Top 10 sustainable transport startups
2021-05-12
Confido
8 minutes
We’re continuing our series on cleantech startups, this week with our top 10 sustainable transport startups.
With air pollution causing an estimated 4.2 million deaths per year worldwide, leaders across the globe are pledging to make their cities greener. Air pollution causes a staggering minimum of 40,000 early deaths in London alone. While nitrogen dioxide levels are falling and could reach legal levels within six years, two million people in London are still living with illegal air pollution levels.
There are a range of startups answering the call with revolutionary ways to reduce our emissions and make our cities better for us and the planet.
Here are our top 10 green transport startups...
About: SKOOT is the first and only carbon-negative errand and lift app. SKOOT connects friends that need help with friends that drive, allowing you to organise, request and arrange errands and lifts all through their app. For every three rides SKOOT plants a tree to ensure they’re totally carbon negative.
Location: London
Company size: 1 to 11 employees
Funding: SKOOT has raised a total of $5.6m in funding over three rounds. Their latest funding was raised in January 2021 from a Seed round.
About: Travel with Ember and you'll be on the UK's first all-electric, intercity bus service. Zero exhaust emissions means it's good for the environment and you'll also enjoy a smoother, more peaceful journey – no engine rumble or smelly fumes here.
Location: Edinburgh
Company size: 1 to 10 employees
Funding: Unknown
About: Using a revolutionary new method of design, ARRIVAL creates electric vehicles that elevate the everyday, empower local communities and unlock true sustainability. Their zero-emission public transit vehicles are made of a composite material that’s more lightweight and cheaper than steel. The team are currently collaborating with Uber to collaborate on an electric Car for the ride-hailing industry.
Location: London
Company size: 1,001 to 5,000 employees
Funding: Arrival has raised a total of $629.4m in funding over three rounds. Their latest funding was raised in November 2020 from a Private Equity round.
About: Beryl’s purpose is to build a better world by getting more people in cities on bikes. As the team put it, ‘Bikes have much to offer cities as part of a green, sustainable transport system. But safety is a barrier to more people cycling in cities. We started by tackling safety and visibity first, with our laserlight. Now we are removing another barrier by providing our own bikes.’
Location: London
Company size: 51 to 100 employees
Funding: Beryl has raised a total of £21.3m in funding over eight rounds. Their latest funding was raised in April 2021 from a Series A round.
About: EVmatch’s mission is to accelerate electric vehicle (EV) adoption by making charging easy, reliable, and accessible to all. Their nationwide peer-to-peer network is designed to make sharing and renting private EV charging stations easy. Their vision is a distributed, equitable, and carbon-free energy economy that connects and elevates all people.
Location: California, USA
Company size: 1 to 10 employees
Funding: EVmatch has raised three funding rounds. Their latest was raised in January 2020 from a Seed round.
About: Wayve is building artificial intelligence capable of driving in any urban environment, anywhere in the world. They want to build safe and sustainable autonomous mobility for everyone, everywhere and aim to be the first to deploy self-driving technology in 100 cities.
Location: London
Company size: 51 to 101 employees
Funding: Wayve has raised a total of $43m in funding over three rounds. Their latest funding was raised in August 2020 from a Series A round.
About: Zeelo provides safe, smart bus services for commuting and school runs. Zeelo connects organizations with vetted fleet operators via a mobile app and best-in-class operational tools. It offers route planning and optimisation software to control costs and target areas poorly served by public transit. Riders, organizations and fleet operators get access to 24/7 support, operational monitoring and contact tracing safety tools.
Location:London
Company size: 11 to 50 employees
Funding: Zeelo has raised a total of £5.5m in funding over two rounds. Their latest funding was raised in January 2019 from a Series A round.
About: Vivacity Labs’ Artificial Intelligence sensors gather detailed and anonymous data 24/7 on transport modes, traffic flow and travel patterns. Along with our first-of-its-kind Smart Junctions signal control system, we’re supporting strategic decisions to help optimise the transport network and improve urban infrastructure.
Location: London
Company size: 11 to 50 employees
Funding: Vivacity Labs has raised a total of £6.7m in funding over two rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Feb 22, 2021 from a Series A round.
About: Cycle.land is a community of bike sharers, connecting people who are passionate about cycling, sharing, and travelling. Cycle.land is a peer-to-peer social marketplace, providing a global platform for people to share and borrow bikes. By more efficiently allocating bikes to riders, bike sharing makes effective use of existing resources rather than creating more bikes. The Cycle.land team believes that bikes are the future of sustainable urban transport.
Location: Oxford
Company size: 1 to 10 employees
Funding: Cycle.Land has raised a total of £740.3k in funding over four rounds. They are currently undergoing a crowdfunding round on Seedrs.
About: What is cycle logistics? In short, MoveByBike deliver goods on cargo cycles. The longer version is that their cargo bikes, some with electric assist, are capable of transporting up to 300kg of goods, up to two EU-pallets. From the humble MCS Truck to the towering Radkutsche Musketier to their 3m3 Starke cycles, they have the vehicle that fits the cargo.
Location: Sweden
Company size: 11 to 50 employees
Funding: MoveByBike has raised a total of $1.1m in funding over one round. This was a Venture - Series Unknown round raised in March 2019.
We want to do everything we can to help support these fantastic businesses and the work they’re doing.
If you belong to a green transport startup and would like to have a chat about how we could scale your Product or Tech teams, do get in touch at contact@confidotalent.com.
Have we missed your favourites? Let us know on Twitter or LinkedIn, we’d love to hear from you!
Funding information taken from Tech Crunch.