With less than two weeks until the Empower Women in Shared Mobility 2021 virtual award ceremony – it’s time to announce the TOP 5 FINALISTS!
Our judges have been hard at work reviewing and discussing each application using the EmpowerWISM criteria to make their final decisions. It has been a very challenging process for our panel due the number of high caliber applicants taking part in this years race. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who applied and to let you know how truly inspired we our by the work each of you are doing. We wish you success and prosperity in your 2021 endeavors!
Before we announce the finalists, here is a recap of the EmpowerWISM assessment criteria. We were judging each applicant across three categories:
1. VISION
- Is the venture majority women owned or controlled or managed?
- How well is the vision articulated?
- Is the vision aligned to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals?
- Does the solution support efforts around transportation equity?
2. LEADERSHIP
- How well demonstrated is your market know-how?
- What are the unique strengths of your team?
- What’s your growth strategy?
- Is the solution super specific to one city/community or has potential to scale?
3. INNOVATION
- What’s unique about your product/service?
- Is ‘technology’ one of your innovation pillars?
- What need does your product/service solve in the transportation value chain?
We received 15 applications in total and of those 15 we have chosen a top five. Without further ado (and in no particular order) here are the top five companies that made it as Empower Women in Shared Mobility, 2021 finalists!
Empower Women in Shared Mobility Award: Top 5 Finalists
Bykko
Bykko – Residential & Workplace E-bike Sharing
BYKKO is an award-winning Australian sustainable e-mobility platform that is uniquely positioned on the market as a vendor of station-based e-bike share equipment and is also an experienced operator of private and public bike share programs. Recently they developed their own proprietary software allowing them to transition to a Software-as-a-Service model and a technology roadmap that allows integration of all e-mobility vehicles under one platform. The platform is built in modules allowing them to bring as many operators – private and public under the same platform while offering white label or BYKKO branded and operated programs.
The Vision
BYKKO’s vision is to have minimum of 10,000 electric bikes operational in sustainable developments and public-private partnerships globally. Their goal is to be recognized as a global leader in sustainable mobility by 2025 and plan to achieve this by firstly becoming the dominant ANZ sustainable mobility leader by 2023 before expansion into North America and at least 4 other international markets.
What would winning the Empower Women in Shared Mobility award mean to you?
“The 12 month mentoring package with access to the global EmpowerWisM network will be invaluable especially for a small company as BYKKO which is based in Australia where e-mobility and sustainable transport have a long and difficult road ahead in a car-centric culture. Moreover, the technology driven startup sector in Australia is still overwhelmingly male-dominated and women are receiving just a very small proportion of overall funding. The PR opportunities offered by the Empower WiSM program to showcase our work and our innovative technology roadmap will help us achieving our goal of expanding internationally and ultimately, being recognized as a global leader in sustainable mobility.”
Follow Founder & Managing Director, Monica Zarafu in LinkedIn here.
geotwin
Geotwin – Transportation planning
GeoTwin is a’ Human-Centred Global Intelligence Platform’ where data, AI and activity and agent-based stimulation is combined to build intelligent products & services to improve people’s lives. The platform is fully cloud-based and proposes a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) framework. The Company makes complex scientific paradigms accessible for non-technical users and are providing faster and more credible outputs thanks to their next-generation programming language and microservice architecture. Their unique decision-making tool uses simulation to show you how, when and why people are moving around a specific area, which helps you make better, more informed decisions across different verticals. GeoTwin is targeting smart city, retail, real estate and market research sectors. The company is working with local transportation agencies, mobility and real estate companies
The Vision
GeoTwin is a technology pioneer and scientific partner to help to answer most difficult city analytics challenges. Their vision is to close the feedback loop – human-generated data powering a human-centred solution to improve human lives. They would like to become a world wide technological and scientific pioneer in the urban analytics domain.
What would winning the Empower Women in Shared Mobility award mean to you?
“The Empower WISM program would obviously be an accelerator for GeoTwin. As the Company CEO, we are looking for the visibility and partnership to be able achieve our mid-long terms objectives. Another important and urgent topic for us is to have access to VCs who support women CEOs.”
Follow Founder and CEO, Göknur SIRIN-JUBIN here.
uncurb
Uncurb – Ride-hailing For Riders With Limited Mobility
Uncurb is an online marketplace that connects riders with limited mobility, who require professional drivers and accessible vehicles, with high quality, insured service providers. Their aim is to serve caregivers and families dealing with the sudden change of mobility in a loved one. Riders or caregivers can see all the information they need in one place – vehicle photos, company credentials, operating hours, quotes, and customer reviews. Their goal is to eliminate the pain of calling multiple companies to compare different services.
The Vision
Uncurb’s vision is to make mobility more accessible for the 25 million aging adults and those living with mobility constraints, whether due to an injury or health condition. They plan to achieve this by creating a marketplace that connects supply and demand, and expanding nationally to address gaps in service. Their goal is to work with skilled nursing facilities, senior living communities, and healthcare systems to reach families and caregivers who are looking for choice in mobility options for their loved ones.
What would winning the Empower Women in Shared Mobility award mean to you?
“We would benefit from the mentorship and the network, as well as external expertise on our business model. We would also gain more publicity and hopefully accelerate our customer acquisition via the network. Additionally, we hope to meet talented people who may give guidance to the company and also showcase our work in front of those with funding connections.”
Follow Founder and CEO, Minyang Jiang here.
aem institute
AEM Institute – Transportation Equity Courses
The AEM Institute creates accessible and equitable mobility through consulting, training and research. They are the first to offer gender and accessibility consulting in this field and have made it their mission to pass on their knowledge about all facets of mobility in their courses – be it in-house training or interactive e-courses. Through their experience in teaching and research, they also promote the design of fair mobility in research projects. Their expertise is not only at the cutting edge of research, but actively contributes to shaping research in the future.
The Vision
AEM Institute envisions a world where everyone has equitable access to sustainable mobility which protects the environment, the health of others and improves the quality of life. Their mission is to enable municipalities and mobility service providers to make the right decisions to improve mobility options and services for everyone. They aspire for sustainable mobility through communication, education, research and practice.
What would winning the Empower Women in Shared Mobility award mean to you?
“Winning would boost our motivation beyond everything we have experienced so far. It would mean that not only a company with two women at the C-level would be worth the support, but also that the topics gender and accessibility issues in mobility become the attention they deserve. Besides, we expect to learn so much from your experiences and your network. And finally, we would build a bridge between continents to exchange knowledge, which is a key element of our venture.”
Follow Managing Director, Ines Kawgan-Kagan here.
chargerhelp
ChargerHelp – On-demand Tech Driven Repair-as-a-Service: EV charging stations
ChargerHelp! has built out an app platform that enables on-demand repair for electric vehicle charging stations by enabling a communities local workforce. They have reduced dispatch time from 10 days to 1 day and resolution time from 30 days to 2 days!
The Vision
ChargerHelp! sits at the intersection of workforce development, adult learning, and clean technology. They leverage technology to remove barriers and enable economic mobility within all communities and by next year they will be in 6 markets with 10,000 EVSE service contracts. Their aim is to achieve this through strategic expansion and collaboration with workforce development centers throughout their key markets.
What would winning the Empower Women in Shared Mobility award mean to you?
“Winning Empower WiSM would be extremely helpful to the success of our business. Additional support for our founders and team will enable us to achieve our goals for next year. We also look forward to be connected to more women from our industry.
Follow Co-Founder and CEO, Kameale Terry on LinkedIn here.
empower women in shared mobility outstanding applicant: veo
Veo – Micromobility Service Provider
