Carmaker Toyota revealed the first six startups to join its European open innovation platform, Open Labs, yesterday, with technologies ranging from a car-based grid balancing system to a vehicle intended to blend a motorcycle with a car.
“The power of the Open Labs programme is that it brings these start-ups together with business units across the Toyota ecosystem that can help scale the innovation and contribute to a sustainable future.”
Toyota Open Labs is a Belgium-based initiative formed last year to connect Toyota business units with startups that could shape the future of mobility across five areas: energy, carbon neutrality, circular economy, smart communities and mobility for all.
The first startups to be chosen include Andyamo, the operator of a platform that helps users find non-car travel options, and Okeenea, which provides technologies that help blind pedestrians. A third French company, Shippeo, produces supply-chain monitoring tools.
Italy’s Hlpy runs a roadside assistance app while Switzerland is represented by Genny Mobility, creator of a two-wheel personal vehicle with self-balancing technology and an aesthetic modelled on cars, and Hive Power, which provides AI-based technology that uses electric vehicles to balance the grid and optimise energy use in the process.
Toyota units such as trading and supply-chain division Toyota Tsusho Europe, growth equity arm Woven Capital and mobility subsidiaries Toyota Mobility Foundation and Kinto are among the partners involved in Open Labs.
The six startups will present their technologies at a Paris Demo Day early next month as they explore collaborations with Toyota that could lead to proof of concepts, pilot projects and potentially commercial agreements between the carmaker and the various startups.
