Edmonton Start-Up One of Six Global Finalists in the Toyota Mobility Foundation’s City Architecture for Tomorrow Challenge

EDMONTON, Alberta– January 27, 2021 – Edmonton’s RUNWITHIT Synthetics has been named one of six finalists inthe global City Architecture for Tomorrow Challenge (CATCH). The Toyota Mobility Foundation (TMF) launched CATCH in February 2020 with a global call for dynamic, intelligent and data-driven solutions to address mobility and city planning challenges in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Despite the continuing impact of COVID-19, the CATCH program progressed through the application stage in May 2020, receiving over 90 entries from more than 20 countries. The semi-finalist stage finished in December 2020. In this stage, with tremendous support and insights from our strategic and data partners, the semi-finalists obtained an understanding of Kuala Lumpur’s mobility issues for their Proof of Concept (PoC) development over a six-week period.

An esteemed panel of eight judges from various fields of expertise such as sustainable mobility, venture capital, technology, government, and industry virtually assessed the 16 semi-finalists.

After careful consideration and based on the feedback from the judges, TMF identified six teams as finalists (rather than five teams as originally planned). The following six teams are deemed to be best suited to CATCH’s problem statement and the five assessment criteria of creativity, feasibility, sustainability, desirability, and technicality. These teams will be asked to further develop their MVPs and, at this stage, each will receive a grant of $125,000 USD of financial support to drive the testing and implementation of intelligent data-driven, connected solutions, aimed at a more efficient, innovative, secure and sustainable city of Kuala Lumpur.

The six finalists are as follows:

Conceptualizing Data-Driven Innovations to Reality

TMF will continue to work together with strategic partners including Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL), the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) and its data partners – Prasarana, MapIT, and Grab – to support the finalists until the selection of a final winner in April-May 2021. This support includes the financial grant by TMF and incubation and mentorship provided by experts and judges supporting this CATCH program.

Yu Chuan Hock, Director of Urban Transportation of KL City Hall (DBKL) commented: “Kuala Lumpur City Hall is looking forward to a practical and workable solution to be implemented to ease congestion and disperse traffic more effectively.”

Ir. Dr.Karl Ng, Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) commented: “These entries show how amazing such innovations can be produced, and even thrive, when data is readily made available.”

Pras Ganesh, Director of Programs of TMF commented: “CATCH was designed to grasp groundbreaking innovations, and we were impressed by the ideas of 16 strong semi-finalists who showcased new data driven mobility and city planning focused solutions. Though it was very difficult to narrow down the selection, as Toyota Mobility Foundation, we are very excited about the six Finalists and what they can deliver in the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) stage to improve the quality of life of the residents of Kuala Lumpur.”

Through CATCH, TMF strives to unlock human-centric, data-driven innovations toward Toyota’s mission of ‘Producing Happiness for All’ through ‘Creating Mobility for All’ for residents of Kuala Lumpur. Moreover, TMF hopes to utilize the insights gained through this challenge to solve mobility issues in other regions and countries in the future. To find out more visit www.tmf-catch.org/ .

About Toyota Mobility Foundation

The Toyota Mobility Foundation was established in August 2014 to support the development of a more mobile society. The Foundation aims to support strong and equitable mobility systems. It utilizes Toyota’s expertise in technology, safety, and the environment, working in partnership with universities, government, non-profit organizations, research institutions and other organizations to address mobility issues around the world. Solutions till date have aimed at resolving urban transportation problems, expanding the utilization of multi-modal mobility, and developing solutions for future generations.