Johannes Kirschner, Investment Manager at EIT Urban Mobility
Johannes Kirschner, Investment Manager at EIT Urban Mobility, tells us more about the innovative solutions to transform the transport sector.
The interview was recorded in 2024 in partnership with EIT Urban Mobility during Mobility Meetings at The Drivery, Berlin.
A few words from...
My name is Johannes Kirschner, I am working as an investment and portfolio manager at the EIT Urban Mobility.
Could you tell us more about EIT Urban Mobility ?
We are private public network that has the goal to create more livable urban space all across Europe, but in the future, maybe even beyond.
We’re created around cities and what cities need when it comes to the transportation and mobility mix. We are trying to bring all relevant stakeholders together, meaning startups, corporates, universities, cities, and research institutions to work together on solving some of the pressing challenges we are facing in the mobility context. We’ve been created by the EIT, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, which is also one of our main finance.
What is the main challenge between startup investors and policymakers ?
The transport sector accounts for approximately 25% of global greenhouse gas emissions. So it’s one of the driving factors of climate change. It’s urgently needed that we find innovative solutions, more effective solutions, more sustainable solutions to really transform the transport and mobility sector. Therefore, we need startups who bring new ideas, who take the risk, who have the entrepreneurial spirit to clearly change whole industries.
But we also need funding investors, cities as testbed, driving cities who are really open for innovation, to try new things, but also corporates like the leading industry players who are also who need to open up for new innovative solutions.
What are you looking for in a startup ?
We are looking for innovative ideas to transform the mobility sector. So we are looking for solutions that help us decarbonize the transport and mobility sector.
We need European players. We need diverse teams with complementary skills who really take the risk and the willingness to develop new solutions in the mobility sector. And the advice is also to really think big, think European.
What are your thoughts on the Berlin ecosystem ?
Today, we had an amazing event together with Mobility Makers and The Drivery. It was our first event here in Berlin. Berlin, as many of you know, is one of the leading startup ecosystems. It’s a very diverse environment, and we were very pleased to be in such a great place here at The Drivery.
Here in my background, you have a full maker space to transform vehicles to work on new vehicles or new ideas. So it’s a perfect location also for us to organize this event, but also to start collaborations with the relevant stakeholders.
There is an amazing community here, a mix of startups, investors, corporates, all with the same goal to really transform mobility in our cities.
And therefore, we are very pleased to kick off that collaboration today, our first networking event.
Where does EIT Urban Mobility operates ?
EIT Urban Mobility is a pan-European network. We are headquartered in Barcelona. We’ve local offices in Munich, Amsterdam, Prague, and Copenhagen. We are covering whole Europe, even beyond, with associated countries of the European Union.
Our aim is really to scale solutions across Europe, so to connect best practices, scale them from one to another, and make really use of the European powerhouse.
And that’s also why Berlin is such a critical space for us, the capital of Germany, but also a very, very important ecosystem for Europe as such. And therefore it perfectly aligns with our EIT Urban Mobility
ambition to connect the Berlin ecosystem with Europe, but also vice versa, bringing more European innovation here to Berlin.
What sets EIT Urban Mobility apart ?
What is very unique about EIT Urban Mobility is the diverse stakeholders that we have in our ecosystem, starting with the cities. The cities are at the core of our doing. The cities are very often the ones that provide public space to different means of mobility.
So it’s very important to listen to what cities need and also what are the key challenges of cities across Europe. Europe is a very diverse market, so different cities, different challenges.
And how EIT Urban Mobility was originally, it was basically around cities’ needs. And that’s also how we are scouting for solutions, how we are actively looking for investment opportunities or project potentials.
That we start with the city’s needs, with the market needs, and then find good solutions that can actually help solve these problems and address some of the biggest challenges we face today in the mobility sector.
