Intelligence /

by Imogen Granger

Posted on 25 March 2020

How Global Tech is helping in the COVID-19 fight

In the face of great adversity, often some of the best ideas are born. Countries worldwide have had to come up with new ways to tackle the COVID-19 outbreak, and with citizens forced to self-isolate, innovators look to tech to tackle some of the greatest problems caused by the virus. At PUBLIC we have never been more certain of the value of technology in making a real difference to people’s lives – here are some of the ways countries across the globe are using tech to tackle Coronavirus.

GovTech Polska – Poland

In just 72 hours Poland’s largest online hackathon was organised, dedicated to tackling COVID-19. Over 1500 participants from 11 time zones collaborated on the execution of anticrisis ideas to help people handle the pandemic aftermath. GovTech Polska defined three main areas that might be challenging: isolation, facts & data and education. The 10 winners included solutions such as an epidemic app, SMS shopping for a senior, detecting COVID-19 with x-rays and deep learning and connecting overworked parents with underworked teachers.

Check out the full list of winners here.

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2. Hack the Crisis – Lithuania

Similarly, ‘Hack the Crisis’, a virtual hackathon organised by volunteers from the Lithuanian government, corporates and startup community took place last week. Click here to find out more.

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3. Defence Innovation Agency – France

This call for projects from the Ministry of the Armed Forces, launched by the Defense Innovation Agency (AID), as part of the government’s plan to fight COVID-19, aims to have proposals to fight against the COVID pandemic -19. It relates to the search for innovative solutions, whether technological, organisational, managerial or industrial. THE Defence Innovation Agency is looking for solutions which could be directly mobilised in order to: protect the population, support patient care, test the population, monitor the evolution of the disease at the individual level and the evolution of the pandemic, or help to limit constraints during the crisis period. A budget of €10,000,000 including tax is planned for this call for projects, which aims to finance one or more projects of interest.

Companies have until the 12th April to apply and can find out more on their website – here.

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4. TechForce19 – UK

Recently NHSX launched TechForce19 – a tech challenge to combat the effects of social isolation. In particular, they are looking for new technologies to help support the vulnerable, elderly and self isolating within these areas:

Remote Social Care

Finding healthy and qualified carers who can provide support for those in need
Managing and delivering care in care homes
Delivering domiciliary care and technology in the home

Optimising Staffing in Care and Volunteering Sectors

Recruiting, training and certifying of doctors and nurses and professional carers
Volunteering – recruiting and triaging volunteers into clinical and non-clinical workers
Projecting demand for health and care workers across the country to improve deployment and management of resources
Tackling data gaps in the care sector to understand the financial sustainability and needs of care businesses

Mental Health

Discovering and delivering mental health services
Accessing relevant and inclusive peer 2 peer communities
Supporting self-management of mental health and well-being
Facilitating employee well-being

The selected companies will receive government funding of up to £25,000 to develop or test their COVID19 solution. Following the testing period, NHSX and Partners will consider the best route for further development in order for them to best benefit people during the COVID19 emergency.

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5. Covid-19 Solution Challenge – India

The Government of India is calling on startups who have developed technologies and innovative solutions that can be leveraged for strengthening the fight against Coronavirus. Bioinformatics, datasets and apps for diagnosis are among suggested solutions that would help the government tackle the virus.

Submitted solutions will be evaluated for adoption and those selected will be suitably rewarded. The challenge was launched on 16th of March and startups have until the end of the month to apply.

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Want to be part of the GovTech community? Sign up to PUBLIC’s newsletter here.

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GovStart / PUBLIC France /

by Alex Margot-Duclot

Posted on 2 March 2020

Améliorer la gestion des collectivités : entretien avec la start-up Manty

Nous avons échangé avec Mathieu Nohet, CEO de Manty – une start-up que l’on accompagne dans le programme GovStart qui vient de lever 2.4€m.

We spoke to Mathieu Nohet, CEO of Manty – a startup that we are supporting as part of our French GovStart programme which has just announced a funding round of 2.4€m. Scroll down to read the interview in English.

Pourquoi avez-vous décidé de vous lancer dans cette aventure?

Nous avons choisi de lancer Manty en janvier 2017, à la fin de nos études. Toutes les administrations publiques génèrent énormément de données, sans avoir les ressources pour les exploiter correctement. Ces organisations sont extrêmement importantes, et le fait qu’elles aient besoin de prendre des décisions avec peu d’informations est un énorme problème, qui impacte l’ensemble des citoyens.

Nous avons construit la première version de l’outil en s’installant physiquement, pendant près de 6 mois, chez nos premiers clients, deux mairies de la région parisienne, Clichy et Courbevoie. Cela nous a permis de mieux comprendre leurs enjeux et leurs problèmes.

Cette co-construction a permis d’adapter des technologies appliquées dans le privé et de coller au mieux aux besoins spécifiques des collectivités. Nous travaillons aujourd’hui pour plus de 50 collectivités en France – des villes comme Rambouillet, Biarritz ou la métropole de Clermont-Ferrand.

Comment la solution Manty rend-elle service aux collectivités?

Les collectivités territoriales gèrent des aspects essentiels de la vie quotidienne : écoles, cantines, voirie, État-civil, transports… Pourtant, elles manquent cruellement de ressources et d’outils pour analyser leurs données. Les décideurs publics sont souvent contraints de prendre des décisions complexes avec très peu d’informations.

La plateforme Manty se connecte à l’ensemble des sources de données de la collectivité et les standardise, les agrège et les organise au sein d’un seul entrepôt de données. Elle fournit ensuite des tableaux de bord et des visualisations aux décideurs, élus ou agents publics. La plateforme permet une exploitation simple et efficace des données, sans formation technique, et fait remonter les informations pertinentes aux bonnes personnes. Tout est fait pour faciliter la marche de l’administration et la prise de décision par les élus.

Quelles sont les prochaines étapes pour Manty?

La levée de fonds va servir à accélérer notre développement commercial. Prochain objectif : déployer la plateforme sur une centaine de territoires d’ici l’année prochaine.

Nous allons également investir dans de la R&D pour étoffer notre produit, notamment avec des modules prédictifs. Nous voulons en particulier aider les collectivités à construire leur budget, en leur présentant des scénarios de dépenses et des analyses sur l’impact de chaque dépense.

L’objectif est toujours le même : apporter la bonne information au bon moment aux décideurs publics.

Why did you decide to embark on this adventure?

We chose to launch Manty in January 2017, at the end of our studies. All public administrations generate a huge amount of data, without having the resources to exploit it properly. These organisations are extremely important, and the fact that they need to make decisions with little information is a huge problem, which affects all citizens.

We built the first version of the tool by physically installing, for almost 6 months, with our first customers, two town halls in the Paris region, Clichy and Courbevoie. This allowed us to better understand their issues and problems.

This co-construction made it possible to adapt technologies applied in the private sector and to better match the specific needs of local governments. Today we work for more than 50 local governments in France – cities like Rambouillet, Biarritz and the metropolis of Clermont-Ferrand.

How does Manty’s solution serve local governments?

Local governments manage essential aspects of daily life including schools, canteens, roads, civil status and transport. However, they are sorely lacking in resources and tools to analyse their data. Policymakers are often forced to make complex decisions with very little information.

The Manty platform connects to all of the local governments’ data sources and standardizes, aggregates and organizes them in a single data warehouse. It then provides dashboards and visualizations to decision-makers, elected officials and civil servants. The platform allows simple and efficient use of data, without technical training, and sends relevant information to the right people. Everything is done to facilitate administration and decision-making by elected officials.

What are the next steps for Manty?

The funding will serve to accelerate our commercial development. Our next objective is to deploy the platform to a hundred territories by next year.

We will also invest in R&D to expand our product, in particular with predictive modules. Specifically, we want to help communities build their budgets, by presenting them with spending scenarios and analysis of the impact of each expense.

The objective is always the same: provide the right information at the right time to public decision-makers.

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GovTech in Focus /

by Sabine Bot

Posted on 24 February 2020

How ‘Accessibility Tech’ will be a key trend for European startups, investors and cities in 2020

Cities are becoming smarter than ever before, with a plethora of startups looking to transform how we interact with our urban spaces. The rise of the smart city, however, poses a new and difficult problem for governments: as more services move online, and the nature of those services becomes increasingly complex, they risk becoming inaccessible to large groups of the population. A diverse group of European startups are working to tackle this problem by developing solutions to make smart cities work for all inhabitants, regardless of their accessibility needs.

‘Smarter’ does not always mean easier

Cities are increasingly incorporating digital innovations to make their urban centres smarter, with the aim of improving the well-being of their inhabitants. Case studies like this are common across European cities, from the municipality of Albertslund, in Denmark, using smart sensors to optimise the collection and route planning of waste; to the city of Athens using Novoville, a citizen engagement platform, to let its citizens access a number of key local services.

However, the technologies that are becoming increasingly integrated into our cities can make life in the city more difficult for some population cohorts. In particular, many innovations that are supposed to make cities smarter are not sufficiently accessible to those with disabilities. For example, the digital platforms and apps that are increasingly used to allow citizens to directly communicate with municipality officials are often not accessible to those who cannot access (touch) screens, such as people living with physical or visual impairment. The increased presence of screens and buttons in the built environment also frequently creates accessibility challenges. In fact, research by the SmartCities4All initiative found that 60% of global experts confirm that smart cities are failing disabled people.

Moreover, new smart city solutions are often not focused on improving the quality of life of those with additional needs: despite 15% of the world population having some form of disability. The same SmartCities4All research found that 96% of ongoing digital development projects worldwide do not even mention people with disabilities.

A new market and a big opportunity

A collection of startups are working to solve this problem, and make cities smarter for those with disabilities. Not only are they focused on making existing technologies accessible, a collection of startups is also working to develop solutions to improve city life, specifically for those with additional needs. In making cities more accessible, local businesses and attractions also benefit, given that the consumer spending power of disabled people and their families is around £249bn (€249.6bn) in the UK and €1 trillion world-wide.

Having scouted the European ‘Accessibility Tech’ market, we’ve found three broad categories of startups that are working to make cities more accessible for all their inhabitants: First, there are start-ups that make smart cities and their integrated technologies more accessible. Second, there is a collection of businesses that make using transport and navigating around the city easier for those with disabilities. Finally, there is a category of start-ups that are focused on making visits to shops and venues a better experience for those with accessibility needs.

Making city technologies accessible

Touch screens are used in a range of smart city solutions – from citizen engagement apps, to ticket kiosks to displays providing data collected by smart sensors. However, the information displayed on touch screens is not always accessible to those with visual or physical impairments. German startup Speech Code and Spanish-based Mouse4all are seeking to change this.

Speech Code makes touch screens accessible for those with visual impairments by providing technology that generates a QR-like code that holds the entire content on a given display. Once scanned with the free SpeechCode App, it presents the content – without Internet access – as text and/or in audio format.

Mouse4All provides an app that allows those who cannot the screen by touching it with their hands to command the screen with an alternative input interface suited to one’s physical abilities, such as an adapted mouse, a trackball or joystick.

Buttons, which are also increasingly used on digital kiosks and sensors around the city, pose a problem for those with visual or physical impairments. The Button app, developed by startup Neatebox, helps overcome this challenge by allowing users to press buttons, like those at pedestrian crossings, by using their smartphone.

Transport and navigation

While apps like Google Maps, TripAdvisor and Citymapper have made planning journeys around the city much easier, these platforms are often not as useful for those with additional needs. The standard navigation apps often do not include information about accessibility or when they do it is incomplete or unreliable. When reliable accessibility information is included, it is often in the form of labels like ‘accessible or ‘inaccessible’, which is unhelpful as people’s accessibility needs are diverse.

Apps like SociAbilitiy and AccessAble are aiming to provide an alternative to TripAdvisor and Yelp that do include detailed and reliable accessibility information about shops, restaurants, museums and other venues across cities in the UK and the US.

Meanwhile, CityMaas helps those with disabilities plan their travel to these venues by generating travel routes that include a range of accessible transport modes. If assistance is needed at any or all stages of the journey, the CityMaaS Assist will even help arrange that. Booking is taken care of in-app, and it covers everything from bike hire to the subway.

French startup Wheeliz is aiming to increase the amount of affordable accessible transport available by providing an Uber-style peer-to-peer user adapted car rentals service. Created in 2015, the website offers individual owners of an adapted car the possibility of renting it directly to a wheelchair user who needs it.

Finally, UK startup Wayfindr allows vision impaired individuals to navigate through transport hubs independently by providing auditory navigation cues. The cues are generated from bluetooth beacons placed in the stations which connect to the user’s phone and allow the user to receive the cues via an app.

Visiting shops and venues

Even when businesses or restaurants can be reached by accessible transport, visiting these venues can still pose challenges to those with additional needs. Often, visitors with accessibility requirements receive inadequate customer service due to lack of disability awareness and confidence of staff members.

The Welcome app developed by Neatebox aims to tackle this problem. Businesses can use the app to inform customers of their accessibility features, and users with disabilities can notify venues of their requirements before arrival. When a customer with additional needs notifies the venue of her intention to visit, staff receives information about their specific needs so that they can provide appropriate support once they arrive.

Handiscover provides a similar solution for travel accommodation. Through the platform, consumers can search for and book travel accommodation based on various accessibility needs and communicate their needs with the provider before booking their trip.

Finally, Be My Eyes allows visually impaired individuals to access products, services, and websites by connecting them with sighted volunteers or customer service representatives via live video call. Via the video call users receive visual assistance to navigate around shops, perform tasks and access information. The business model here is especially intriguing: Be My Eyes offers its accessible technology to businesses, who can use an advanced version of the Be My Eyes app to connect their customer service staff with blind and visually impaired individuals. For example, Microsoft uses Be My Eyes to provide blind or visually impaired customers with off-site technical support. Using a B2B model like the one Be My Eyes employs is a smart option for disability tech businesses, as it keeps the prices for the often expensive technology low for disabled users. In addition, when selling one’s products or services, businesses can be easier to reach than disabled individuals as there are pre-existing accessibility barriers that prevent those with disabilities from using the internet, smartphones and visiting venues.

The funding landscape

The disability tech market is still young and VC funding has been relatively low in the last decade. Out of 75 European assistive tech start-ups founded in the last 10 years that we looked at, only 9 had raised a series A round and only 3 had received series B funding.

However, the market has been growing and there is reason to think that it will continue to do so. According to a Crunchbase analysis, global venture investment in disability tech grew by 133% 2012 and 2017, from €108.6 million to €253.3 million per year. During that same period of time, the number of VC deals grew by 87 percent, from 38 deals struck in 2012 to 71 in 2017. An increased interest in disability tech can be explained by an increasing awareness that an ageing population means that more people will experience some form of disability during their lifetime.

Governments are beginning to take notice

Governments are also becoming increasingly interested in funding and supporting entrepreneurship in the field of assistive technology. The Canadian government was one of the early movers on this challenge, freeing up €15.3 million euros in 2017 to support innovators and entrepreneurs developing new assistive technologies.

In Europe, we have seen recent moves from cities and local governments to introduce new accessibility initiatives and programmes. For example, the German cities of Dortmund, Duisburg and Arnsberg secured €1.4 million in funding from the European Regional Development Fund to trial and implement assistive technologies to support independent living over the 2016-2019 period. The Netherlands is also exploring how to increase the implementation of assistive technologies, but with a focus on employment. In 2018, the UWV (the Dutch Employee Insurance Agency) commissioned by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, provided grants worth €300,000 for businesses and innovators to trial the use of assistive technologies to improve employee well-being.

Multiple local UK governments and cities have explored how they can develop assistive technologies for local services over the past six months. Notably, in September 2019, The East London Inclusive Enterprise Zone, which is a £1.2 million (€1.4 million) project aimed at incubating and accelerating accessible innovation enterprises, was launched as the result of a collaboration between the Greater London Authority, Hackney Council, several London universities and non-profit organisations. More recently, there have been similar moves in specific sectors, from healthcare to education. Northamptonshire County Council is currently tendering for enterprises to be part of an assistive technology framework aimed at technologies that support independent living at home. In addition, the Department for Education is looking for a delivery partner for an edtech assistive technology testbed programme.

One start-up that stands out for its collaboration with the UK government is Wayfindr. The navigation system for the vision impaired was awarded funding through the Transport Technology Research Innovation Grant and was given permission to trial its navigation tool on the London Underground at Euston and Pimlico station. Both of these trials have been a success and the start-up has been starting to roll out its technology in the US, while also implementing further trials to see how its technology can be used in different settings like hospitals and airports.

At PUBLIC, we work to help technology startups to solve some of the biggest challenges faced by today’s cities and governments. If you are a startup in the accessibility space, or a government official looking to tackle this problem, get in touch with us to explore how we can help.

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Uncategorized /

by Daniel Korski

Posted on 20 December 2019

Year in review: Five ways PUBLIC took GovTech to the next level in 2019

In 2019, GovTech hit the European mainstream: investors (public and private) finally started to throw their weight behind the concept that tech startups are the future of public services; digital transformation became the name of the game for a number of key players across the continent for whom the potential for innovation among private tech entrepreneurs became too obvious to ignore. In the UK alone, central government has taken pivotal first steps toward a framework that secures startups the access and opportunity essential to realising this potential.

I would like to think that PUBLIC played a small role in that shift. As it was for GovTech, 2019 was a massive year for PUBLIC in delivering on its vision of technology for a better-governed world. To list everything that we’ve achieved and everyone who has helped us or contributed to our vision would make for a long and boring post; the following are a few carefully chosen personal highlights for PUBLIC over the last year.

We built our GovTech community a home: PUBLIC Hall

A partner came to our new offices the other day, and as our conversation drew to a close, asked me: “what does ambition look like?”

I replied: “you’re standing in it.”

PUBLIC began three years ago in a dank basement, with only a dream of a greater platform from which we could realise our vision of a better-governed world.

In August – together with Huckletree – we launched PUBLIC Hall and made that dream a reality. No ordinary shared-working space, PUBLIC Hall is, for now, a one-of-a-kind GovTech hub in the heart of Whitehall. A place where innovative people building innovative tech can come together to share ideas, pitch to investors and forge valuable connections.

The practical benefits of PUBLIC Hall are obvious – it is a convenient, well-located and efficient shared working space for like-minded entrepreneurs.

For us though, PUBLIC Hall’s opening is symbolic of the community we’ve built and the huge distance we’ve travelled together in a very short time. A few years ago, no one had heard of GovTech. Now, a cohort of entrepreneurs dedicated to transforming PUBLIC services has a physical presence directly on the doorstep of the corridors of power.

To be perfectly placed to knock on the doors of Whitehall would be fantastic in and of itself, but we’ve been humbled by the response from every corner of government and public sector. In just five months, we’ve had the privilege of welcoming dozens of ministers and officials, keen to find out more about PUBLIC and its partners – Matt Hancock, Secretary of State for Health even joined us for the official launch party!

The first ever European GovStart cohort

GovStart’s third year was a little different than in years past. Having opened up applications earlier in the year, we launched the first ever pan-European GovStart programme in July with a visit to 10 Downing Street.

From then until the end of December, PUBLIC’s teams in London, Paris and Berlin have worked hard to leverage our expertise and networks on behalf of 14 outstanding startups – three French, three German, and eight UK firms – chosen from over 300 applications; including:

Cyan Forensics – a public safety company – benefited from the strategic support the team offer ahead of the delivery of a Home Office contract to improve the capabilities of the Child Abuse Image Database (CAID), to come into effect in early 2020.
Cinapsis – a healthtech company – which we were proud to assist in securing a new contract with Gloucestershire Integrated Care System; this contract will allow Cinapsis to continue transforming the working lives of front line hospital staff and save the NHS millions of pounds a year.
BookB – an early stage company, which, by delivering books to users’ doors, ensures libraries can reach everyone. Our wonderful GovStart team guided the startup through its first pilot with Westminster Council.
Award-winning healthtech company Vinehealth: GovStart has provided Vinehealth with access to PUBLIC’s technology stack and helped them prepare for product launch in the new year.

On top of this, we’ve also had the honour of delivering a range of GovStart events and achievements, including: bringing our cohort companies together with ministers, officials, investors and others; continuing our fantastic startup speed-dating events; helping with fundraising for a number of our 2018 and 2019 startups; and tackling the issues that matter to all of us – last month we held a roundtable on online safety, chaired by Baroness Shields, a former Minister for Internet Safety and Security and which included GovStart company Cyan Forensics, IWF, Securium, Yoti, Censorpic, Crisp Thinking, Safe to Net and NSPCC.

2019 has been a huge year for GovStart. With applications for the 2020 round due to start early next year, I’m looking forward to hearing the next wave of ideas that could change the world for the better.

PUBLIC scales-up

At only three years old, PUBLIC is a young company; this time last year, a team of 13 based across London, France and Germany had punched well above their weight to deliver far more than I and my co-founder Alex would have thought possible in just one year.

With that level of over-achievement, growth was inevitable and 2019 did not disappoint. With an end of year headcount of 28, PUBLIC has doubled its offering in just 12 months and we only plan to keep going in 2020.

When the opportunity arose to open an office in Denmark, it was one none of us could resist. Within months, our fantastic new Copenhagen team had partnered with the Danish Business Authority to launch and run the second wave of the DBA’s GovTech Program – a challenge based initiative that partners entrepreneurs with the public-sector in a state that’s undergoing an incredibly exciting digital transformation.

PUBLIC sells Freeup to Greensill

If one success in 2019 defines what it is that PUBLIC brings to the table, it is our FreeUp story.

FreeUp grew out of an idea I pitched to Alex back in 2015; an ethical fintech business that offers advance salary payments to workers. It occurred to us: why should salaried employees who find themselves struggling have to feel powerless, knowing that payment for the work they had already contributed may still be days or even weeks away? FreeUp will pay people in real time – closing that gap; some have already speculated a role for it in ending super-high interest payday loans.

We brought in a great founding team – Reuben Saxon, David Townsend, and Marta Krupinska – to get the idea off the ground. Thanks to Reuben, David and Marta’s great work building the business from the ground up, finance firm Greensill recognised the incredible potential of the idea even before it launched its full offering; and in October 2019, PUBLIC sold the business to the Softbank-backed firm.

This is what makes PUBLIC different; we have the expertise, skills, and networks that are essential to turn a great idea into an incredible business; but, like Freeup, PUBLIC is all about tech for good; Freeup is both the validation of that ethos and an example of PUBLIC’s commitment to using our expertise and networks to give great ideas the platform they demand.

The GovTech Summit

One day; six stages; 600 startups; 1500 attendees; 83 inspiring speakers; 13 fantastic sponsors; 2 rounds of competitive pitching; more than 50 articles and opinion pieces read by nearly half a million people; the top trending hashtag on Twitter across France on the day:

The 2019 GovTech Summit brought the European GovTech community together for a day of fascinating discussion on how to foster innovation and tech adoption in public services.

Nowhere have I seen the transformative potential of technology on society more visible than at the summit, which celebrated its second year in 2019. Hundreds of entrepreneurs; investors and public-sector pioneers descended on the Palais Brongiart in Paris on 14 November to connect, reflect, and have their take on the biggest barriers the GovTech sector is facing today.

Kicked off by President of Estonia, Kersti Kaljulaid, and with speakers from governments across Europe, this year’s event was evidence that the public sector is taking GovTech seriously. We’ll be announcing the date and location of the 2020 summit early next year, but for now I want to thank all the speakers, guests, sponsors and partners, and all those who played a part in the summit.

To all our friends, startups, partners and everyone else who played a part in PUBLIC’s 2019 – have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year! We’ll see you in 2020.

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News /

by Imogen Granger

Posted on 17 December 2019

PUBLIC 2019: Year In Review

2019 has been a huge year for PUBLIC. From launching the first ever pan-European GovTech program and taking on 14 new companies, to moving into PUBLIC Hall and doubling our team across four offices – here are some of our top achievements from this year.

JANUARY

GovStart company Patchwork is nominated for the 2019 HSJ partnership awards

GovStart company Valerann closes $5m seed funding round

GovStart company Headlight AI secures Innovate UK funding

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FEBRUARY

Applications open for GovStart 2019 in the UK, France, and Germany – over 300 companies apply!

PUBLIC launches Danish Office in Copenhagen

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MARCH

GovStart company Patchwork wins HSJ Partnership Award

GovStart company Goodbox wins Red Dot Design Award after launching GBx Core

GovStart company Accelerated Dynamics acquired by Animal Dynamics

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APRIL

‘Buying Into The Future’ Report is launched – outlining why working with startups should be a key policy priority for Government, and how it will benefit the wider UK economy

PUBLIC announces opening of PUBLIC Hall in Summer 2019

Co-Founder and CEO Daniel Korski speaks to the World Bank emphasising the importance of new technology in fighting poverty

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MAY

PUBLIC announces 2nd GovTech Summit in November 2019

GovStart companies Novoville and Apolitical make the EU-startups top 10 GovTech startups In Europe

GovStart company Adzuna is listed among the UK’s fastest growing exporters by the Sunday Times

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JUNE

PUBLIC hosts GovTech Summer Drinks to celebrate the end of London Tech Week 2019

PUBLIC newsletter is featured in Apolitical’s Government Innovation Atlas

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JULY

GovStart company Goodbox is shortlisted for Great British Entrepreneur Awards

GovStart company Patchwork is named supplier on new Crown Commercial Service Staff Bank Framework

GovStart company Futr secures £2.4 million investment

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AUGUST

PUBLIC co-hosts the Innovation Tent at BigTent Ideas Festival

PUBLIC launches first ever European GovStart cohort across the UK, France and Germany at No.10

‘Future Technologies Review’ report is launched – outlining the key technologies shaping the future of the geospatial sector, including artificial intelligence, drones and Internet of Things

PUBLIC officially moves into new offices at PUBLIC Hall

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SEPTEMBER

PUBLIC attends the Labour Party Conference in Brighton

‘Time For Launch’ report is released – surveying innovative new products and services using space and satellite technologies

‘Future of Trade 2.0’ report is launched – identifying the key technologies transforming the maritime trade sector.

GovStart company RedSift announces $8.8m Series A funding

GovStart 2019 company Cyan Forensics is awarded contract to deliver CAID’s Fast Forensics Capability

Danish team launches second round of GovTech programme

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OCTOBER

PUBLIC Hall features in GQ magazine for its fantastic location opposite the MoD.

German GovStart 2019 company Polyteia wins Smart City Startup Award in Berlin

FreeUp is acquired by SoftBank-backed Greensill

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NOVEMBER

PUBLIC successfully executes 2nd ever GovTech Summit in Paris

‘GovTech en France’ report is launched at GovTech Summit sizing the French GovTech market at €16bn – the largest in Europe.

GovStart 2019 company Cyan Forensics wins Pitch Competition

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DECEMBER

PUBLIC Hall hosts Election Night Party with exit poll discussions with Ayesha Hazarika and James O’Shaughnessy

PUBLIC expands team to 28 members from 13 in 2018

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Uncategorized /

by Odhran O Donoghue

Posted on 30 September 2019

The Five Most Innovative European Universities

With access to government institutions, students and academics with political and technical education, and a drive to innovate, universities in capital cities are uniquely positioned to be centres of GovTech. Many European universities are now taking up that mantle, and have established schools and departments to specifically focus on digitisation and innovation in governance. We have picked the top five GovTech universities from across Europe who are ahead of the pack and are actively revolutionising services.

Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia

As a nation where voting can be done over the Internet and every citizen has access to a digital identifier, Estonia fully embraces govtech. A university at the forefront of this movement is the Tallinn University of Technology; TalTech is home to the Ragnar Nurkse Institute for Information and Governance, which specialises in digital governance and public sector innovation. Current projects include SOHJOA Baltic – a project to integrate self-driving buses into the city of Tallinn, and COSMOLOCALISM – a European Research Council-funded project to assess the sustainability and impact of local manufacturing using designs from online commons. TalTech offers Masters courses and PhDs in Digital Transformation in the Public Sector and Smart Cities, amongst many other subjects.

University College London, England

The UCL Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy (STEaPP) is a leader in teaching and research on digital technology policy, sustainable development and urban innovation. STEaPP offers Masters courses in Public Administration across five specialist GovTech themes, and offers both research-focused and policy-focused doctoral training courses. UCL is also home to the GovTech Lab which explores the interface between government and emerging technologies such as AI, blockchain and internet of things technology. Finally, the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, directed by Mariana Mazzucato is changing how public value is imagined, practiced and evaluated to tackle societal challenges – delivering economic growth that is innovation-led, sustainable and inclusive.

The Hertie School of Government, Germany

With more than half of the students in the university coming from abroad, the Hertie School is an international hub for the study and research of governance and public policy. Hertie offers education in digital transformation of governance and public sector innovation. The Hertie School is currently involved in a consortium of Berlin universities that form the Berlin Centre for Consumer Policies (BCCP). With a recent funding round of 1.1 million euros The BCCP aims to create an international platform for interdisciplinary research on consumer policies, to inform policymakers on issues relevant to the public debate. Hertie also runs a data science lab for tackling public policy challenges, and the university is currently creating a new centre for digital governance.

Sciences Po, France

As a historical centre of Parisian political education, Sciences Po is actively integrating GovTech into its curriculum. Digital, New Technology and Public Policy forms one of the 12 core policy streams of the institution. Sciences Po is also partnering with institutions across the city to deliver leading education in GovTech: with the Striate School of Design and Télécom ParisTech it is delivering a two-year masters in innovation and digital transformation in government. Furthermore, Sciences Po’s internal incubator has supported multiple GovTech companies, ranging from HubUp which aims to improve fleet management for public transport, to Datagora which looks to democratize access to statistical data for fact-checking.

IE University, Spain

IE University in Madrid is home to The Center for the Governance of Change. The centre researches the big data, changing demographics, blockchain systems, sustainable development, biotech, and AI, all within the context of its political, economic and societal implications. It integrates such teaching into its curriculum, and runs executive programs that focus on these matters. IE is also home to the PublicTech Lab, which is a true hub to all things GovTech. It hosts a start-up catalyst program specific to addressing public problems. Combined with this, the lab runs a public service design lab to develop intrapreneurship: here, civil servants are taught to work with new digital technologies, and are given the opportunity to collaborate with citizens, designers and developers. IE also actively add to the GovTech ecosystem, producing events, reports and case studies.

Want to discover more about the GovTech industry & meet exciting innovators, investors & public servants making a difference? Come to the GovTech Summit in Paris on 14 Nov 2019 – Get your tickets here!

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Europe’s Leading GovTech Cities /

by Ramraj Puvinathan

Posted on 27 November 2018

Paris’s Top 10 GovTech Startups

With an ambitious commitment to innovation and entrepreneurship from both central and local government, Paris is rapidly positioning itself as one of the world’s premier GovTech hubs.

Guided by its 2020 smart and sustainable city strategy, Paris is proactively taking the lead to create an ‘open, connected and innovative’ urban environment, by encouraging citizen participation, making data open, and supporting a better connected innovation ecosystem.

The city ranks second in Europe in the Global Open Data Index, and has partnered with NUMA, an innovation hub and accelerator, to create DataCity Paris – an initiative bringing together entrepreneurs and investors to use public data to solve urban problems. Similarly, the city’s economic development organisation, Paris&Co, pilots multi-sectoral smart city projects through its Urban Lab, offering a testbed for GovTech startups to pilot city-wide sustainability projects.

Paris is Europe’s leading city for using technology to promote citizen participation. ‘Madame la maire, j’ai une idée’ (‘Madame Mayor, I have an idea’) is an online civic engagement platform that crowdsources innovative new policy ideas directly from Parisian citizens. The city’s ‘Dans ma Rue’ application allows citizens to use their smartphones to report any local problems or issues directly to municipal officers.

From launching a fast-tracked international tech visa system to the announcement of a new €10 billion innovation fund, the French government is also championing startups at a national scale. La France Tech, a network for entrepreneurs, is the cornerstone of the government’s strategy to promote the French startup ecosystem. The country also offers one of Europe’s most generous R&D tax credit systems for SMEs, as well as an annual innovation fund of €1 billion through Bpifrance – the French public investment bank.

The French government has also pioneered numerous programmes to promote cooperation between entrepreneurs and the government. In particular, DITP and DINSIC have lead on initiatives such as the EIG and Startups d’Etat, which both aim to work with entrepreneurs to solve problems faced by ministries and public organisations.

Beyond public efforts, investors and innovators in the private sector are developing the city’s startup ecosystem. Paris’ Station F is the largest startup campus in the world, hosting over 1000 startups and corporate partners. Growing confidence in the maturing

French startup ecosystem has translated into tangible investment in early stage ventures. In 2017, French startups raised €2.7 billion in growth funding via 688 VC-backed rounds – the highest number of rounds of anywhere in Europe.
With world-class research institutions and a mature startup and venture ecosystem, it is unsurprising that Paris was chosen as the location for Europe’s first GovTech Summit, in November 2018.

Top 10 GovTech Startups

Fluicity is a citizen engagement app that allows users to propose ideas, vote for others’ ideas, report local problems, and take part in direct consultations.

Manty collects and visualises data to help public officials to model and measure public policy initiatives, and benchmark against cities and administrations internationally.

Bob Emploi provides a complete review of a jobseeker’s profile, target market, and search techniques to offer personalised advice on the job market.

Padam develops AI-powered demand-responsive public transport systems, including simulation software to optimise the design of transport services.

Plume Labs has developed a smart air quality tracker application that maps a city’s air pollution variations in real-time and visualises the data on a live dashboard.

Doctolib is an online platform that allows patients to book nearby medical appointments, simplifying the booking process for both patients and doctors.

Birdz installs smart remote water consumption meters, collecting hundreds of millions data points to help cities to reduce their energy and utilities bills

medGo is a platform for the management of vacations and overtime staffing in hospitals, reducing the use of third-party agencies and saving time spent on administration.

Karos is a car-sharing app that automatically connects drivers and passengers based on the location of their daily routes.

A2JOB is a digital recruitment platform for health professionals and social workers. optimised for filling urgent or short-term staffing gaps.

Read our latest report, The European 150, to find out more about all 15 of our leading GovTech cities!

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News /

by PUBLIC

Posted on 17 September 2018

Join us at the GovTech Summit in Paris!

The GovTech Summit will be held at the Hôtel de Ville on 12 November 2018 – register here!

We’re delighted to announce that PUBLIC is organising the first ever European GovTech Summit on Monday 12 November 2018, at the Paris City Hall. In partnership with President Emmanuel Macron and with the support of the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, and the European Commission, the GovTech Summit will for the first time gather European leaders and innovators to discuss how technology can help transform governments and democratic practices.
This event comes at a time where new technologies have shown the potential to transform and radically improve the way that citizens interact with local and central government services, creating a new era of cheaper, smarter and more citizen-focused public services. We passionately believe that Europe should be at the forefront of this change, becoming the home of this new technology sector – the GovTech sector – which can help transform European public services for a new century, underpinned by European values, principles and sensibilities. The benefits will be legion, in terms of better, cheaper and more personalised services.

The event will bring the European GovTech ecosystem – startups, government and technology – together to re-shape the future of public services and democracy. The 1-day summit will feature more than 90 speakers, covering topics from transport to healthcare, from security to international development, from e-government to citizen engagement. In addition, attendees will participate in cutting-edge debates, panel discussions and networking sessions, all exploring the future of Europe’s most exciting new ecosystem.

Why You Should Come

For startups, the Summit provides an opportunity to meet investors and buyers, and showcase their innovative solutions, with events such as the #PitchGovTech competition, the largest ever startup pitch event in the industry.
For the public sector, the event is a chance to meet and hear from Europe’s leading policy makers and innovators from across both the public sector and tech industry.
For corporates and investors, the Summit presents the future of an exciting new industry and a chance to network with the founders developing the latest solutions and buyers looking for new business ideas.

The GovTech Summit will reimagine services that place citizens at the centre of public action, where public servants have an array of technology-enabled resources and information at their fingertips, and can use new, dynamic ways of delivering better, more efficient, more citizen-focused services.
We hope that you – entrepreneur, investor, public official, civil servant or academic – can join us in Paris for the inaugural GovTech Summit, helping to create this real European technology opportunity.

Daniel & Alex, Founders of PUBLIC

If you would like to attend the GovTech Summit, register here!

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Future of GovTech / Intelligence /

by Francisca Jorge

Posted on 29 August 2018

The GovTech Startups Transforming Europe, By Country

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PUBLIC outlines the most exciting GovTech startups transforming the European public services from HealthTech to CivicTech, from Austria to the UK.
Across the world, the modern state is undergoing an extraordinary transformation. A new generation of technology is changing the way countries – and, indeed, local and federal governments – collect taxes, provide healthcare, distribute welfare, keep citizens safe, manage public transport, and deliver all kinds of key public services. In a surprisingly short time, the entire way a state engages with its citizens will be different. Driving this change is the rise of GovTech – new technologies applied to public services, designed for local and central governments. The phenomenon is happening globally, in countries large and small. In particular, the last few years have seen a remarkable growth in the European GovTech ecosystem – in this article, we outline the European GovTech startups that are transforming public services, delivering smarter, more efficient solutions for European citizens.
?? Austria – Enpulsion, a spin out from University of Applied Sciences Wiener Neustadt, has developed a unique propulsion technology optimised for launching small satellites into orbit. The company has raised 3.4 million euros to date — 1 million for European Space Agency research and 2.4 million from private sources and the European Commission.
?? Belgium – Cubigo is an online platform that connects community staff, residents and family members to improve the experience of senior living communities. This includes a single platform for managing dining, maintenance, transportation, communication and other activities – which not only improves the lives of senior residents, but also delivers more efficient community workflows and lower operating costs.
?? Denmark – Monsenso is a HealthTech startup that provides a platform to support individuals suffering from mental health problems by creating a ‘triple-loop care‘ that engages clinicians, patients and carers. Its mHealth solution encourages individuals to engage in self-care, helps carers play a more active role in their treatment and provides clinicians with a remote monitoring tool that assists them to make clinical decisions.
?? Estonia – Skeleton Technologies has developed a technology that enables companies to reach significant energy savings in a wide variety of industries ranging from automotive, transportation, and maritime, all the way to renewable energy, power grids, industrial applications, and aerospace. They are currently working with the European Space Agency and several Tier 1 automotive manufacturers.
?? Finland – Huoleti is a crowdsourcing care platform that supports patients who have just been diagnosed with a severe illness. Its mobile app allows citizens to build peer support networks and to invite carers and loved ones to help them on an everyday basis.
?? France – Fluicity has found a way to deal with the crisis of trust between citizens and politicians. They have created an app that aims to bring to life citizens’ projects and ideas by enabling a dialogue between elected officials and citizens. They have been operating across local governments in France and Belgium: for example, 12% of the population in Vernont are using Fluicity, which led to the repair a faulty public lighting within a few hours of being notified to the city via the app.
?? Germany – ParkHere is a spin-off of the Technical University of Munich that has developed a self-powered parking sensor. They have estimated that 30% of road traffic is due to drivers blindly driving down streets hoping for an open parking spot: a problem that their solution aims to fix. They are currently in operation in many cities around Europe, including Germany, Switzerland, Spain and France.
?? Greece – novoville is a citizen engagement platform that now operates in 40 cities across Europe. Citizens are provided with an app through which they can apply for services, report problems, and, most importantly, share their opinions. This information feeds through in real-time dashboard controlled by the council, allowing councillors to detect and solve problems quickly and efficiently, whilst seamlessly updating the citizen who has filed the report. Novoville won the Digital Citizenship Challenge on the Urban Challenge, an open call competition PUBLIC organised with the Mayor of the West Midlands, Andy Street.
?? Iceland – Ankeri’s mission is to change the global shipping industry by fostering more transparency and collaboration between ship owners and charterers. They developed a cloud-based platform that allows them to examine fuel performance and try to improve it together, leading to a more efficient transportation since customers pay for fuel.
?? Ireland – The HireLab is working with governments to give them freedom to manage their full hiring process, through an online platform with engaging candidate portals, flexible workflows, skills matching and hiring tools to provide a unique experience for their target talent market.
?? Italy – Comuni-Chiamo is a cloud solution to that aims at improving city management: from waste management calendars to communicating with citizens through an app. The startup is already working alongside 98 mayors for 4 million citizens across Italy.
?? Luxembourg – Because air pollution is the 4th highest risk factor for death globally and by far the leading environmental risk factor for disease, Footbot developed a device that makes pollution visible and then makes it disappear. It provides an air monitoring technology that allows the measurement of indoor pollution, leading to improved air quality in indoor public spaces.
?? Netherlands –Teqplay is disrupting the port logistics industry by providing real-time data management to port managers, who are then able to carry more efficient operations, through increased collaboration along the logistical chain.
?? Norway – In 2014, a Norwegian public investigation report was published on the use of interpretation services in the public sector that demonstrated a widespread use of interpreters without proper qualifications, which creates confusion and misunderstanding. In light of this problem, TikkTalk has created an open marketplace for interpretation services, that brings more quality and fairness to the trade – for both the interpreters and their clients. They work with public sector organisations to improve translation processes in courts, hospitals and asylum centres.
?? Poland – Ifinity provides beacons based tailor-made technology to cities and public spaces around the world to let people digitally interact with reality through their mobiles. For example, it is placing thousands of beacons around Warsaw to facilitate mobility for the visually impaired. The applied technology integrates with existing electronic systems at public offices and buses allowing them to navigate their way and providing them with remote services.
?? Portugal – myPolis is working with local authorities across the country to improve citizen engagement in an intuitive way through an app that allows any citizen with a smartphone to vote on political decisions, by gamifying the process.
?? Russia – Welltory is a HealthTech startup based in St. Petersburg that has developed an app that measures your stress & energy levels by analysing your heartbeat with your smartphone. It helps hard workers increase performance and productivity by monitoring stress and energy, finding optimal work and sleeping schedules, etc.
?? Serbia – A member of this year’s GovStart cohort, Strawberry Energy aims to reinvent the urban landscape, by creating smart and solar-powered urban furniture for smart and sustainable cities. They are now present in more than 30 cities (17 countries) all around the globe with clients such as: Ford, Cancer Research UK, Canary Wharf, Crown Estate, Orange, UNDP, Eon, EWZ etc. In London, there are Smart Benches in Southwark, Islington, Lewisham and Canary Wharf.
?? Spain – Unblur is a security startup that has developed an intelligent assistant for commanders in the field, integrating dynamic information (from drones, cameras, GPS, etc.) with static information (from databases, maps, etc.) to provide in-depth situational intelligence.
?? Sweden – Mapillary is a global network of contributors who are working together to build better maps. Anyone can join and collect street-level images, using simple tools like smartphones or personal cameras. With computer vision, it connects images across time and space to create immersive street-level views and extract map data.
?? UK – Adzuna is a search engine for job ads that lists every job, everywhere. Recently, thanks to our GovStart GovStart accelerator, Adzuna was successfully awarded a £2.5m p.a. contract with the Department for Works and Pensions to power Universal Jobmatch: the Government’s job board.
? Get in touch with us on Twitter if you know any other exciting tech startups transforming public services, across Europe!
You’re a GovTech Entrepreneur and you’d like to promote your idea & expand your business? Join us at the GovTech Summit – register here!
If you want to learn more about the GovTech industry and the state of the UK market, check our report!
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