"When I interact with the people at Baloise with the Mobility unit," says Sophia Rödiger, CEO and founder of bloXmove, "I get the feeling they mean business. They are really interested in getting us ahead as a founding team. We're not connected by a flurry of contacts, but by lasting relationships - and that's what we're looking for as a startup." bloXmove is a young company that connects all mobility solutions in a city. Their vision is revolutionary: taxis, scooters, e-bikes, ferries, car sharing, public transport - everything you want to use to get from A to B is possible in one service - seamlessly - through a so-called blockchain.
"The idea is challenging and highly ambitious," emphasises James Sanders, whose is respobile is the development of the mobility ecosystem at Baloise. "All conceivable travel routes that a person could take are linked together. You don't have to keep logging into new apps with all your data, instead it is all under one roof. I was immediately hooked by this idea and the people behind it, and being able to support the bloXmove team on their journey is sincerely the best feeling."
James and Sophia connected in 2021 during the Zurich accelerator programme F10. Young startups go through six months of development and mentoring training to help them grow and deve;op their product at an early stage. "As a personal team coach," James recalls, "you get close to the startups, the exchange is intense, you go through ups & downs. It's the passion that fascinates me. Their willingness to take risks and throw everything they have into pursuing this one idea deserves respect and support." "We feel all of that," Sophia replies. "James even congratulated me on my wedding; and he always asks about team members by first name. When that happens, you know it's really about people and not just business."
Via Linkedin, Sophia followed James' move to the Mobility division of Baloise, where an ecosystem has been emerging for several years. New services and young start-up ideas that get people from A to B on land come together here in a portfolio. Baloise invests in them or builds them up itself. "Thanks to James, I found out about an online pitch event in which mobility solutions were given the chance to present themselves to investors. For us, it was a great opportunity to generate super many new contacts with just one pitch. Start-ups are always about new customers and investments. Baloise Mobility understood that.”
«We are growing together into an ecosystem of equals who are building something together and finding new solutions. Only in this way will such innovation and the mobility revolution work.»
"If you've worked in a startup yourself," James describes, "you know that time is the biggest yet most scarce commodity. So, we focus on that and efficiently pave a highway for mobility startups to investors, networks, data pools whilst we support them with experience and manpower." Sophia adds, "In a phase where we are testing our software as a service in first German regions like Saxony, it is important to be present and visible. We need courageous supporters who want to gain experience with us and who bring in customers and money. If we want to rethink mobility, we have to connect in a radically different way. Baloise offers such a network, and we as bloXmove provide the secure, decentralised communication technology”.
"What bloXmove and other young companies are doing for society is courageous," summarises James. "Innovation always comes from betting - believing or hoping that something will be helpful in the future, even if uncertain. With our ecosystem of partners and investors, who carry expertise and resources, we want to support and, in a way, hedge this courage. At the heart of our innovation mindset are the needs of our portfolio companies, but profiteers are all parts of the system in the end." "It's the same with our blockchain-based platform," says Sophia. "Cryptographically encrypted, the technology allows mobility companies to do business with each other securely and transparently. We are growing together into an ecosystem of equals who are building something together and finding new solutions. Only in this way will such innovation and the mobility revolution work.