The Ontario Centres of Excellence invests in projects and people to accelerate industry R&D to impact the Ontario economy through the commercialization of leading edge research.  OCE invests in - Industry-Academic collaborative research - Commercialization of academic research through licensing and spin off companies - Early stage seed financing of start-ups - Skills development for high quality personnel  The Ontario Centres of Excellence is a not-for-profit corporation founded in 1987. Core funding is provided by the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation

Ontario Centres of Excellence

Smats Traffic Solutions

Smats Traffic Solutions is a Developer of smart vehicle traffic platform designed to change the way vehicle traffic flows on roadways and across ports and borders. The company's platform utilizes hardware sensors as well as machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms to generate actionable traffic analytics data for better monitoring and management of congestion and provides hardware and software system for fast, affordable, accurate and easy collection and analysis of traffic data, enabling appropriate decision makers to manage the traffic patterns in their organizations.

<div>SMATS is a Canada-based mobility data provider that collects, analyzes, and provides insights on traffic data. The firm provides hardware and software solutions for monitoring congestion around traffic lights and work zones, detecting traffic bottlenecks, and conducting traffic and signal re-timing studies to help transport planning departments to manage and optimize traffic networks. The firm's flagship product &ldquo;iNode,&rdquo; is a cloud-based traffic data analytics platform that gathers data from its proprietary WiFi and Bluetooth travel time sensors to provide 1) a real-time traffic map, 2) traffic alerts and trends, and 3) advanced traffic analytics.</div>

Information to create a more efficient, cleaner and safer way to travel in the city of the future

Smart Mobility Information

SMATS

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 SMATS is a Canada-based mobility data provider that collects, analyzes, and provides insights on traffic data. The firm provides hardware and software solutions for monitoring congestion around traffic lights and work zones, detecting traffic bottlenecks, and conducting traffic and signal re-timing studies to help transport planning departments to manage and optimize traffic networks. The firm's flagship product &ldquo;iNode,&rdquo; is a cloud-based traffic data analytics platform that gathers data from its proprietary WiFi and Bluetooth travel time sensors to provide 1) a real-time traffic map, 2) traffic alerts and trends, and 3) advanced traffic analytics. 
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 In August 2021, the firm entered into a strategic partnership with Wejo, a provider of connected vehicle data, in order to introduce subscription-based, software-only solutions. This would allow users to access SMATS traffic analytics platform leveraging crowdsourced and connected vehicle data. In June 2021, the SMATS platform was integrated with Smartmicro, a provider of radar-based sensor technology to enhance its data-gathering capabilities.
 
 
 As of March 2022, the firm's platform was used by city municipalities, universities, institutes, and firms in the US, Canada, and Europe. This included the Florida Department of Transport, City of Ottawa, Western Michigan University, Canadian Heritage, and Salander Technology. 
 In August 2022, the company 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/12359">
 partnered with smart mobility solutions provider Smart City NZ
 </a>
 to bring AI-powered traffic data solutions to transportation officials in New Zealand.
 
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 Replica is an urban planning and simulation tool that helps city planners and transport operators assess current and future transport requirements. The firm gathers data including mobility metrics covering a variety of modes of transport, demographics, land use, and economic metrics from several sources including de-identified data gathered from smartphones of commuters. 
 
 
 Replica&rsquo;s unique offering is a city simulation model that applies proprietary synthetic population and behavior models powered by AI and machine learning to create large-scale simulations or &ldquo;digital twins&rdquo; of the transportation and economic patterns of a city. In 2021, the firm claimed to have grown its activity-based travel demand simulator to cover the entire US, creating the first nationwide travel model of its kind.
 
 
 Replica started off (in 2018) as a project of Sidewalk Labs, a subsidiary of Alphabet, to experiment with smart city projects. In September 2019, the project was spun-off from its parent as a standalone company, while Sidewalk Labs remained an investor in the firm. 
 
 
 In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the firm created a public dashboard and trend analysis tool providing weekly data on mobility, consumer spending, and public health to monitor the progression of the pandemic and the economic recovery. 
 
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 
 As of February 2022, the firm partnered with public agencies and private firms in the US, including the Chicago Transit Authority, Illinois Department of Transportation, Caltrans, and Broward Metropolitan Planning Organization. 
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 
 In April 2021, Replica raised USD 41 million in Series B funding led by Founders Fund. Replica planned to use this to expand its service offerings to include forecasting and scenario modeling tools.
 
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Replica

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 Cowlines is a transport planning app that provides information covering multiple modes of travel including bus, subway, tram, bikeshare, and ferries. The app is free for commuters on the Apple App Store and is also available to transport operators as a white label product. 
 
 
 The app was developed by Greenlines Technology, a developer of human-based decarbonization solutions, built on its proprietary patent-pending mobility carbon engine (MCE). The firm claimed that since 2019, it had generated revenue from verified carbon offsets produced by commuters, using its transport apps when they choose low-carbon transport modes such as public transit, micromobility, and ride-hailing services. 
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 
 As of February 2022, the app covers 62 cities in the US and Canada. The firm also licenses its MCE where transport operators can incorporate it into their own transport apps. A case in point is, Loopshare, a micromobility ride-sharing firm that entered a licensing agreement with Greenlines Technology in January 2020.
 
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Cowlines

Founded in Ukraine before subsequently moving its operations to Spain, Discoperi provides AI-powered smart vision technologies for improving road safety. It developed “system eye,” a portable smart camera equipped with vision technology that gathers and analyzes data in real-time, providing an in-vehicle road safety alert system. Its vision technology system can also be integrated into third-party in-vehicle internet of things (IoT) devices. The system is built on blockchain technology, which gathers and stores data in a privacy-preserving manner. Discoperi also claimed it is working to bring its system eye service to smartphones without the need for any additional hardware. The firm’s solutions are targeted at drivers, insurance companies, transport agencies, driving schools, and city municipalities.In 2020, the firm also launched “City AI,” a B2B solution for public agencies, such as police, city planners, and road maintenance workers, for mobility data gathering, analyzing, predicting, and identifying issues to improve road safety. Its vision technology can be integrated into any existing roadside cameras and it claims its system has a 96%+ accuracy in identifying 3,000+ vehicle models.Key customers and partnershipsThe firm reported in 2020 that it generated its first revenue by converting two pilot projects in Ukraine into paying customers. In 2021, it planned to enter one additional market while growing its presence in the Ukraine market.Funding and financialsBoth its products were at the pilot stage and in November 2018, it received a grant of USD 71,400 from the European Commission to develop its System EYE platform. Since then, the firm raised an undisclosed amount in March 2019 in a pre-seed funding round.In May 2022, the firm was selected to receive support from Google as part of its USD 5 million Ukraine support fund. Discoperi will be amongst the first 17 startups to receive equity free cash contributions, Google Cloud credits and individual mentorship as part of this initiative.

Discoperi

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 Nauto provides an AI-powered driver and fleet safety platform. The platform applies computer vision and proprietary algorithms to its AI-enabled dual-facing dash camera. This monitors driver behavior and vehicle surroundings to predict high-risk events and send real-time in-vehicle alerts (IVA) to prevent pedestrian collisions, speeding and intersection violations, and distracted driving. In November 2019, the firm introduced self-coaching tools for drivers to improve distracted driving and manager-led coaching modules for commercial fleet managers. The firm claimed its tools had helped reduce distraction events by more than 35% on average. 
 
 The firm claimed to be the only AI-enabled platform that impacted driver behavior in real-time, which it claimed has led to the avoidance of 70,000+ collisions, resulting in a ~USD 300 million savings. 
 
 
 In November 2021, Nauto introduced a driver drowsiness detector system that monitors real-time multiple drowsiness indicators such as yawning, blink rate, drooping shoulders, etc. which will trigger in-vehicle alert (IVA) systems when a certain threshold is reached. 
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 
 As of February 2022, Nauto&rsquo;s platform was used by 800+ brands including Allegiant, Flexibus, Sprint, Edge, Phillips. 
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/19521">
 In June 2023,
 </a>
 Nauto secured a strategic investment from Stellantis Ventures, the venture capital arm of automaker Stellantis, to extend its safety benefits to more light commercial vehicles and, eventually, to consumer vehicles. The firm has also attracted investor interest from automakers like General Motor Ventures, Toyota AI Ventures, and BMW iVentures. It is believed that the firm's data can be leveraged for the development of self-driving cars in the future.
 
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Nauto

ParkNav is a web-based parking discovery platform that provides drivers with up-to-date on-street and off-street parking availability and parking restriction information.The firm’s edge is in the range of data sources it uses, including vehicle sensors, cell phone towers, satellite imagery, and proprietary sources, coupled with AI and big data analytics. According to the firm, it is recognized as a leader in the industry for its data accuracy, claiming an 80% precision rate for every city in its coverage.Key customers and partnershipsAs of February 2022, the platform covers 1,000+ cities across Europe and North America.

ParkNav

Startups that offer mobile apps that provide live information for route planning via multiple modes of transport

Startups offering management platforms to monitor, analyze, and automate traffic control

Startups offering mobile apps for drivers to locate, book, and pay for parking

Startups offering management platforms that provide information and analytics to optimize route planning and usage for mass transport

Startups offering mobile and in-vehicle apps that provide real-time alerts on road hazards and traffic conditions

Startups offering platforms to monitor, manage and enforce parking services

SMI tools promote sustainability and aim to reduce carbon emissions globally

Solutions like smart parking and traffic management use IOTs in vehicles and roadside hardware

Connecting smart mobility systems through peer-to-peer, vehicle-to-vehicle, and vehicle-to-infrastructure connectivity to promote sustainable transportation

5G and Edge computing have enabled the emergence of traffic management solutions

Transport planning and smart parking apps provide transparency on transport options and parking spots

SMATS

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