FIVE companies are to receive funding of up to €12,500 and supports from Dublin City Council to research new projects aimed at improving cycling in the city.
The companies were chosen through a competition ran by the council and Enterprise Ireland that attracted almost 100 expressions of interest and 23 proposals complete with Dragon’s Den style pitches.
The winning projects include BikeLook by Ambie that deters and detects bicycle theft, Liberty Bell by Fluidedge that allows cyclists to record obstacles and a tracker system from M2C Smartcharge Ltd that helps cyclists predict the ease and safety of a journey.
The other two projects are Hindnseek that generates real time data with can be integrated with other data sources and the See.Sense Tracker that allows cyclists to track stolen bikes.
The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) competition was part of the Smart Dublin initiative that’s testing new ways to pilot innovative technologies to solve city transport challenges.
“We are genuinely impressed with the level of ideas that were presented through the SBIR process and look forward to working with these entrepreneurs to pilot and hopefully scale their products using Dublin as a test bed,” said Dublin City Council Chief Executive, Owen Keegan.
The companies now have three months to develop their solution to pre-prototype stage, after which some will be selected for further funding of up to €25,000 each to complete their prototype solutions.