Israeli company Mobileye – which develops driver-safety tech solutions and supplies technology for self-driving cars – was recently valued at about $8.4 billion after debuting on the New York Stock Exchange. It's reportedly the largest US IPO by an Israeli company to date.
With the big news, we thought it would be appropriate to put a spotlight on emerging automotive tech projects coming out of the European tech ecosystem (a good read about the opportunities in this particular category can be found here). Important note: we've decided to leave out startups that operate on the fringes of that category, including transportation and delivery technology companies. That's for another day.
On that note, here's 10 Europe-born automotive technology startups to watch for (in no particular order):
Headquarters: Sveta Nedelja, Croatia
Gist: Founded by Mate Rimac, 26, in 2009, Rimac Automobili develops and produces electric super cars. In 2012, the company – which is gearing up for an 8 million euro investment – announced that one of its "test mules" broke several world acceleration records.
2) Carwow
Headquarters: London, UK
Gist: Carwow started as "a research site making car choosing easy" but has since shifted to helping users with the whole car-buying process. Founded by James Hind, Alexandra Margolis and David Santoro, the startup raised a £1.3 million seed funding round led by Balderton Capital in February.
Headquarters: Berlin, Germany/Tallinn, Estonia
Gist: Tech startup High Mobility, founded in 2013, wants to change the way people interact with their cars. Last year, it unveiled a small connectivity device, which is to be installed at by the dealership or manufacturer, that aims to let users control car features within close proximity.
Headquarters: Wrocław, Poland
Gist: Founded by Patryk and Anna Szymczak, Cloud Your Car offers a tool for small businesses to monitor and manage company cars for small businesses. The startup, which launched its core product Car Beacon earlier this month, has received about $435,000 in funding.
5) Autotalks
Headquarters: Kfar-Netter, Israel
Gist: Didn't think cars could "speak" to each other? Think again. Founded by Nir Sasson and Onn Hara in 2008, Autotalks has developed a technology which it claims can predict the chance of accidents, enabling vehicles and traffic infrastructure to communicate with each other through electronic messages.
6) MyBus
Headquarters: Berlin, Germany
Gist: MyBus, a startup spun off from the Technische Universität Berlin and currently part of Startupbootcamp’s Smart Transportation & Energy programme, offers a cloud-based fleet management and passenger information system for public transportation.
Headquarters: London, UK
Gist: ClickMechanic, which participated in seed investment programme Entrepreneur First in 2012, is an online marketplace aiming to connect consumers with car mechanics. At the moment, the service is available across the UK.
8) Prismattery
Headquarters: Tallinn, Estonia
Gist: The five-person team behind Prismattery, a startup spun-off from the Tallinn University of Technology, is currently part of Startupbootcamp's Smart Transportation & Energy programme. Their main product is an electric vehicle data monitoring tool, which displays battery info, routes and more.
9) Automile
Headquarters: Stockholm, Sweden
Gist: Founded by Swedish serial entrepreneur Jens Nylander in 2013, Automile aims to connect drivers with their vehicle's data. The startup offers a hardware-software system for both individuals (for free) and small businesses (from 10.50 euros per vehicle per month).
10) Harken Project
Headquarters: Europe
Gist: While not exactly a startup, we thought this tech project, which was partially funded by the European Union and involves a consortium of companies, was worth noting. Harken (short for Heart And Respiration in-Car Embedded Nonintrusive sensors) is a project developing sensors to be used to detect driver fatigue and thus prevent fatigue-induced car accidents.
Any particularly interesting European automotive tech startups we missed? Let us know.
Featured image credit: Kekyalyaynen / Shutterstock
