Plug and Play helps drive C/AV start-ups

US innovation platform will help Zenzic to accelerate likely products to market
By Adam Hill September 24, 2020 Read time: 2 mins
Innovation, acceleration: start-ups with good ideas will get help (© Pairoj Ponglerdnadda | Dreamstime.com)

Silicon Valley innovation platform Plug and Play is helping start-ups to develop their connected and autonomous vehicle (C/AV) technology in the UK.

The US outfit has joined with Zenzic - the organisation which aims to boost UK C/AV development - as part of the CAM Scale-Up Programme which seeks to give opportunities to likely candidates for testing and safety validating in various UK CAM Testbed facilities.
 
It will give promising start-ups and small firms access to a share of £500,000 in grant funding from the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles to help cover costs in accelerating their products to market.

Selected companies will be entered into Plug and Play’s portfolio management system, which offers expert mentoring, links to European and US corporate and venture capital partners, as well as the chance to present at a Plug and Play Summit to help generate inward investment.
 
Daniel Ruiz, CEO of Zenzic, said the programme "will enable SMEs and start-ups already working in these sectors to deliver their innovative products to market much faster, and facilitate SMEs in adjacent sectors to pivot solutions into this market". 
 
Seena Amidi, MD of Plug and Play, adds: "We are firm believers that innovation at scale can be achieved through partnerships between corporations, innovative startups, government and academia."
  
Companies interested in signing up can email their interest to [email protected]
 

Networking & Communication Systems

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Europe’s number one leading Mobility as a Service conference says the future of transport lies in delivering change
    January 19, 2018
    First hand reports on the rapid progress being made, as well as the obstacles being faced, by Mobility as a Service projects across Europe dominate the agenda of the second “MaaS Market Concept to Delivery” conference taking place in London next month. Speakers will cover the political and regulatory implications, open data, technology and common standards, demand responsive transport and future business models. This is Europe’s number one leading MaaS event and it includes presentations from Port
    Read More
  • World Economic Forum: AVs face two big challenges
    July 3, 2019
    Autonomous vehicles (AVs) will not be widely adopted unless tech issues and business cases are sorted out, says an expert at the World Economic Forum (WEF). In an interview with CNBC, Michelle Avary, head of autonomous mobility at the organisation, said: “Really making sure that the technology is working in the areas of perception, which is vision — being able to identify objects and then understand how to move around them. That has yet to be solved.” Speaking at the WEF’s Annual Meeting of the New Ch
    Read More
  • ‘Free’ power for signs, shelters and so much more
    March 17, 2016
    David Crawford looks at the sunny side of the street. Solar power has been relatively slow in entering the transport sector, but a current blossoming of activity bodes well for the large-scale harnessing of an alternative energy that is zero-emission at source and, in practical terms, infinitely renewable. Traffic management and traveller information systems, and actual vehicles, are all emerging as areas for deployment. Meanwhile roads themselves are being viewed as new-style, fossil fuel-free ‘power stati
    Read More
  • Mega trends will challenge transport technology
    June 5, 2015
    Jon Masters investigates some of the longer term trends that will shape transportation over the next 20 years. Business analysts and investors have already placed their bets on a future of technological smart mobility services. In December last year, the Wall Street Journal reported that Uber, the on-demand taxi and lift share smartphone app and start-up business, had been valued at $41.2 billion which, as the Journal reported, is an incredible vote of confidence for a company only five years old.
    Read More

Highlighted Content