"Data is Critical" to Solve the Most Complex Mobility Challenges - Vianova CEO, Thibault Castagne

The French startup Vianova turns complex data into intelligence for solving transportation challenges. Its collaborative mobility platform is used by policymakers, transport and urban planners, consulting firms and micro-mobility operators, to gain valuable insights and analytics.

"The prioritisation of moving cars meant that shared and sustainable services often struggle to integrate - which can lead to unprofitable, unsustainable and unsafe outcomes. This was the problem that we decided to solve with a collaborative platform that brings cities, mobility providers and enterprises together to better integrate and manage shared and public transport solutions," Vianova's co-founder and CEO, Thibault Castagne, tells Auto Futures.

The Vianova platform leverages IoT and data from 1 million+ connected vehicles to provide stakeholders with advanced geo-intelligence. 

"We all know that transport accounts for 24% of global emissions and these emissions are rising faster than any other sector. But it is possible for cities to reduce emissions and become more sustainable by embracing electric and fuel-efficient vehicles, shared vehicles and improving public transport," he says.

In the past few years, it's been supporting the transition to greener and low-carbon mobility solutions in European cities. For example. Vianova’s platform has been enabling faster and better decision-making about where new cycling lanes should be built.

The company also works with micro-mobility companies, including Voi, Lime, Tier, and Bolt, and the cities they are based in.

Over 60 cities use the platform, with around 75% using it exclusively for managing micro-mobility fleets including Abu Dhabi, Paris, and Berlin. The Brussels-Capital region leverages its data analytics to gain insight into car sharing as well as e-scooter data.

"For instance, by working closely with Northamptonshire County Council in the UK and Voi, we were able to provide the tools to ensure e-scooters were introduced into cities safely and orderly in 2022 - including the design, implementation and enforcement of no parking zones, no riding and slow speed zones and incentivised parking zones. This saw the number of complaints cut in half - helping to benefit the e-scooter company by ensuring that the local community could embrace scooters safely and effectively." explains Castagne.

Transforming Paris

Vianova has announced a new partnership with Michelin Mobility Intelligence which is focused on improving logistics management in Paris. They will work together to analyse how logistics vehicles move and park, including the vehicle type, the proximity to retail, and the duration of stops to draw a defined picture of road and curb activity. 

"This is all with the aim of using mobility data to help drive decision-making about mobility hubs and last-mile deliveries. This is a clear example of how collaboration and sharing data can help lead to more sustainable and safer cities," says Castagne.

Paris is aiming to make large areas of the city car-free in 2024, the year it will hold the Olympic Games.

"Before doing so, the city needs to be aware of how vehicles move around so it can allocate space accordingly and not make drastic changes that will negatively impact its citizens and businesses - the Michelin project will help support this."

The French capital has struggled with the rollout of micro-mobility. After becoming one of the first cities to embrace e-scooters, it recently banned them following a controversial referendum.

"Shared bikes are a popular alternative but like with e-scooters you need the right regulations which suit the city and its needs so as not to annoy the people that live there. This was something that didn’t go right at the start of the e-scooter roll out - when there were initially 19 operators and 25,000 scooters on the streets - but needs to be implemented thoughtfully so that the city and its residents can get the benefits of an optimized shared mobility ecosystem," he explains.

Rescuing Clogged City Streets

Vianova raised €6 million in 2022 which is being used to build out its growing team, fuel global expansion and further develop the platform. 

In a press statetment, Castagne, says: “We started Vianova with the simple idea of bridging the data gap between public authorities (cities) and private transport providers (ride-hailing, shared mobility companies) yet this vision has since grown as we serve more and more use cases and customer segments.”

Finally, we asked Castagne for his views on what urban mobility will look like by 2030.

"Shared mobility is only going to increase. Cities know they need to reduce pollution and rescue their clogged streets from private vehicles - but they need to do so sensitively and in a way that meets their residents’ needs. Whilst the Paris referendum was drastic earlier this year, we haven’t seen too many instances yet of cities banning scooters altogether, though Brussels recently slashed the number of shared scooters on its streets."

"Shared bikes and e-bikes will continue to grow in popularity, potentially at the expense of e-scooters. There will also be an increase in shared cars to offset the restrictions being placed on private vehicles. As with the increase in any new vehicle, data is critical to managing and integrating them into a city effectively," he predicts.