenger market in the railway sector in accordance with the 4th railway package of the European Union. For those unfamiliar with the mobility landscape in Europe, the 4th Railway Package is a set of 6 legislative texts designed to create the Single European Railway Area. And, with the TrenLab win, iomob is well placed to be a key player in this transformation.
The four winners receive, according to Trenlab, a customized six-month acceleration program, administrative and legal advice, complementary training and access to a networking network of 11 Wayra operations centers distributed in 10 countries. In addition, the three startups receive a monetary prize of 50,000 euros, the opportunity of joint business with Renfe and Telefónica.
Whilst Iomob was already on the fast track of Wayra’s UK mobility accelerator, the Telefónica-owned startup accelerator, TrenLab is yet another achievement to add to our toolkit! The TrenLab initiative is mainly setting its eyes on emerging, disruptive technology that can truly benefit from a serious injection of capital and infrastructural support. The projects which they are looking to incubate must be in relation to “IoT solutions, Mobility” and “Blockchain” among others.
The goal of these projects must be to “improve operational efficiency and customer experience”.
Needless to say, Iomob fits the bill of all these qualities with ease, something which Wayra and Renfe themselves recognize, as Iomob makes the cut as one of the selected startups, of which there are only 4 from a total of 240!
Such developments are indicative of Iomob’s future impact on the smart mobility landscape, as it provides access to the strategic partners of both Wayra and Renfe, a mentoring system whereby part of the Iomob protocol is applied and tested in real life over a duration of 6 to 9 months, and let’s not forget the capital injection of €50,000 EUR.
Want to see some of the magic behind Iomob? Watch Boyd Cohen present with at Smart City Expo:
About us:
Iomob is working to decentralize and build the Internet of Mobility, by incentivizing and facilitating the use of alternative transport. By using the blockchain, iomob plans to minimize fees and allow mobility providers and end-users alike to connect on a peer-to-peer basis. In their own words: Iomob is “a system which produces a useful output at the lowest possible marginal cost.”Learn more about Iomob by connecting with us:
