For the very first time this year, Fleet Europe – along with category sponsor Mobileye – is proud to be offering a prize to the best Start-up in or around our industry.
The Smart Mobility Start-up Award will recognise a new company which can breathe new ideas into the fleet and automotive worlds. A company that can bring high added value and that has high growth potential. And this is obviously a compelling innovation.
No less than 24 young companies applied for the competition, and 11 of these were selected to present their cases to the jury. The three to have made it to the final will have a stand in the Start-up corner of the Fleet Europe Village at the Forum and Awards event on November 16th in Barcelona. During this event, participants can all cast their votes for the ‘Public Award’ which will be announced along with the choice of the International Jury, at the Awards ceremony in the evening.
The eyes of the world…
Today’s Start-up Award, tomorrow’s Fleet Industry Award. Who knows? What we do know is that in this fast-changing world of new ideas and new concepts, Start-ups are a key focus for many established companies.
Take one example in the automotive world: a couple of years ago, rental giant Europcar acquired start-up Ubeeqo. Because it wanted the concept and the new digital technology to be part of its own business model. The digital element is key – today’s start-ups are being created by the first generation of digital natives, people for whom a computer or smartphone is as much a part of growing up as a toy car was for previous generations…
Another striking example of how quickly companies can grow: if you had wanted to buy a Tesla before 2008 you couldn’t have – there weren’t any.
Looking back just a little further, category sponsor Mobileye itself was founded as recently as 1999. Now it sells its driver safety and assistance systems to numerous of the world’s best-known carmakers where they are fitted as original equipment. From Start-up to mainstream in less than two decades.
All of this is why Fleet Europe is joining with the rest of the forward-thinking automotive world, and turning its attention to Start-ups. The three finalists in this first year of the Smart Mobility Start-up Award are likely to find themselves very busy on their stands in Barcelona!