Of 120 applicants, EIT Urban Mobility portfolio company Nudgd has been selected as one of the five finalists for the Sustainable Cities Challenge 2025! Organised by the Toyota Mobility Foundation in collaboration with Challenge Works and the World Resources Institute, this challenge aims to solve specific mobility issues for many cities, including the city of Venice. Being selected as a finalist is an incredible achievement, especially given the global scale and interest in the competition.

Sustainable cities challenge: a nudge in the right direction 

Venice has made notable investments in sustainable infrastructure, including the development of a 180 km network of bicycle lanes. However, despite these efforts, the city continues to face a key challenge: the infrastructure remains largely underused.

To address this, Nudgd will leverage behavioural insights and digital innovation to deliver timely and personalised nudges to citizens to encourage the use of this existing infrastructure and other sustainable transport options.  

“We are incredibly proud to contribute to a more sustainable future in such an iconic city as Venice. This recognition shows the true power of behavioural design to create real change in people’s everyday lives,” said Katharina Paoli, CEO of Nudgd.

As part of this final stage of the competition, Nudgd has been granted $130,000 to implement their solution in Venice. If successful, they could receive a share of $1.5 million in implementation funding, shared among up to three overall winners. Along with financial benefits, this competition gives the opportunity to work directly with cities, along with other companies and stakeholders already working in the local ecosystem. 

Peter Vest, Investment & Portfolio Manager at EIT Urban Mobility, commented: “The fastest way to a greener future – especially in mobility – is to change our behaviour. Nudgd has identified this brilliantly and with every individual decision to walk or cycle, we see a compounding positive impact. As an impact investor and supporter of Nudgd, it is great to see recognition of this scale.” 

Meet the finalists of the Venice City Challenge

The Venice City Challenge is set to launch on 11 June 2024, and the winners will be announced in early 2026. Each participating city will see five finalists selected. Beyond Nudgd, these are the remaining four finalists:

• Factual, Gold Partner of EIT Urban Mobility. This innovation and strategy consulting firm is committed to transforming mobility through a digital tool that promotes sustainable mobility habits through innovative approaches like micro incentives.  
• Instant System, previous participants of other EIT Urban Mobility programmes and projects. By integrating public transport, shared and active mobility modes, this platform will offer a gamified user profile to encourage sustainable habits. Data insights will also help the city monitor mobility trends. Recently, they have also participated in The GreenMob project, aimed at reducing CO₂ emissions from motorised transport.
• Better Points, who since 2010 have combined technology and data to motivate and measure behaviour change for health and wellbeing, transport and mobility and climate change. They aim to build over 40 behaviour change techniques into their app, ensuring gamification, goal setting and other impactful approaches to deliver a modal shift. 
• UrbanTide X Love to Ride is a scalable, data-driven solution combining UrbanTide’s smart mobility insights delivered through its own platform, with Love to Ride’s proven behaviour change platform. Through targeted campaigns, real-time analytics and community engagement, they aim to make cycling more visible, motivating and accessible. 

Nudgd has already demonstrated success in Helsingborg, Sweden, as part of an EIT Urban Mobility RAPTOR call. Their approach led to a boost in cycling culture and earned a European award for its impact. Let’s hope for similar success in Venice!

To read more about Nudgd’s bid, the challenge and solution, click below: