Public transport systems with autonomous electric cars - this may sound like science fiction. However such systems are already being tested thanks to the BestMile solution. The start-up from Lausanne received three of the four prizes of the AlpICT Venture Night yesterday.
The Venture Night is one of the highlights of the Lift conference. Yesterday more than 500 persons gathered at the CICG in Geneva. The event started with a remarkable announcement from Lift president Abir Oreibi. She said that from now on half of the pitches at the Venture Night will be by women entrepreneurs. The announcement was followed by a short talk of Renaud Visage, CTO and co-founder of Eventbrite, one of the start-up “unicorns” with a valuation of more than USD1 billion. As representative of the jury he said to the eight selected start-ups: “you have to show us that you can make us dream.”
There was one start-up that made the jury and the audience dream particularly: Bestmile. The company won the jury prize sponsored by CTI Start-up and AlpICT, the audience award sponsored by Switzerland Global Enterprise and the special award for women entrepreneurs.
BestMile is the world first mobility solutions provider for driverless and autonomous shuttle services. This may sound like science fiction but the system is already being tested. The next public test starts in March at the EPFL campus.
BestMile’s offers are designed to manage any vehicle fleet which brings a solution to the last mile problem. In the fight against excessive use of personal transportation in town, conventional public transport solutions suffer from the distance which separates the last stop from the final destination of the user. BestMile offers its clients a comprehensive solution from planning to execution of a last mile mobility service on the basis of a unique software to operate heterogeneous fleets of innovative and traditional vehicles. The start-up was created in January 2014 by three alumni of the EPFL (Swiss Institute of Technology in Lausanne) with experience in planning of transport systems as well as operation of innovative vehicles. A portrait of the company can be found on the AlpICT blog.
The second winner of the Venture Night is EyefitU. The start-up was awarded with the Nuovo prize for the best video pitch. EyeFitU solves a huge problem occurring when people are buying clothes. Traditionally, clothes have been labelled using many different ad-hoc size systems including country-specific or vendor specific labels. Shoppers are confused about their size and measurements. The app of EyeFitU enables users to find their perfect size in seconds when they are buying clothes online and instore. The first version of the app was launched recently.
A list of all finalists of the Venture Night can be found in our article from last December.
AlpICT has published a series of portraits of all finalists on its blog.
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