25 Aug 2021

Five innovative start-up business will pitch their solutions to key challenges faced by Transport for Wales at a virtual demo day this September.

Lab by Transport for Wales, a scheme developed by TfW and Alt Labs, sees business innovators from across the Wales and Borders region develop their ideas to improve safety, performance, and customers’ experiences on the railway.

Taking place at 1.30pm on Friday 3 September, the virtual demo day gives the businesses from across Wales and the UK the opportunity to showcase their ideas directly to senior TfW innovation managers and industry leaders. The event is also streamed live on YouTube.

It follows a period of dedicated mentoring by business experts both remotely and at TfW’s state-of-the art facility in Newport.

Michael Davies, TfW’s Insight and Innovation Manager, said: “We’re really looking forward to seeing how these companies have developed their ideas with the mentorship of TfW and with the guidance of Alt Labs and the different solutions they have produced.

“Our industry needs innovation and to nurture new talent and ideas to deliver an even better experience for customers.

“For this group we have widened the scope of our search to meet some of the other challenge areas we feel exist, including fresh ways of tackling one of the biggest challenges public transport has faced in recent times: how we encourage people to choose public transport in the future.”

The five companies pitching to TfW on September 3 are:

Jnction – developing Aubin, a new multi-modal journey planner and passenger assistant app which aims to minimise stress for passengers with autism and hidden disabilities when using public transport.

Quinean – developing a low-code machine learning platform that allows domain experts to deploy digital twins, test hypotheses and optimise outcomes at speed.

RoboK – developing efficient AI-based computer vision solutions to democratise safety in transportation.

Stofl - developing infrastructure and solutions that combine Blockchain and Low-Power-WAN technologies, allowing machines to communicate and solve some of the world’s most pressing problems more efficiently, securely and in locations further afield.

Utility AR - work with innovators in industrial sectors to unlock the potential of Augmented Reality applications which allow the user to interact with the real world while accessing existing databases and software systems.

Video presentations pitching the final products will be shared from all the start-up companies along with the opportunity to ask questions and to learn more. The demo day will inspire innovation within businesses and will offer an insight into some of the cutting-edge developments coming to the Wales and Borders rail network.

Adam Foster of Alt Labs added: “So far each of our cohorts have been delivered remotely, and whilst today’s demo day is still taking place remote – it’s been great seeing lockdown restrictions relax and some normality return, allowing us to bring cohort 3 start-ups into the Lab. Having worked with these start-ups throughout the past couple of months, I’m really excited to see them showcase the developments they’ve made and the positive impact they’re going to have across Transport for Wales”

This is the third cohort of companies that Lab by Transport for Wales has worked with. During the previous two cohorts, they worked with 20 start-up companies, of which 9 were accelerated to work with Transport for Wales.