URBAN-X by MINI Announces Startups of the 2024 MINI Impact Program

Six startups tackling environmental and urban challenges invited to New York City to maximize impact through a week of learning and collaboration

BROOKLYN, Nov. 19, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- URBAN-X, the startup platform by MINI, today announced its third annual MINI Impact Program. The six participating startups from around the world are working on ideas to make cities more sustainable, livable, and resilient by tackling a wide range of challenges—from integrated mobility services and fleet electrification, to measuring carbon footprints, building efficiency and flood risk, to plastic alternatives made from seaweed.  

The four week intensive program includes three weeks of remote work and one week in-person at URBAN-X's headquarters at Newlab in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Participating founders and their teams receive bespoke guidance vital for early-stage startups, including business roadmapping, pitch sessions, U.S. market entry strategy, investor networking, and more.

Selected startups for the 2024 MINI Impact Program are:

• Automicle: Based in the Netherlands, Automicle empowers businesses of all sizes to deliver mobility-as-a-feature via the company's software platform.
• eMotion Fleet: Based in Japan, eMotion Fleet is a one-stop service for electrifying fleets and decarbonizing operations for commercial customers in Asia.
• Kestrix: Based in the UK, Kestrix maps and quantifies how heat escapes from buildings in order to plan, price and verify energy retrofits in urban settings.
• Safer Places: Based in Italy, Safer Places uses remote sensing and AI to predict flood risks with high accuracy.
• sinCarbono: Based in Mexico, sinCarbano simplifies decarbonization for small and medium businesses via a digital platform that enables users to measure, verify and reduce their carbon footprint.
• Zerocircle: Based in India, Zercircle creates high-performance, home-compostable and marine-safe packaging solutions from seaweed.

"Leveraging MINI's heritage of urban innovation, URBAN-X partners with local teams in different countries to tackle local challenges and scale solutions that improve people's lives and the planet. By being together and immersed in the MINI Impact program, we anticipate these founders will build a tight-knit community that supports each other long after the program ends," said Sarah Schappert, director at URBAN-X.

In its third year, the MINI Impact Program focuses on early stage startups from outside of the U.S. Previous participants have achieved great success following their  participation in the program.

Notably, Gravity Wave, a Spanish startup creating furniture out of recycled plastic from fishing nets, has entered the injection molding industry and has now recycled 300 tons out of 830 tons of plastic collected from 7,000 fishermen in four Mediterranean countries. Based in Mexico, Eneryou, an educational technology startup dedicated to professionalizing companies in Latin America on sustainable practices and the energy transition, has achieved presence in 17 Spanish-speaking countries in 2024. In addition, it has announced a seed capital round to consolidate its B2B commercial position in the region. Raiz, a Portuguese vertical farming startup, is deploying a hybrid farm in the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Lisbon ahead of a new product launch. The company was also selected to participate in  Techstars' Sustainability Paris Accelerator.

"The program is structured as an intensive consultation, drawing on our team's extensive experience with over 110 startups in our portfolio—and many more beyond," said Tristan Bel, Platform Director at URBAN-X. "Founders consistently highlight the immense value they gain from our approach: asking tough but constructive questions and providing actionable insights with the expertise of the industry leaders we bring in."

In addition to the MINI Impact Program, URBAN-X runs a twice-per-year accelerator program for startups based globally that are working to address climate issues that create resilient communities and redefine approaches to achieve net zero goals. The 15h cohort was announced in September, 2024 and included startups working to address issues including green hydrogen, carbon capture, grid capacity, and EV battery health, financing and towing range. To learn more about URBAN-X's Impact and Accelerator programs, visit urban-x.com/platform.

About URBAN-X
URBAN-X is the platform for startups reimagining city life. Built by MINI, URBAN-X partners with founders to build and scale bold technology solutions that make cities more livable, efficient, and resilient. URBAN-X provides world-class engineering and design resources through their Impact and Accelerator programs and gives founders access to a global network of investors, cities, and corporate partners. Find URBAN-X on Twitter & Instagram at @urbanxtech and on Facebook at facebook.com/urbanxtech.

About MINI in the US
MINI is an independent brand of the BMW Group. In the United States, MINI USA operates as a business unit of BMW of North America, LLC, located in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey and includes the marketing and sales organizations for the MINI brand. The MINI USA sales organization is represented by a network of 105 MINI passenger car dealers located throughout the US. MINI USA began selling vehicles in the U.S. in 2002 with the introduction of the MINI Cooper and MINI Cooper S Hardtops. Since then, the MINI Brand in the U.S. has grown to encompass a model range of five unique vehicles.

Note to Editors and Journalists: Media information about MINI and its products is available on-line at www.miniusanews.com.

Media Contacts
Chris Allieri
Mulberry & Astor
[email protected] 

Andrew Cutler
Head of Corporate Communications, MINI USA
201.307.3784
[email protected]

SOURCE URBAN-X