The second SmartUp Accelerator Bootcamp gathered smart mobility startups in Riga

The second week of September 2019, seven smart mobility startups gathered together in Riga for two days to explore new market entry opportunities in the Baltic Sea Region. After 1-on-1 discussions with SmartUp Accelerator partners, expert workshops and roadmap building, the startups are ready to start working with local partners towards an international market launch.

Broomee, ONO Motion, Parkdroid, Clean Motion, Perille Mobility Services Oy, Choppelectric and Smart Transport are smart mobility startups from seven countries around the Baltic Sea. What they have in common is that all companies are developing solutions for more sustainable and convenient future urban mobility, logistics and transport based on digital services. As transportation sector is responsible for 27 % of greenhouse gas emissions in Europe, new solutions are needed to transform the sector and enable more sustainable choices.

Another factor in common among the startups is the will to expand to new markets in the Baltic Sea Region. For this, SmartUp Accelerator provided support during the bootcamp which was the kick-off for the acceleration program.

During the two-day bootcamp, the local partners from the 10 partner organisations were able to provide insight on the characteristics of the markets in the Baltic Sea Region. Of interest were practical and legislation-related issues such as national ticketing systems on public transportation, policies to support transportation and mobility and potential competitors, as well as culturas issues such as consumer behavior and attitudes towards sustainability, privacy or using mobility-related apps. All these and many other aspects affected the target market choices and thus the market entry strategies.

“The engagement from the coaches was in the highest quality and encouraged me to work with the highest possible level.” – participant feedback

To support our smartups further, we were joined by four professionals who shared their views on various topics. These include customer understanding, growth hacking for internationalisation, investment pitching and crowdfunding and were covered by entrepreneur Davis Plotnieks, Managing Director at Latvian Business Angels Network Marta Matisone, Head of International Growth at FundedByMe Kristin Svärd and partner of the Valuetech Seed Fund Pawel Bochniarz. Finally, the smartups prepared their roadmap for market entry on their selected market with support from the local partner.

“The customer understanding module really made me think outside of the usual and challenged me to think of unusual solutions.” – participant feedback

On September 12th, Latvia Startup Day took place in Riga and some of the smartups took the chance to join various sessions. Speed dating with investors was one of the many activities on this day, which was an opportunity to practice new skills and meet with interesting people from related industries.

As of this point, the acceleration phase has begun and we look forward to working with all smartups!