Making transport innovation real — not just a buzzword
We work with public bodies, transport operators, and innovators to turn bold ideas into measurable outcomes — from strategy to delivery.
Work with Innovate TodayWe work with public bodies, transport operators, and innovators to turn bold ideas into measurable outcomes — from strategy to delivery.
Work with Innovate Today
About Innovate Today
It is founded on the principles of delivering value. The team is made up of those who have experience of working in transport innovation and strategy for cities and in the industry.
In the past 3 years Innovate Today has worked with over 60 clients from start-ups, corporates and cities focusing on ways to make cities better across the world.
It was formed in 2023, by Rikesh Shah, former Head of Open Innovation at Transport for London. As Chair of the Transport Innovation Alliance bringing cities and industry together, he is one of the leading voices on transport innovation. As a public civil servant, his philosophy is for Innovate Today to work with its clients, like he would have expected consultants to support him at Transport for London.
With world leading partners and affiliates, Innovate Today brings experts to problem solve key challenges for its clients.
Academia
Innovate Today partners with many academic institutions, focusing on applying transport innovation with academic rigour.
Active Travel
From TfL's cycle superhighways to the rise of shared micro-mobility, Rikesh has worked at the forefront of active travel innovation — helping cities design streets and systems that make sustainable modes of transport the natural choice.
As Chair of the Shared Micromobility Alliance, he continues to shape the future of how people move through cities without a car.
Trusted by leading organisations worldwide
Media & Podcasts
Rikesh regularly contributes to leading publications, podcasts, and events on transport innovation, open data, and the future of cities.
Get in Touch
Whether you need strategic advisory, a keynote speaker, or a hands-on innovation partner — we'd love to hear from you.
Innovate Today works with public bodies, transport operators, city governments, and innovators worldwide. Get in touch to discuss how we can help.
What We Do
Expert advisory services built on 22 years at the forefront of transport innovation — helping cities, operators and innovators make bold ideas real.
01
Cities are seeing new forms of mobility from micro-mobility, drones, connected autonomous vehicles, freight delivery, electric vehicles and more that is challenging traditional forms of transport in the urban realm. This creates an opportunity and risk with every city being contextually different.
Innovate Today provides relevant strategic advice to cities, operators and other innovators to shape the right solution for each city.
02
As cities grow, they are seeing more challenges which traditional approaches aren't able to address. However, with advances in technology, we are seeing new types of companies from start-ups, scale-ups, corporates, accelerators, Venture Capitalists, academic spin-outs and others working with the cities to find new ways of defining problems, experimenting, iterating and scaling solution for better outcomes.
Innovate Today delivers end-to-end outcome based programmes to solve challenges in a new way.
03
Cities have so much data on mobility. This data can be opened up to app developers, public, academia and others to create new products and services. Additionally, from this product, cities are given data back to run their transport systems more effectively.
Innovate Today are helping cities to maximise value from open data and digital partnerships.
04
With change happening faster than most organisations can keep pace with, cities and public bodies need their people to understand what AI and emerging technologies actually mean for their work, not just the headlines around them. Without this, decisions get made on hype or fear rather than a clear-eyed view of the opportunity and the risk.
Innovate Today delivers training and development programmes that build real understanding of AI and emerging technologies, so teams can make confident, informed decisions.
05
Public procurement was built to buy proven, off-the-shelf goods and services — not to find and shape innovative solutions to problems that don't yet have a ready-made answer. As cities face increasingly complex and urgent challenges, this creates a real barrier: the constraint is rarely a lack of skills, but cultural and governance barriers that stop the public sector acting as an intelligent, innovation-ready client.
Innovate Today helps cities and public bodies build the confidence, tools and processes to procure innovation effectively, turning procurement into a lever for change rather than a barrier to it.
06
Start-ups and scale-ups often hold the most innovative solutions to a city's challenges, but rarely have the track record, scale or resources to compete for contracts designed around large, established suppliers. This locks many of the best emerging ideas out of the public sector, even where they could deliver real public value.
Innovate Today works with new and emerging suppliers to compete, win contracts, and deliver at the pace and scale the public sector needs.
