10/10/2019 | Inovation and development

Galp supports new company, Flow, to revolutionize corporate fleets and urban electric mobility

Flow's platform speeds-up application of Software as a Service (SaaS) and Mobility as a Service (MaaS) to fleet management, electrification and vehicle-sharing.
This fully-integrated solution also manages urban mobility systems that combine private and public transportation and a charging infrastructure.

Galp is promoting the provision of an integrated mobility solution for their clients’ fleets, including the electric and car sharing options. The goal is to allow companies and their clients to reduce their ecological footprint and their costs, in a simple and efficient way.

Part of the goal is also to challenge cities to quickly embrace the paradigms of Software as a Service (SaaS) and Mobility as a Service (MaaS), with sustainability, flexibility and accessibility as the guiding principles to revolutionise urban mobility.

These services will be provided by Flow, a startup established through a partnership between Galp and CEiiA (Development and Engineering Centre).  Flow’s engineers developed and created one of the most advanced platforms for the management of mobility solutions, which includes components such as electric vehicle charging, advanced fleet monitoring or vehicle sharing services in companies and cities.

Flow aims to initiate their presence in multiple markets, namely those where Galp already operates and where electric mobility is already a priority, such as the Iberian Peninsula and Brazil.

Flow assumes a leadership position in a crucial area to define the outlines of mobility, not only in the future, but also in the present, given that the developed SaaS solutions are the basis for some of the most successful current urban electric mobility experiences, which can be seen in European cities such as Lisbon, Porto, Roma, Madrid or Barcelona.

“The Flow spin-off is an example of how Galp intends to set their sights on the topics of innovation, transformation and new business.  Identifying, promoting and enabling new lines of business with autonomy, so that they may have the agility and the indispensable room to grow and conquer the global market”, says Susana Quintana-Plaza, Galp’s executive administrator in charge of the Renewable Energies and New Business departments.

Nowadays, most energy players are focusing almost exclusively on the establishment of an electric charging infrastructure and providing electricity to charging stations. Flow complements the implementation of Galp’s infrastructure with a differentiating solution for fleets and cities.

Any fleet owner who seeks to electrify their vehicles will need an electric charging infrastructure in his facilities, an operating system for the charging stations, electricity, devices to monitor and locate the fleet, as well as to ensure the vehicle sharing service.

Flow will also continue to provide integrated solutions to manage the mobility systems and urban transportation in municipalities, for instance in Cascais, through the MobiCascais initiative, allowing access and payment for a range of services that include public transportation, shared bicycles, parking or electric vehicle charging.

The goal is not only to replicate, but to broaden and adapt each MaaS solution to the specific contexts of the different municipalities, providing them with the tools to customise and simplify the citizen’s interaction with the mobility ecosystem.

These solutions have already been implemented by B2B clients and around 400 thousand end users. The ability to manage and quantify the impact of mobility, namely on the environment, is also a relevant factor contributing to the behavioural change desired in the cities, combining and mass distributing SaaS and MaaS.

“Gradually, these platforms will be able to support an increasingly bigger integration, for instance, uniting fleets from different companies for even better efficiency gains, along with many other opportunities for new mobility services, which are already fully usable from a technological standpoint”, says André Dias, CTO, founder and leader of Flow’s 30-engineer team. “In many cases, the technological barriers are easier to overcome than the psychological or behavioural barriers”, he adds.

Galp is the majority shareholder of Flow, while CEiiA owns a minority shareholding.