meet Vianova, a French start-up building a data platform for shared mobility companies and local authorities. The company acts as both a data repository and a data visualization dashboard.
It has raised a $6.4 million (€6 million) Series A funding round led by Baloise VC with both XAnge and existing investors RATP Capital Innovation and Ponooc.
Many cities have been radically changed by the rise of free-floating bicycles, electric scooters, mopeds and cars that you can unlock with your phone. Cities have also changed their rules over time and embraced micromobility in different ways.
The good news is that these mobility fleets all have some form of connectivity with a GPS chip and a cellular modem. In other words, businesses and local governments can use data to make those services more efficient and safer for people who use them and everyone else who lives in these cities.
Image Credits: Vianova
Vianova currently tracks a million connected vehicles on its platform. Some companies use the platform to manage their fleet and ensure that the vehicles are in the right place at the right time.
Policy makers and data scientists can also use this platform to discover some trends. It can be used to improve infrastructure, create low speed zones or parking lots through geofencing and more.
All of this can be done through a SimCity-esque dashboard with map overlays and real-time data. The idea is that you can use Vianova as a real-time dashboard and analytics tool to generate historical reports and see how well you’re doing, whether you’re a mobility company or a local government.
But an analytics tool without data would be a bit useless. That is why you can combine your own data with different mobility data sources. This could be particularly interesting for cities that want to access data from private companies to better understand what’s happening.
For example, the City of Stockholm and Voi use Vianova to improve shared mobility services in the city. Mobility companies decide for themselves with whom they want to share their data.
Vianova uses APIs to retrieve data from mobility operators so that you can see live data on the platform. Data can be aggregated and anonymized.
Vianova’s customers include the cities of Zurich, Amsterdam, Stockholm and Marseille, as well as mobility providers such as Bolt and Voi. Some large infrastructure companies also use the platform, such as RATP, Aéroports de Paris and KTH University.
