Toyota Mobility Foundation Names Venice Winners in Global Sustainable Cities Challenge

• BetterPoints Ltd and Factual Consulting SL, in partnership with OpenMove, named winners of the Toyota Mobility Foundation’s global challenge
• Winners use digital innovations and gamification to encourage residents and visitors to use low-carbon transportation
• Each winner will receive $500,000 in implementation funding to scale solutions in Venice

The Toyota Mobility Foundation (TMF) and City of Venice announced BetterPoints and OpenMove, in partnership with Factual Consulting, as the winners of Toyota Mobility Foundation’s Sustainable Cities Challenge (SCC) in Venice. The announcement marks the conclusion of the Venice section of TMF’s three-year global competition to support sustainable urban mobility solutions. In addition to Venice, Challenges were held simultaneously in Detroit, Michigan, and Varanasi, India.

While Venice is globally renowned for its historic canals, it is also a major transportation hub powered by a vast network of roads, rail links, and an international airport. The city has invested heavily in sustainable infrastructure, establishing almost 200 km of bike lanes and launching Italy’s first integrated hybrid car, bike, and e-scooter-sharing services. Venice is also rapidly improving the sustainability of its public transit system, deploying 30 new electric buses (with 44 more on the way), planning 90 fuel-cell buses by the end of 2026, and introducing more than 32 hybrid waterbuses to its canals by 2029.

Yet, these low- and zero-carbon options remain underutilized as residents habitually rely on car-based, long-standing transit routines. To bridge this gap, the Challenge called on innovators to create solutions tailored to the mainland and motorized islands, where the vast majority of citizens live and work. Ultimately, the goal was to inspire a shift toward sustainable travel, whether through public transit, active mobility–particularly through cycling and walking–or shared transit.

The Challenge winners are working to move local residents towards more sustainable mobility alternatives through smart, intuitive innovations that make travel more accessible and rewarding. Alongside helping riders plan and book seamless journeys on their phones, these innovators are using games, quizzes, incentives, and rewards to nudge users towards long-term use of the city’s sustainable mobility network. They also attended in-person community events to understand Venice residents’ needs, allowing those to be reflected in their solutions.

By facilitating residents’ and visitors’ access to Venice’s historic and modern transit links, ranging from waterbuses to land-based buses to scooter-sharing tools, the Challenge’s winning innovators are helping to build a less congested, sustainable city where transit systems are used to their full potential. The Toyota Mobility Foundation and the City of Venice are proud to announce this year’s winners:

BetterPoints Ltd, based in Surrey, England, works with businesses, public organizations, and universities to change the way people think about how they move. The team is using their app, Bella Mossa, to reward citizens for switching to more active and sustainable modes of travel. Over 40 techniques, ranging from gamification to local rewards programs, are built into the app and program to support successful behavioral change. From October 2025 to February 2026, Bella Mossa replaced 45,000 car journeys and resulted in 1,570 kilometers traveled by bicycle by non-typical bicyclists.

Jack Windle, Chief Sustainable Transport Officer at BetterPoints, said: “We are delighted to be named as a winner of the Sustainable Cities Challenge. With support from the Toyota Mobility Foundation and the Comune di Venezia, we have developed our Bella Mossa platform to offer tools including automatic trip recording, local rewards partnerships, and an ’Adopt a Folding Bike’ scheme to Venetians. We are excited to build on our success, fostering a culture of sustainable mobility in Venice and helping people to access and enjoy the great infrastructure the Commune is delivering.”

In partnership with OpenMove, Factual Consulting SL is an innovation and strategy consulting firm based in Barcelona, Spain committed to transforming mobility. The company’s winning digital platform, Andemo, promotes sustainable mobility habits through innovative approaches, such as micro-incentives, which use small rewards or tokens to drive behavioral change. Andemo achieved 1,750 downloads during its pilot period, with 87 percent of users accessing the app an average of three times per day. In-app surveys found that 77 percent of users felt Andemo improved their overall travel experience in Venice, and 56 percent reported an increased awareness of sustainable mobility topics.

Josep Bordella, CEO of Factual Consulting SL, said: “Factual Consulting is honored to be named a winner of the Sustainable Cities Challenge in Venice. Our solution, Andemo, aims to be more than just an app; it aspires to be a central tool for making transport more inclusive and accessible, connecting people to the best transport options their city has to offer. By lowering the barrier to try new transport modes, we hope to help create a sustainable future for tomorrow.”

The Sustainable Cities Challenge has funded and enabled the trialing of both winners’ solutions. Each winner previously received a total of $180,000 in implementation funding and will now utilize an additional $500,000 to scale their solutions in Venice. This implementation funding holds potential benefits not just for the winning innovators, but also for the city as a whole: as riders gain new tools to facilitate their use of public transit links, they could find themselves taking easier journeys leading to lower environmental impacts, with the potential to ease congestion on roads and highways.

Roberto Di Bussolo, Head of the Sustainable Mobility Sector, City of Venice said, “The Toyota Mobility Foundation recognized the significant growth potential that our city already possesses in the field of sustainable mobility. It was precisely this strength that led to our selection as one of only three cities worldwide where substantial resources will be invested in testing innovative mobility solutions. The challenge carried forward through the Sustainable Cities Challenge has provided the city with a unique opportunity to research and pilot new solutions capable of supporting residents, workers, students and visitors over time in adopting more sustainable mobility habits.”

The only European city selected to participate in the Challenge, Venice is one of three global cities participating in the Sustainable Cities Challenge, alongside U.S. host city, Detroit, Michigan, and Varanasi, India.

All three locations share common goals: to catalyze solutions that advance equitable, sustainable, and inclusive systems of movement.

Monica Perez Lobo, Program Director at Toyota Mobility Foundation Europe, commented: “At the Toyota Mobility Foundation, we believe the future of urban mobility lies in inclusive, human‑centred solutions that are both sustainable and scalable. Through the Sustainable Cities Challenge, we work with cities like Venice to turn ambition into action. Both winners demonstrate how innovation can motivate people to adopt more sustainable ways of moving, improving the quality of life while reducing emissions. Ultimately, our goal is to build a lasting legacy of sustainable and resilient cities.”

Kathy Nothstine, Director of Cities and Societies at Challenge Works, said: “It has been inspiring to see how the collaborative ecosystem we’ve built through this Challenge has empowered innovators to unlock Venice’s low-carbon mobility potential. At Challenge Works, we believe that city-led competitions are vital for surfacing localized solutions that have global potential. We are thrilled to see these innovators become winners, proving that smart, sustainable mobility is achievable when we prioritize human-centric design.”

Benjamin Welle, Director of Integrated Transport and Innovation at World Resources Institute, said: “We congratulate Venice, one of the world’s historic cities, as it moves its people more sustainably through the solutions of the Sustainable Cities Challenge. The impact will extend lessons to cities everywhere seeking innovative solutions to shape sustainable urban mobility.”

The Sustainable Cities Challenge is funded by the Toyota Mobility Foundation and conducted in collaboration with Challenge Works and World Resources Institute. Venice’s winners illustrate how supporting local innovators can create meaningful impact in communities, with the potential to scale solutions across cities and beyond.

For more information, visit sustainablecitieschallenge.org

Notes to Editors

All the winners are available for interviews. To schedule a time, please contact us at your earliest convenience. Images of the winners’ innovations are available here: Sustainable Cities Challenge - Winner Photos

For more information please contact: TMF@89up.org.

About Toyota Mobility Foundation

Toyota Mobility Foundation (Chair Akio Toyoda) was established in August 2014 by Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) to support the development of a more mobile society in which everyone can move freely. The Foundation underscores Toyota’s ongoing commitment to continuous improvement and respect for people. It utilizes Toyota’s expertise and technologies to support strong mobility systems while eliminating disparities in mobility. TMF works in partnership with universities, governments, non-profits, research institutions and other organizations, creating programs that are aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to address mobility issues around the world.

“TMF aims to create a truly mobile society that will help people live better lives no matter where they are,” said Chair Akio Toyoda.

About Challenge Works

Challenge Works is a global leader in the design and delivery of challenge prizes to spark innovation in science, technology and society. It is part of Nesta, the research and innovation foundation. Challenge prizes catalyse innovation to tackle pressing problems where solutions are lacking. They offer a series of incentives in return for solving a defined challenge.

Challenge Works has run over 100 challenge prizes awarding over £310m on behalf of public, private and philanthropic funders around the world. Find out more at https://challengeworks.org/

About World Resources Institute

World Resources Institute (WRI) is a global research organization with offices in Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Mexico and the United States, and regional offices for Africa and Europe. WRI’s 1,700 staff work with partners to develop practical solutions that improve people’s lives and ensure nature can thrive. Learn more:WRI.org and on Twitter @WorldResources.