For our first Connect4Mobility event, we brought together professionals, academics, municipalities, and entrepreneurs. Connect4Mobility is organized by the Innomotion Urban Mobility Accelerator program in partnership with Sabancı University and funded by the EIT Urban Mobility. Our primary goal was to generate output through a more inclusive and holistic approach to urban mobility, not only by supporting startups, but also by developing infrastructures that will enable all stakeholders to collaborate and generate effective solutions that can add value and contribute to our transformation into sustainable and smart cities.
Extended summary of our Connect4Mobility Event:
You can watch the entire “The Future of Micromobility” Webinar on our YouTube channel:
Opening Speech
Ömer Hantal, Farplas Funds and Strategy Manager, gave the opening speech at the Connect4Mobility Event. He addressed the event’s program, which focused on the future of micromobility, and proudly announced the establishment of the EIT Urban Mobility RIS Hub Turkiye. The EIT Urban Mobility RIS Hub Turkiye is led by Fark Labs and Farplas in collaboration with Sabanci University and PwC Turkiye, with the goal of increasing awareness of urban mobility in Turkiye and connecting local stakeholders with the EIT’s international community.
Thereafter, as the “Business Creation” unit of EIT Urban Mobility’s Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS), Anna Burgues explained the details of the startup growth support mechanisms and tools that they provide to EIT Urban Mobility’s RIS countries.
Keynote Speaker:
Tolga İmamoğlu, World Research Institute (WRI) Sustainable Cities, Senior Manager of Transportation and Road Safety
Tolga İmamoğlu, Senior Manager of Transportation and Road Safety at WRI Turkiye, discussed the importance of designing a system that allows people to access public transportation lines from their homes in order to reduce the use of private vehicles. Citizens should be encouraged to use micromobility as a bridge to public transportation lines. According to the statistics gathered by the Austin Texas Study and Portland Oregon Studies, e-scooters are no more dangerous than shared bikes or pedestrians, and the most important parameter is, in fact, road and street design. In addition, İmamoğlu shared studies from Konya Bicycle Network Design, which emphasize the importance of having continuous infrastructures as they significantly reduce accidents. Finally, İmamoğlu stated that the new era’s urban solutions are electric vehicles, data-driven decision-making support mechanisms, and shared services. As a member of the New Urban Mobility Alliance (NUMO), İmamoğlu suggests that startups in the micromobility sector use NUMO’s “Micromobility Policies Atlas” to view current official applications and information on a country-by-country basis. (https://www.numo.global/resources/micromobility-policy-atlas)
Circle 5– Startup Pitch
Togi Teknoloji is a technology company that offers its customers with research and development, consulting, design, and mass production opportunities for the projects in the fields of energy, IOT, and embedded systems at all stages of development, from idea to mass production.
Byqee is the lightest electric bike conversion kit on the market, and it can be easily installed on any type of bike.
AirCar is a two-passenger electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.
OLO Mobility develops electric micromobility devices and systems.
Lemonsoft is a monitoring and analysis system for environmental quality that will be developed in order to improve the environmental quality of cities. This system will enable the development of a device that can be mounted on moving vehicles and analyze environmental values such as air pollution, traffic load, and noise, with the collected data being instantly uploaded to the cloud system via the 4G/5G network.
Hergele Mobility provides an all-inclusive package for emerging operators looking to build their own fleet and launch a micromobility operation in a matter of weeks.
HOP! scooter helps you to save time and energy due to its ease of use, performance, and technology.
3 Different Perspectives, 3 Different Experiences
Different ecosystem stakeholders came together to share their experiences on this panel, which included 1 startup, 1 municipality, and 1 corporate institution. Berhan Gökşin, Fenix Turkiye Country Manager, kicked off the discussion.
Palm, an electric scooter-sharing startup founded in 2019, was purchased for $5 million by the Dubai-based Fenix group. As the first e-scooter venture to enter the market, finding a great testing environment was critical. They discovered that the ITU Ayazaa campus subway entrance would be the best location to position the scooters and test their efficiency as a mid-campus transportation vehicle. Berhan stated that as of today, Fenix/Palm has removed the initial rental fee and begun integration with Istanbul Card in order to encourage micromobility to be an integrated public transportation system. While discussing his entrepreneurial journey, Berhan mentioned that fundraising is a critical factor in the management of products with a short lifespan, and that failing to account for this in calculations may result in the startup failing after one year. He also emphasized the importance of local user habits for startups looking to expand internationally.
Ömer Onur, General Coordinator of Başakşehir Living Lab, mentioned that the Living Lab offers incubation opportunities for early-stage startups as well as real testing environments for startups that have advanced to the next stage, allowing them to receive instant feedback from citizens. In addition, he noted that they are part of the ENOLL (European Network of Living Labs) ecosystem, which has about 150 active living lab members worldwide, and that they can reach this ecosystem as well as a large network through other stakeholders such as Angel Effect and StartupsHub.
According to Canalp Gündoğdu, Ford Otosan Smart Mobility Leader, traditional vehicle manufacturers are shifting to car-as-a-service, mobility-as-a-service, and vehicle-as-a-service. Gündodu mentioned that Ford Otosan’s Driventure Startup Venture Capital company, which was established at the end of 2019, invests in Smart Mobility, Connected Vehicle Technologies, Autonomous Vehicle Technologies, Industry 4.0, Electrification, and Customer Experience in Automotive. He stated that they believe Istanbul is a critical testing ground, particularly for mobility initiatives.
Improving the Micromobility Ecosystem Through Collaborations
Murat Suyabatmaz, National Cyclist and the President of Cylists Association (Bisikletliler Derneği) stated that Istanbul is an ideal city for bicycles and e-bikes, and that it should become a more prominent micromobility vehicle. In fact, he emphasized that, in order to complete the transformation, the driver’s traffic culture must evolve into empathy and compliance with the rules. And cycling education, which is already mandated by law, will play an important role in this transformation. Finally, Suyabatmaz mentioned that the casual dismissal of traffic education, despite the fact that it is part of our curriculum, breaks the chain. As a solution, he suggests that the Municipalities and Police Department collaborate with the Ministry of National Education, and that the children’s traffic education parks, where the tests are currently being conducted, be returned to their intended purpose.
Onur Guven, DUCKT Software Team Leader, discussed how they organize public spaces and reduce operating costs by using an IoT-based station that allows parking, locking, and charging of all electric scooters and bicycles, regardless of brand or model.
Sabancı University Smart Mobility and Logistics Lab Founder Prof Dr. Bülent Çatay, mentioned that they have been working on sustainability in recent years after thoroughly describing the laboratory’s framework. He stated that transportation accounts for roughly 1/4 of global carbon emissions, with road transportation accounting for 3/4 of this. According to Çatay, the barriers to widespread adoption of electric vehicles, which are the solution, are centered on long charging times, ranges, and insufficient charging infrastructure. The correct methodology and approaches are required to solve these problems.
Burak Tümer, the Transportation Chief of the Izmir Metropolitan Municipality, began his speech by detailing the action studies completed under the sustainable main transportation plan, which they created in 2015, with a focus on non-motorized transportation and public transportation. He explained that by integrating micromobility tools into the program they solved one of the biggst problems; access to public transport stations. He stated that lowering the cost of bicycle sea transportation to 5 cents resulted in a 35 percent rise in the number of passengers using bicycle sea transportation.
Tümer explained that the number of vehicles determined by the Ministry to encourage micromobility is kept at the maximum level in the districts and when they face problems, they sit down with the companies that have obtained UKOME permission to come up with solutions. Tümer emphasized that another micromobility tool that they want to promote is the electric bicycle, and that they also offer shared bicycle services for the visually impaired and children, as well as shared electric car services to reduce traffic. Finally, Tümer stated that they expect the “Sustainable Data System” project to be completed within two years, where they will be able to draw instant, daily data to identify the transportation problem in any extraordinary situation, such as a pandemic, and create a solution, rather than collecting data every five years through face-to-face household surveys.
Ecosystem Stakeholders Working Culture Panel
Arzu Eryılmaz, the Business Development Director of ITU ARI Teknokent, kicked off our panel discussion. Teknokent incubates 600 startups per year on average. Arzu Erylmaz stated that entrepreneurs with a technology focus, particularly those with engineering degrees, should improve their marketing and presentation skills in order to better explain themselves to the industry. She stated that there is a need to expand the entrepreneurship ecosystem’s intermediary mechanisms, which will enable the growth of corporate and advanced startups and support their global expansion.
While describing the general structure and services of the TOSB Innovation Center, Ekrem Özcan emphasized the importance of being positioned to complete the circle in the ecosystem rather than being an afterthought in the market.
Güner Demirural, Ford Otosan Smart Technologies & Innovation Leader, has expressed interest in startups that can develop solutions for micromobility demands, inefficiencies in e-commerce transportation, and drones that can overcome regulatory issues in Turkiye. Concurrently, he stated that e-scooters are not a good fit for our cities and that electric bicycles are better suited to our infrastructure and have far more potential for growth.
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