TerraLoupe & Hawa Dawa Win NMW Lab17 Startup Competition
The winners of the the first startup competition of the incubation hub New Mobility World Lab17 have been announced at Frankfurt’s IAA 2017. TerraLoupe and Hawa Dawa were awarded prizes of €50,000 each after rising to the top of more than 150 participating startups from 24 countries who participated. NMW Lab17 connects startups, automotive groups, investors and experts. The event tries to attract the most innovative international mobility startups to its award and conference.
Munich-based TerraLoupe won in the category of ‘Seniors’ with its self-learning software that creates high-precision maps from aerial photographs can then be used in the navigation systems of self-driving vehicles, among other applications. Founder and CEO Manuela Rasthofer said after accepting the prize: “The decision is a great affirmation of our vision that the combination of aerial photographs and artificial intelligence is of great value for the next generation of mapping, which is necessary for the realization of autonomous vehicles.” TerraLoupe’s expertise in the intelligent analysis of aerial photos that won TerraLoupe the prize, combined with the high levels of potential in high-definition map making. “TerraLoupe credibly showed that the team can contribute a significant information layer,” said Holger G. Weiss, jury member and founder of the startup German Autolabs.
The other nominees in the category were: evopark Gmbh, which provides a parking card with RFID chip for car parks in Germany; Lattis from the USA, provider of Ellipse, an intelligent bike lock and a bike sharing platform based on this lock; High-Mobility GmbH from Berlin, Germany, provider of digital development tools for the automotive industry; and PACE Telematics from Karlsruhe, Germany, which developed a software that equips the car with intelligent functions.
In the category ‘Freshmen’, Hawa Dawa won. Its sensor technology provides real-time information on air quality, which is an increasing concern in urban spaces all over the world. Team member Heiko Erhardt was delighted that the jury agreed on the potential of their project: “The team is constantly finding new scopes of application and is receiving a lot of feedback from the automotive industry. After all, traffic is a major cause of air pollution in the urban space. We help providing clean air to us and our children in a world where more and more people cohabit in large cities.”
The other nominees in this category were: AkousticArts from France, specialist for sound innovation that allows for isolated headphone-less listening to music in the car without having other passengers listening in; TeleRetail from Düsseldorf, Germany, developer of regional logistics automation; CarPay-Diem is a service allowing any mobile app or connected car to activate any fuel pump; and neteera from Israel, developer of a THz-based monitoring system to recognize signs of life.
As a large event and as part of the IAA, the New Mobility World would like to become a platform for new and innovative concepts. After this promising start, we look forward to seeing how the incubator’s activities strengthen in the future.
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