Mobility Pioneers Named as Winners in the First Toyota Startup Awards

• Four winners announced in the first Toyota Startup Awards following pitch competition for finalists in Barcelona
• SociAbility (UK), ProsFit (Bulgaria), Seamless Vision (Israel) and Wheeliz (France) given the opportunity to receive training, mentoring and funding for their work on inclusive mobility projects through the Toyota Accelerator Program
• Competition presented by Toyota Motor Europe (TME) and ISDI Accelerator

SociAbility, a UK startup business working to provide reliable and accurate accessibility information for disabled people, has been named as one of the four winners of the first Toyota Startup Awards, presented by Toyota Motor Europe (TME) and ISDI Accelerator.

It won through a live pitch competition for eight finalists, hosted in Barcelona this week (25 February), earning a ticket for the Toyota Accelerator Program, which will offer training, mentoring and funding to help develop the project.

The other winners are: ProsFit (Bulgaria), which is developing and commercialising affordable and comfortable prosthetics; Seamless Vision (Israel), a startup designing an urban autonomous navigation robot to help the visually impaired move through urban areas; and Wheeliz (France), a peer-to-peer wheelchair-accessible vehicle rental scheme.

SociAbility  empowers disabled people to explore their communities with confidence, ease and peace of mind by collecting and sharing detailed reliable and accurate accessibility information for restaurants, shops, bars and other venues.

Matt Pierri, CEO of SociAbility, said: “It has been such a privilege and pleasure to be involved in the Toyota Startup Awards and to join this wonderful community of entrepreneurs working to empower disabled people in so many ways. We are really excited to partner with Toyota and ISDI to take SociAbility to the next level and to really make a difference to the lives of disabled people everywhere.”

The competition aligns with Toyota’s evolution as a mobility company and its recognition of the potential offered by startups committed to bringing new inclusive mobility ideas to the market. After launching an open call for entries, almost 200 applications were received from 45 countries, focusing on socially inclusive mobility, accessibility and disruptive mobility. The judges selected eight finalists to pitch their ideas at a finals event hosted in Barcelona. More than 3,000 people took part in public voting, after which an expert jury of Toyota and ISDI Accelerator executives chose the winners.

Agustìn Martìn, TME Vice President Connected Technologies, said: “These last two event days have been a true eye-opener. We not only got to know the startups in person, we have also witnessed first-hand how each value proposition brings us a step closer to our ultimate goal of providing Ever Better Mobility for All. I was touched to see how, as a company, we share the same values, passion and desire to contribute to society.”

Nacho De Pinedo, CEO and co-founder of ISDI, commented: “This competition turned into something unexpected. As we were exposed to the most innovative solutions in the fields of Inclusive Mobility, Accessibility and Disruptive Mobility by a group of entrepreneurs who really understand and suffer the pain of physical impairment to move, we understood how technology and great ideas can really give people new freedom.”

Toyota Accelerator program

TME and ISDI Accelerator have together developed the Toyota Accelerator Program, which will offer training, mentoring, funding, as well as the potential to collaborate with TME in the future.

It will run for four months and includes

• Assignment of business mentors for each startup to help grow their business
• Working with specialised mentors, successful entrepreneurs, experienced investors and C-Level executives from big corporations
• An immersive training bootcamp
• An initial investment of €25,000 (approx. £21,000) in equity-free cash
• A demo day to pitch in front of top TME executives and private investors
• Potential collaboration with TME

ENDS

Note to editors

Toyota Motor Europe

Toyota Motor Europe NV/SA (TME) oversees the wholesale sales and marketing of Toyota and Lexus vehicles, parts and accessories, and Toyota’s European manufacturing and engineering operations. Toyota directly employs around 20,000 people in Europe and has invested more than EUR 9 billion in the region since 1990. Toyota’s operations in Europe are supported by a network of 29 National Marketing and Sales Companies across 53 countries, around 3,000 sales outlets, and nine manufacturing plants. In 2019, Toyota sold 1,089,422 Toyota and Lexus vehicles in Europe. For more information, visit www.toyota-europe.com

ISDI Accelerator

ISDI Accelerator was born in 2014 with the objective of channelling the entrepreneurial interest of the ISDI students and to boost and professionalise the startup market in Europe. Their first startup acceleration program, IMPACT, marked a milestone in the continent thanks to the collaboration between public entities, corporations, educational entities, investors and, of course, startups. Since then they have developed dozens of incubation and acceleration programs, they have created, trained and accelerated hundreds of startups, and thousands of companies have already applied to their programs. ISDI Accelerator is part of ISDI Digital Business School.