Photo: DataCity131

Paris reveals latest start-up data solutions

14 June 2018

by Jonathan Andrews

Fourteen data solutions developed over nine months of collaboration between start-ups, corporate partners and the City of Paris have been presented in Paris City hall.

The third edition of ‘Demo Day’ by DataCity, a programme from NUMA, demonstrated solutions covering mobility, energy, the environment, and quality of life, among others, that have been subject to direct experiments in real urban settings over the last three months.

“What we saw in Paris [from the first edition three years ago] was the appetite for trying new things with cities in order to innovate,” Emmanuel Léger, Managing Director, DataCity, told Cities Today. “The more we go down this road, the more we realise that it’s no longer about innovation for innovation’s sake, but innovation to solve real critical issues, and issues at scale.”

Such critical city issues the start-ups have tackled include improving comfort on public transport. Start-up Affluences, with other partners, provided real-time data from video counting, GPS positions and beacons through an API tool that informed commuters how full the buses were on a particular route. It gave public transport users the option to make the decision of waiting for the next bus, with fewer passengers, or taking an alternative route.

Providing citizens with real-time information on air quality, weather, traffic and events to enable them to choose the best route to go jogging was one solution provided by Runnin’City and partners. The app allows a jogger to tailor a route suited to their individual needs including duration, distance, and road steepness.

Emmanuel Léger, Managing Director, DataCity

“Our goal is to scale up all 14 solutions because we think there is value in them,” Léger said. “We are not the owners of these solutions because we have other people to develop them, so the answer is not in our hands. We are now turning to a phase where the team is fully dedicated to our clients and partners, to see how we can help and support.”

Léger added that he sees his role and that of DataCity evolving from developing ideas with start-ups to one of scaling solutions in one city and then replicating them in another.

In March, a new office was opened in Berlin, and DataCity Barcelona will be launched within the next two to three weeks. Léger revealed that a managing director for the Barcelona office was appointed last week and that corporate partners in the Catalan city are being finalised.

At the Paris office, the team is now preparing for September when the fourth edition of challenges will be laid out.

“We are in deep discussions with lots of partners to close the selection around the beginning of July,” added Léger. “It’s a race now over the next three weeks. We want to solve big things, and we realise the potential that lies in this collaboration and these data sets that can be released through DataCity.”

The third DataCity edition of solutions include:

  • Personalised routes for runners
  • Optimising energy habit consumption
  • Reducing local energy consumption
  • Support for local shops
  • Reusing furniture and appliances
  • Boosting local business employment
  • Up-cycling construction materials
  • Improving accessibility to urban spaces
  • Optimising employee travel
  • Supporting the deployment of EV charging stations
  • Smart escalators
  • Cheaper traffic data, less congestion
  • Improved comfort for commuters
  • Better traffic conditions
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