The City of Yokohama has set up the Mobility Innovation Hub YOKOHAMA concept, aiming to become a city that attracts mobility startups from Japan and abroad, and is promoting support for the development of next-generation mobility technologies and their social implementation. Meanwhile, The Drivery, a German innovation support organisation specialising in the mobility sector, brings together startups, technicians, investors and others from Germany and abroad to support the creation of new businesses in the mobility sector. In July this year, the Mayor of Yokohama, Takeharu Yamanaka, visited The Drivery in Berlin, Germany, and exchanged views with Timon Rupp, CEO of The Drivery, and other exchanges and collaborations have been promoted. The Drivery will start full-fledged business activities in Yokohama in Japan, and an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) has now been signed between the two organisations to promote support for mobility startups in collaboration.
１ Main contents of the MOU (Memorandum of Understanding)
In order to promote mobility innovation in both Yokohama and Berlin, we will collaborate and cooperate in the following areas By building an environment where pioneering solutions can be piloted together with the city, we aim together to create a “Mobility Innovation Hub YOKOHAMA”, a city where the future of mobility in Japan and abroad will come together.
-promotion of the connection between mobility startups and big companies
– Encouraging participation in mobility startup development programmes through networks on both sides
・support for mobility startups to expand abroad
２ About「Mobility Innovation Hub YOKOHAMA」
The City of Yokohama is working to create startups and promote innovation in the field of mobility as one of its priority areas, taking advantage of the concentration of automobile-related companies in the city. Since June this year, the city has been working to attract mobility startups from both Japan and abroad and to support the development of next-generation mobility technologies and their social implementation under the concept of Mobility Innovation Hub YOKOHAMA, aiming to become a city where the mobility of the future will come together.
３ About「The Drivery」
The Drivery GmbH operates an innovation centre specialising in the field of mobility, including a manufacturing facility for prototype production and a space for small-scale driving tests at its spacious 12,000 m2 site. It brings together around 140 startups, large companies, technicians, investors and others from Germany and around the world to support the creation of new businesses through exchange and collaboration and has generated more than 650 billion in total funding in the first two years of its existence.
>The Drivery GmbH, Mariendorfer Damm 1 12099 Berlin, Germany, founded in 2019<
From today, The Drivery launches its full-fledged business activities in Japan at NANA Lv., an innovation hub for industry-academia collaboration on the seventh floor of the Yokohama Landmark Tower.
Reference: Previous cooperation between the City of Yokohama and The Drivery
The City of Yokohama cooperated in publicizing the German-Japanese bilateral startup acceleration programme conducted by The Drivery in FY2021.
In 2022, Yokohama City organised an exchange between start-ups belonging to The Drivery and companies in the city as part of a Yokohama City project (a project to promote cooperation between domestic and foreign companies in the mobility field).
In December 2022, CEO Timon Rupp met Mayor Yamanaka when he visited Yokohama as part of a Yokohama City project. Furthermore, when Mayor Yamanaka visited Germany in July 2023, he visited “The Drivery” in Berlin and exchanged opinions with CEO Timon Rupp.
