UK: London North Eastern Railway has selected five start-ups to participate in its FutureLabs innovation accelerator programme.
Pitches via Microsoft Teams video conferencing were invited in three areas: More Journeys More Often; Personalised Customer Experience and Responsible Business.
The winners were:
- QikServe, which will use its experience of digital self-service technology to help deliver an at-seat personalised customer experience;
- Skignz which will look at using augmented reality to provide personalised mapping and information for passengers at and near to stations;
- Iomob from Barcelona will aim to encourage more people to travel by train through the use of technology that supports better mobility;
- Green City Solutions from Berlin will be working to provide clean air and healthy spaces for passengers as part of LNER’s Responsible Business plan;
- Sirenum will look at advanced systems management.
The five start-ups will receive access to LNER’s live operational environments and one-to-one mentoring as they develop their proof of concepts. A demo day will then be held in London in September.
‘It was fantastic to hear from start-ups from as far away as North America and the Middle East about how they would apply their innovative approaches to the UK rail industry’, said LNER Chief Digital & Innovation Officer Danny Gonzalez on May 28.
‘There was tough competition, but we have selected five start-ups that will now move onto the next stage of the accelerator programme and to see some of the ideas start to come to life. They certainly have the potential to make a real difference to the lives of our customers, communities and colleagues.’
