Founded in Barcelona in 2007, YUP has built a solid position throughout Europe for 15 years as a manufacturer of charging stations for mobile devices and solutions for urban mobility, operating in more than 23 countries.
Throughout its evolution, YUP has been constantly committed to innovation, which has allowed it to develop a wide range of solutions, ranging from intelligent charging stations in furniture format, lockers, desktops or totems to parking systems for personal mobility vehicles such as bicycles, e-bikes or electric scooters.
Its value proposition is structured around two main complementary lines of business:
- Charging stations for mobile devices, designed for events, public spaces and corporate environments, including smart furniture, charging lockers, desktop chargers and fast charging totems
- Parking and charging solutions for personal mobility vehicles (VMP), such as bicycles, e-bikes or electric scooters, adapted to both indoor and outdoor spaces
This positioning allows the company to position itself at the intersection between connectivity, urban mobility and the development of intelligent infrastructures, three key areas in the evolution of cities towards more sustainable models.
In addition, the company stands out for its focus on designing customizable solutions, which not only fulfill an operational function, but also act as communication and branding tools for its clients, especially in environments such as events or commercial spaces.
But YUP didn't want to stay where it was. He identified a turning point in the market and decided to bet heavily on the next generation of his products. To do so, it needed funding commensurate with the project's technical ambition. The answer was a Cervera Project of the CDTI: within the framework of a project of more than 750,000€, which allowed access to more than 360,000€ of funding, with a grant tranche exceeding 110,000€.
The market that YUP has been watching for years
Electric micromobility: bicycles, e-bikes, scooters, etc., has gone from being an urban curiosity to a critical infrastructure in cities. Growth has been accelerated and structural: governments are driving it, citizens are adopting it and shared mobility operators are scaling it up.
The problem is that the support infrastructure hasn't grown at the same rate. The parking, charging and anchoring systems available on the market were designed for another era: they depend on the conventional electrical grid, have physical and digital vulnerabilities, and are difficult to integrate into the data environments required by smart cities.
YUP has been at the forefront of this market for years. With a network that exceeds 10,000 active installations in more than 100 cities and 5 countries, the company has not only gained scale, but also something that few companies have: a direct vision of where the real limits of current solutions are and a clear understanding of where the sector must evolve.
The technological challenge: rethinking infrastructure from scratch
The new generation of solutions that YUP intends to develop is not an incremental improvement of what exists. It is a profound redesign that addresses the bottlenecks holding back the massive deployment of micromobility infrastructure in complex urban environments.
The problems that the project seeks to solve are specific:
Energy dependence. Current solutions require connection to the conventional electrical grid, which greatly limits where they can be installed and makes their deployment in public spaces more expensive.
Insufficient physical and digital security. Current anchoring systems are vulnerable, and the digital protection of connected stations is still in its infancy in most manufacturers.
Limited connectivity and scalability. The integration of these infrastructures with the urban management platforms that municipalities demand is technically complex with current systems.
The YUP proposal aims at solutions with energy autonomy, advanced security systems and connectivity architecture designed from the start to be integrated into smart city environments.
Why the Cervera aid from the CDTI was the right line
The CDTI has several lines of funding for business R&D projects. Cervera is specifically for projects that are developed in collaboration with accredited Technology Centers, in technological areas considered to be priorities by the State.
For YUP, it was the line that best fit for several reasons:
- The project has a genuine and demonstrable R&D component: it does not adapt existing technology, but rather develops solutions with a clear technological differential based on the current state of the art. That is exactly what the CDTI evaluates to approve this line.
- Collaboration with an accredited Technology Center (a mandatory requirement in Cervera) adds rigor to the project and allows access to research capabilities that the company would not have on its own, reinforcing technical viability before the evaluator.
How we support YUP from Intelectium
From Intelectium, we have accompanied YUP in structuring and obtaining funding to promote its commitment to innovation, by achieving a CDTI Cervera Project.
The transaction has allowed the company to access total funding of more than 360,000€, including a grant tranche greater than 110,000€, which has been key to addressing proposed technological development while minimizing financial impact.
With the funding approved, YUP's next steps are:
🔸 Development of a new generation of micromobility infrastructures with energy autonomy and native connectivity for smart cities.
🔸 Reinforcement of internal R+D+i capacities with the incorporation of specialized technical profiles.
🔸 Consolidation of its international position as a reference in intelligent urban infrastructure solutions.
🔸 Preparing the ground for future phases of growth and market expansion.
We will keep you updated on the news from YUP!
Cervera help from the CDTI
CDTI's Cervera grants finance applied research and business development projects for the creation or significant improvement of a production process, product or service, developed in collaboration with State-wide Technology Centres on Cervera priority technologies.
- Beneficiaries: SMEs and midcaps with a tax address in Spain and a project not started at the time of the request.
- Funding: Up to 85% of the approved budget, with a non-refundable tranche of between 20% and 33%.
- Interest rate: 1-year Euribor + 0%.
- Amortization period: 10 or 15 years, with a minimum grace period of 2 years from the end of the project.
- Advance payment: 35% of the aid without additional guarantees, with a limit of €250,000.
- Minimum fundable budget: 175,000€. Project duration: between 12 and 36 months.
- Call: Open all year round.
Do you want us to analyze if your project fits the Cervera Program or other lines of the CDTI? At Intelectium we work 100% successfully, we only charge if we get the funding.
