Five European Companies Selected by Toyota Startup Accelerator Bootcamp to Progress to Proof-of-Concept Phase

• Five winning startups selected from nine finalist companies in the fields of Mobility for All and Sustainability at the Toyota Startup Accelerator 2 bootcamp
• A group of entrepreneurs, C-level executives and Toyota experts offered an intense learning experience to support the startups in the next stage of their development 
• The five winning companies will receive funds and support from Toyota to develop a proof of concept by June 2022

Five winning startups have been selected from nine finalist companies in the fields of Mobility for All and Sustainability at the second edition of Toyota Motor Europe (TME)’s Toyota Startup Accelerator bootcamp. 

After several selection rounds, winning startups will now enter a final six-month acceleration phase.  They will receive funds and support from business mentors and Toyota guides to develop their projects into a proof of concept, which they will pitch at a demo day in June 2022, with the possibility of further collaboration with TME. In this year’s project, more than 140 applications were received from 42 countries.

The Accelerator reflects Toyota’s Beyond Zero commitment to go even further than the reduction of CO₂ emissions by helping to build more inclusive, sustainable societies around the world. The focus of this second edition Accelerator is Inclusive Mobility, Carbon Neutral, Circular Economy and Life Cycle Footprint Assessment.

The bootcamp is the start of an intense learning experience designed to help the startups fine-tune their business projects. Toyota, together with its partner ISDI (Digital Business School), fostered a hands-on, interactive and engaging learning experience in different areas, including agile product design, working with corporations, talent scouting, Intellectual Property Rights, and internationalisation strategy. A mix of entrepreneurs, C-level executives and Toyota experts interacted with the participants at the bootcamp, sharing their knowledge and insight. 

To explore collaboration opportunities that could generate the best shared value for the startups and TME, the Toyota experts also shared information about Toyota’s operations in Europe such as product planning, the Toyota Production System and R&D development processes.

The five winning startups:

Revolve Wheel (Germany) created the world’s first active wheelchair that meets aircraft cabin luggage size standards.

HySiLabs (France) developed an innovative solution to transport hydrogen by charging and releasing it in a liquid carrier called HydroSil.

PurCity (Denmark) aims to improve air quality by turning buildings into large scale CO₂ air capture facilities.

CargaTuCoche (Spain)  proposes a platform for residential electric mobility charging infrastructure that allows charging points to be shared with others.

Microwave Solutions GmbH (Switzerland) accelerates circular carbon economies by recycling plastics, rubbers and carbonaceous materials into critical and advanced materials such as graphene.

Comments from participating startups

Florian Turk (Co-founder at Microwave Solutions GmbH) : “The startup roundtable was particularly relevant and insightful. The entrepreneurs openly shared their experiences, including failures and dead-ends.”                                                               

Belén Moreno (Sales and Marketing Coordinator at HySiLabs): “It was very helpful and motivating to see successful startups in front of our eyes. I especially liked their explanations of what they would have done differently.”