Boosting European Innovation at Ultimate Demo Day 2025
As coordination partners of the ScaleUp Programme, CARNET has a front-row view of how the initiative is accelerating Europe’s mobility ecosystem. Each year, the programme improves through sharper scouting, stronger pan-European outreach, and a support journey fully aligned with the needs of both founders and investors. By combining tailored mentoring, ESG-driven growth, and high-impact events like Tomorrow.Mobility and Ultimate Demo Day, CARNET continues to turn the programme into a consistent pipeline of de-risked, investment-ready ventures.
For the 10 mobility startups supported through the 2025 edition, Ultimate Demo Day delivered direct access to investors, focused conversations, and concrete next steps beyond the stage. The day began with an exclusive VC session facilitated by EIT Urban Mobility, bringing the selected startups together with venture capital funds and corporates, including Rethink Ventures, BMW i Ventures, Climate Founders, VOLVO, and Audi. Each startup pitched in a closed setting, followed by structured networking and targeted meetings.
Mina Kolagar, COO at PANTOHealth, highlighted the format’s impact. “The short pitch at the pre-event was a good format. It sparked potential collaboration with both investors and startups. We now have follow-up meetings with investors who will connect us with others in their network.”
Christoph Tullius from Ecoro shared a similar experience, as “The VC session was really good, especially the speed dating where we met potential investors and clients. We managed to get contact information and scheduled meetings with both investors and clients.”
Following this early access, the startups stepped onto the main stage at Ultimate Demo Day, featuring presentations across three stages and more than 100 investors. Three EIT Urban Mobility-supported startups (Replan, Syntonym, and Ecoro) pitched in the “Urban Frontier” category. Ecoro was named session winner, demonstrating the strength of its driverless shuttles for automated pallet transport and its readiness for investor engagement.
Beyond the stage, the event’s structured matchmaking platform allowed founders and investors to book 20-minute one-to-one meetings throughout the day. For the startups, this translated into increased visibility, follow-up meetings, investor introductions, and early discussions around partnerships, pilots, and funding. Ultimate Demo Day 2025 proved how targeted preparation, curated investor access, and the right event format accelerate the journey from scale-up to scale-out across European cities.
“As coordinators of the programme, CARNET sees first-hand how the ScaleUp Mobility Programme has evolved from a strong acceleration initiative into a true European deal-flow engine for urban mobility,” says Cristina Juárez, CIO at CARNET. “The quality and maturity of the teams keeps rising, as founders now arrive not just for coaching, but with clear scale-out ambitions, and Ultimate Demo Day is where those ambitions meet capital and concrete opportunities.”
Turning conversations into opportunities
Beyond the stage, Ultimate Demo Day is known for its structured matchmaking format. Through a dedicated platform, founders and investors could book 20-minute one-to-one meetings throughout the day, interwoven with pitch rounds, keynotes, and networking breaks.
For the start-ups participating in the EIT Urban Mobility-funded programme, this meant efficient access to decision-makers and the ability to build on the momentum created during the morning VC session. The result was not only increased visibility, but also follow-up meetings, investor introductions, and early discussions around partnerships, pilots, and funding. Ultimate Demo Day 2025 demonstrated how targeted preparation, curated investor access, and the right event format can accelerate the journey from scale-up to scale-out across European cities.
The ScaleUp Mobility Programme 2025 is led and coordinated by CARNET-UPC (Barcelona) with support from Mobile World Capital Barcelona (Barcelona), PowerHUB (Prague), UnternehmerTUM (Munich), and DTU Science Park (Copenhagen), and supported by EIT Urban Mobility.
