Yet another innovation hub is coming to Kendall Square.
This one will focus on mobility, instead of the neighborhood's traditional focus on life sciences.
The new Massachusetts Mobility Innovation Hub aims to make moving people and goods smarter, safer and more sustainable. The hub is an initiative driven by the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership (MACP), CIC and Zipcar, and will also bring together mobility companies, entrepreneurs, policymakers and thought leaders.
The hub’s executive director seat is going to Jamey Tesler, the former Massachusetts secretary of transportation and former registrar of the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles.
Tesler told BostInno the hub is just getting started, but will follow the example of innovation ecosystem builders like Greentown Labs in greentech and The Engine in tough tech.
“This organization comes together with a formula that works and has built strong ecosystems in those other sectors,” Tesler said.
Tesler said “this is really about the business sector,” and they’re evaluating ways to support companies as other industries have done, such as through accelerators and funding.
Mobility is a broad sector, Tesler said, but they hope to build on Massachusetts’ already successful work in areas like electrification, micro-mobility and batteries.
For now, Tesler said the hub is focusing on fundraising, building out partnerships and planning for the years to come. The hub will have shared space in CIC and plans to start hosting events in 2024, Tesler said.
The hub’s founding board includes other big players in the Boston business and transportation ecosystem. The board’s chair is Tim Rowe, founder and CEO of CIC, and its vice chair is Rebecca Davis, COO of MACP.
The other members are Gretchen Effgen, director of global automotive partnerships, platforms and ecosystems at Google; Justin Holmes, head of marketing and public policy at Zipcar; John Moavenzadeh, executive director of the MIT Mobility Initiative; Aakash Arora, managing director and partner at Boston Consulting Group; Joshua Aviv, CEO of SparkCharge.
“When you bring the brightest minds from every corner of a field of innovation under one roof, and provide an environment that allows them to collaborate, amazing things happen,” Rowe said in a statement.
Earlier this month, CIC became home to a new AI hub launched in partnership with C10 Labs, an AI venture studio that will host programming for cohorts of AI-focused startups and spin out its own companies.
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