REACH Incubator - Part 1 of our experience

With our startup Urban Monkeys GmbH we are currently funded by the REACH Incubator of the European Union. What is the program and what have we learned so far?

About the REACH Incubator

Young companies from the EU have been able to apply for funding through the REACH Incubator in recent years. Data-based ideas are funded - across (almost) all industries.

REACH has already defined major, EU-wide relevant topics for Data Value Chains before the application phase, and also collected challenges from Data Providers in the EU.

As an applicant, there are 3 tracks to choose from:

• Theme Driven

• Ready Made

• Free Choice

In the Theme Driven Track you work on a Data Value Chain topic to be solved for an industry. In the Ready Made Track, you work specifically with one of REACH's data providers to find a solution to the problem. In the Free Choice Track, one can independently partner with a Data Provider and apply together.

Urban Monkeys is partnering with the Spanish data provider Play&Go in the Ready Made Track. Play&Go develops tourism smartphone apps for events, attractions and cities throughout Spain. Together with Play&Go, Urban Monkeys is working on how to measure and visualize tourist flows in cities in a GDPR-compliant way. The goal is to help cities, tourism offices and private tourism businesses make better decisions and, for example, help distribute tourist flows more efficiently throughout the city. This is especially relevant in very touristy places ("over-tourism").

More about REACH can be found here: https://www.reach-incubator.eu/ and in the following blog articles, which we will post about our experiences here