South African transport tech startup GoMetro has been selected to take part in the United Kingdom (UK)-based Intelligent Mobility (IM) Accelerator, a six-month support programme that offers startups access to office space, mentoring and networking.
The IM Accelerator, a partnership between Transport Systems Catapult and Wayra UK, is designed to attract disruptive startups with high-growth potential into the UK transport supply chain, while helping them grow into world-leading companies.
Participants will get access to the partners’ networks of investors, government agencies, customers, large corporates and universities.
The Cape Town-based GoMetro was selected for the programme alongside UK-based startups Zeelo, Conigital, Synaptic, Cityswifter, SAFR, Driver-net and Valerann. The IM Accelerator will assist GoMetro with its market entry into the UK transport supply chain.
“Winning a seat on the Intelligent Mobility programme is an accolade in itself, reaffirms what we believe and that we can bring flexibility to the Intelligent Mobility landscape,” said GoMetro’s country manager for the UK Gary Morgan. “This accelerator will reduce the time it takes to get to the Intelligent Mobility future we talk about.”
GoMetro chief executive officer (CEO) and founder Justin Coetzee said the startup had chosen the UK as its first overseas market because of its similarities with its home market of South Africa – “terrible congestion due to high levels of car ownership and usage, public transport ridership that is dropping every year and a tech-savvy and mobile-phone oriented market ready for a paradigm shift.”
“Being accepted to the IM Accelerator, and becoming a partner of Wayra, Transport Catapult, Network Rail and ThoughtWorks validates our product-market fit,” he said.
