South African startup WhereIsMyTransport is the only startup from Africa named by the NewCities Foundation as a 2017 Global Urban Innovator.
WhereIsMyTransport has mapped the formal and informal public transport systems of Cape Town, East London, and Gaborone, making the data available for anyone to use in order to develop transport related apps.
The startup last year secured investment of GBP1.165 million (US$1.5 million) to fund a new transit API, a new open information platform that collates transit data for formal and informal services and combines it with analytics capability and communication tools.
It is now one of the eight startups to have been named on the Global Urban Innovators list, which recognises promising young enterprises from around the world for their innovative use of technology to address urban challenges. It will now join the NewCities community of Global Urban Innovators.
WhereIsMyTransport will now go on to play a leading role at the NewCities Summit in Incheon Songdo in June, where it will present its approach to hundreds of global leaders.
The other selected companies are Alt-A from South Korea, CityTaps from France, Green City Solutions from Germany, Safetipin from India, ZenCity from Israel, and US startups Small Change and Spin.
“In many cities, visionary entrepreneurs are creating solutions to some of the most pressing urban challenges. Global Urban Innovators represent the very best, as their grassroots solutions make our cities easier to navigate, make them safer and leverage the Internet of Things to create a better life for citizens,” said John Rossant, chairman of NewCities.
“We look forward to working with these startups, introducing them to our global network of industry and public sector players and helping them scale so their solutions may help cities around the world.”
