LA New Mobility Challenge Is Taking Applications
Ben Bergman is the newsroom's senior finance reporter. Previously he was a senior business reporter and host at KPCC, a senior producer at Gimlet Media, a producer at NPR's Morning Edition, and produced two investigative documentaries for KCET. He has been a frequent on-air contributor to business coverage on NPR and Marketplace and has written for The New York Times and Columbia Journalism Review. Ben was a 2017-2018 Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Economic and Business Journalism at Columbia Business School. In his free time, he enjoys skiing, playing poker, and cheering on The Seattle Seahawks.
Think you have what it takes to change how people get around? Then you should apply to the fourth annual L.A. New Mobility Challenge, a joint initiative of CoMotion, the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator, the NewCities Foundation, the UK Government/ British Consulate-General in Los Angeles, SparkLabs Group and Urban Movement Labs.
Judges are looking for solutions to two problems: transporting goods and people in urban environments. The winner gets a trip to present at SparkLabs Korea DemoDay16 in 2021, the largest accelerator demo day in the world, and three months of mentoring from SparkLabs Partners or Venture Partners.
The deadline for applications is October 30. Semi-finalists will be invited to pitch their concepts at CoMotion LA LIVE: November 17-19. To be eligible, companies must be less than five years old, have revenue of less than $5 million, and have a product in pilot, beta or prototype stage.
Last year's winner was Xtelligent, an infrastructure company developing futuristic traffic signals, while Metro Africa Express, personal mobility company committed to making moto-taxis safe, affordable and accessible across West Africa, won in 2018.
Ben Bergman is the newsroom's senior finance reporter. Previously he was a senior business reporter and host at KPCC, a senior producer at Gimlet Media, a producer at NPR's Morning Edition, and produced two investigative documentaries for KCET. He has been a frequent on-air contributor to business coverage on NPR and Marketplace and has written for The New York Times and Columbia Journalism Review. Ben was a 2017-2018 Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Economic and Business Journalism at Columbia Business School. In his free time, he enjoys skiing, playing poker, and cheering on The Seattle Seahawks.
