CoMotion MIAMI '23 | Startup Competition
Why we desperately need tech, policy & startups to solve our urban mobility problems
CoMotion MIAMIā23 (May 10-11) connects the Americas & beyond with Floridaās future-forward spirit in urban mobility. The unmissable two-day gathering is packed with lively panels, interactive workshops, demos, networking sessions, and energizing talks.
Get your discounted passes here, through the Clear Prop network!
This week, I am heading over to Miami as a startup judge at one of the greatest urban mobility events taking place throughout the year. CoMotion MIAMI is really about how policy, regulation, tech, startups, and venture capital converge to enable the cities of the future where the quality of life, sustainability, and ease of mobility are prime.
These days, there is this debate on Twitter circles that the greatest catastrophe humanity is facing in the 21st century may be population decline. It is largely true that without the labor force expanding, GDP growth is quite challenging to achieve (especially if we assume AGI is not here soon, which may fundamentally reverse this dynamic in economics).
What I am not hearing in this debate is: if we add billions of humans to this Earth, will our cities be able to cope?
What is missing from this equation is that the number of economic centers around the world (i.e. large cities) is limited, especially considering that these are locations where people generally want to flock towards for opportunities. And if we have more people, we run the risk of severely increasing the population density of our cities. Is the city infrastructure ready? What about our transportation capacity? Traffic? Is there enough clean water for all? Grid capacity? Can all energy needs be met with renewables? How about our schools?
Many parts of the world, especially emerging countries where megacities are most likely to pop up, do not have the required capital - intellectual nor financial - to plan ahead sufficiently. And when cities grow without structure nor without the input of urban planners, slums take shape, bottlenecks in transportation networks form, and life just becomes harder and agonizing to its residents (and visitors).
This is a classic example of the Tragedy of the Commons. Too many externalities to extinguish.
So the next time someone like Elon comes to the worldwide town square and announces that population decline is one of our greatest problems, I implore everyone to take a more nuanced view. Without sufficient preparation, our cities could turn into hell. Just look at Istanbul, SĆ£o Paulo, Mumbai, etc.
Therefore, along with good policy & regulation, strides in hard, as well as soft tech will be necessary to enable a future where our cities stay beautiful while flexible with their living capacity. This is why it is so important that CoMotion is running the M2 Challenge this year, where 6 startups will pitch their ideas and offer solutions for the cities of the future. 2 of these startups are AAM focused, playing in the small drone arena.
Letās quickly go through these companies:
Undefined Technologies ā> Silent drone technology using electric ion propulsion. Currently in Seed stage, having raised $1M in funding.
Zing ā> End-to-end B2B turnkey solution provider for restaurants, retailers, and pharmaceutical companies to integrate drone deliveries into their operations. To this day, they have raised $240k in Pre-Seed.
GridMatrix ā> SaaS solution for cities using computer vision and ML to optimize traffic, cut emissions, and reduce accidents. Raised $3.5M in Seed funding.
Swyft Cities ā> Gondola network for cities where you can hop on a pod just like you would at Matterhorn. Currently unfunded based on publicly available information.
Meep ā> All-in-one Mobility-as-a-Service app where you can book and pay for a multimodal trip. Raised a total of ā¬8.5M - Series A.
ZyggĀ - eBikes-as-a-Service solution for recreational and commercial delivery riders. Raised CA$6.7M in Seed funding.
I wish the best of success to these cool companies this coming Thursday in Miami!