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A Guide For Applying To Europe’s Largest Clean Mobility Accelerator

The European Startup Prize for Mobility is Europe’s largest acceleration programme for clean mobility startups.

Uniting major EU institutions including the European Parliament, European Commission and European Investment Bank, national authorities and multi-national companies, it has been set up to serve one clear mission: to give every mobility entrepreneur the chance to scale their impact across Europe. 

What began as an idea to foster innovation from the former Chairwoman of the European Parliament’s Committee on Transport and Tourism, Karima Delli, has materialised into one of the continent’s most prestigious initiatives run alongside Boston Consulting Group and business accelerator Via ID.

“This prize exists to help you go further and support you in reaching new levels of expansion across Europe,” said Ms Delli at the opening ceremony of the competition’s sixth edition taking place this year. 

By this point perhaps you’re feeling intimidated by the magnitude of this competition and caving into the false belief of ‘I could never win a prize like this’.

That’s why we have created this eight-minute guide to not only support you in your application, but to show you how your startup can benefit just by applying, even if you don’t take home a prize. 

Applying for the award

The European Startup Prize for Mobility is open to mobility startups from all EU member and Horizon Europe-associated countries. 

Each edition of the prize is opened and closed with a ceremony watched by hundreds of thousands of online viewers. Over the years, these ceremonies have toured Paris’ Eiffel Tower to Brussels’ European Parliament Berlin (and even a Covid friendly version), with the opening ceremony of the sixth edition held in Monaco and the closing prize ceremony held in collaboration with the European Commission and the Polish Presidency of the EU later this year.

Applications to join the prize ceremony in Poland are open until 7th February 2025. The first phase of evaluation consists of each application being read by several independent evaluators across the continent. The top 50 will then be interviewed by the Prize’s jury.  The nine key selection criteria are: 

  1. How innovative the startup’s product or service is
  2. Market traction for the startup’s offering
  3. The execution speed of the company since its incorporation
  4. The strength and gender-balance of the team
  5. The startup’s climate impact and how it reduces the carbon footprint of the transport sector
  6. The startup’s environmental impact and how it tackles other prominent environmental issues such as water pollution and limited natural resources
  7. How the startup increases accessibility, safety, and reduces transportation costs for its users
  8. How the startup’s service or product reconnects remote areas which lack mobility solutions
  9. How much the startup will benefit from this European program

Your Return on ‘Investment’

We’re not going to tell you that winning this award is a walk in the park. It’s not.

It’s an extremely rigorous competition which last year had more than 700 applicants seeking to claim a top spot.

However, an easy competition wouldn’t warrant what can be life-changing and career-defining prizes that come with the European Startup Prize for Mobility. 

“The good news is that all applicants will be matched with the Prize’s partner organisations of their choice,” the European Startup Prize for Mobility’s Managing Director Dan Sobovitz tells Zag Daily.  

“This means that even if you don’t win, if you seek investment or wish to do business with organisations like the European Investment Bank, Mastercard, Europcar, and many others – think no more. It also only takes an hour to apply!”

Let’s go through the prizes. 

In April, the evaluators will select its Top 50 startups from the applicant pool who will progress onto the next stage. These players will receive the prestigious winner badge from the European Startup Prize for Mobility and the lifelong recognition that comes with this. The visibility for these startups will likely be greater than they’ve ever experienced before and they’ll be invited to attend future European Startup Prize (EUSP) events. 

Ranking in the Top 50 also affords these startups the opportunity to pitch in front of more than 100 European Venture Capitalists (VCs) and Corporate Venture Capitalists (CVCs) during a private Demo Day hosted by Via ID.

In June, the EUSP’s Top 10 startups will be revealed. With all the same perks as the Top 50 and more, these startups will be visible to hundreds of thousands of online viewers, channelled by a partnership with The Brussels Times as they live pitch and receive their prize on stage. Additionally, they’ll be enrolled onto a three-month acceleration programme hosted by Via ID to support them with fundraising, European expansion, growth and policymaking.

A further Top 4 startups will be selected from the Top 10 to benefit from six weeks of consultancy from Boston Consulting Group, tailored to their specific challenges. “Many of these startups wouldn’t have been able to afford one-on-one consultancy from a world-leading firm like BCG,”says Dan Sobovitz. 

“Suddenly, they’ll have this global expertise available to them, to tell them how they can perfect their business model, how to enter country X, raise capital, etc.”

There’s also a further nine Special Prizes up for grabs which are in line with specific categories requested by some of the competition’s partners. These categories are: Scale-ups, River Mobility, Shared Mobility & Travel Tech, Rail Mobility, Female Entrepreneur, Rural & Island Mobility, Maritime Mobility, EV Battery Care & Life Cycle, and Ukrainian Tech. These prizes can be won by the same startups that made the Top 10 or Top 4, or they can be totally separate applicants from the competition.

Last year, Stellar Telecommunications earned a seat on stage when it ranked in the competition’s Top 10 startups. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the sixth edition, Co-Founder and CEO Damien Garot said: “Thanks to this prize, we had the momentum we needed to close our funding round. To put it into perspective, we won the prize on the 26th October 2023. We signed our lead investor in December 2023.”

Finnish employee bike benefit platform Vapaus is another example of how ranking in the Top 10 was followed by millions in investor funds. Shortly after claiming a top spot on stage, Vapaus landed a €10 million investment deal from the impact venture capital fund Shift4Good and has made a name for itself as the mobility startup that grew sixfold in just two years.

Every applicant is a winner

We’ve all heard the often infuriating tagline of it’s not about winning, it’s about taking part.

Well, this time, it really is about taking part.

That’s because every single startup that applies to the European Startup Prize for Mobility will forever be placed on a list of open innovation that’s made available to the competition’s partners. 

These partners – EU institutions, private companies, national authorities, philanthropies – are paying to be part of this programme and have access to this list. Given that your startup consents to having your company profile shared in compliance with GDPR, when these major organisations seek to invest in a certain area of innovation, they will turn to this list where your company is ranked.

“There’s some self-selection in this competition where startups don’t even dare to apply because they think they have no chance out of so many applicants,” Dan says. “The first thing you must understand is that just by applying you’ve put yourself on the radar of these major organisations. So every applicant is a winner by definition.”

The Polish transportation startup Nevomo is one example of the success brought by this competition even if you don’t make it to the Top 10. 

Five years ago, Nevomo ranked in the Top 50. For this edition, the Polish startup has joined the European Startup Prize for Mobility as a partner. It has not only directly worked with the European Innovation Council to push the mobility sector forward, but also helped facilitate a relationship with the Polish government to hold Europe’s flagship EU Industry Days in Rzeszów this June.

Tips and tricks for your application

We asked Dan for some pointers to support you in progressing in your application. 

  1. Even if you don’t specifically see yourself as a mobility startup, still apply. This competition rewards startups that have any impact on improving mobility in Europe. For example, perhaps your technology facilitates credit card transactions which can be used by mobilits apps, or it provides a software that can help car fleets run more efficiently, etc or rather If you have any efficiency to bring to mobility, then apply.
  2. When you complete your application, you’ll be asked to select which partners you’re happy to share your profile with. Be promiscuous with who you select. There is nothing stopping you from selecting all of the partners relevant to your category. In the future, maybe a partner that you never thought would be relevant to you will give you a call. 
  3. One of the nine key criteria is the strength and gender-balance of your team. While you won’t be excluded if your team isn’t so gender-balanced, definitely flaunt it if it is as you’re likely to score more points.
  4. To reiterate: apply even if you don’t think you have a chance. It’s free, it takes less than an hour, and you put yourself on the radar of some of Europe’s most prestigious organisations.

Come the end of this edition there are certain KPIs Dan will be keeping track of.

“This competition is a one-stop shop for startups to have access to all of these organisations and opportunities,” he says. “The questions I’ll be asking at the end of it are: how many synergies have we managed to create? How many startups have been discovered thanks to this prize. How many of them are collaborating alongside our partners?

“And have we boosted the most promising mobility-related startups in Europe so that they’re on track to make it big?”

Applications for the sixth edition of the European Startup Prize for Mobility are open here until 7th February 2025.

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