Urban Morph - Invested in your progress

We like solving problems, especially wicked ones.

Who are we?

Urban Morph has been working on clean energy transition. We address the entire gamut of the transition from walking and cycling as modes for full trips or as last mile to public transport. We also work on helping Vehicle OEM’s and buildings to replace fossil fuels with battery energy. We do this by investing in technologies that can measure and quantify the energy used and saved. Whether you are from the industry grappling with the pathway to Net Zero or the government finding it challenging to implement a coherent roadmap. We can get it done.

Whats in it for you?

Systems thinking isn’t enough, finding solutions to make things happen within that framework for you is important. So if we don’t have a solution in our stable that fits the puzzle, we will make sure to find you one that does. Write to us if you are looking to address issues in Mobility, Energy or Waste circularity space.

Our ecosystem

  • AltMo is a cycling commute gamification technology platform which helps companies and individuals clock miles, measure carbon footprint, participate in challenges and compete with others to do better. This platform has gained a healthy traction during the pilot rollout and is now heading into revenue generation phase.
  • WattsNext Energy is early stage deep tech spinoff from Urban Morph co-founders which works on technologies that forms the brain of the battery. We help optimise usage of new and used batteries so they can last longer and be much more efficient in delivering power to vehicles and buildings. We are looking for seed funding to create a patentable moat that can enable Power as a Service.
  • ITES We are the strategic partners to India-UK Net Zero centre for transport and energy systems. This is a collaboration between Energy Systems Catapult of UK and Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. This centre helps Innovators from India and UK overcome challenges to identifying and plugging the gaps in the systems thinking of the energy landscape.
  • Bioman is an award winning revenue positive spinoff from the co-founders of Urban Morph that works on ensuring zero waste to landfill. From food waste to e-waste. From retail stores to group housing, using proprietary bio- technologies and tech platforms we close the loop on reuse & recycle so you are not left holding bags of waste.
  • Council For Active Mobility (CFAM) is a collaborative which works with various citizen Changemakers to run programs on the ground that help people make active mobility choices.
  • Oorulabs is an effort to help catalyse change at the intersection of State, Markets & Society by addressing topics of urban transformation via popular media channels on the internet. From podcasting to galvanising thought leadership we are able to bring together powerful voices from across the country in enabling change and a effecting transformation in the way we work and live. This is the bottomline all of you are aiming for. Your business is just a cog in the wheel.

Changemaking programs

  • PedalShaale: This is a bicycle training program that was incubated by Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) Government of Karnataka to enable the scaling up of bicycle training to a large section of population that has forgotten to ride a bicycle or are not confident to use one on Indian roads. . A tech platform called AltMo ride school is being rolled out to create a digital marketplace for trainers and participants.
  • Cycle To Work: This is primarily enabled by the AltMo technology platform. It provides a dashboard to companies that can measure how many of their employees are using bicycles, track carbon offsets and also create challenges to increase the rate of change.
  • Last Mile: We work with the Bengaluru Metro and DULT to provision bicycle parking stands with self repair Kiosk. Currently 10 metro stations have bicycle parking facilities and all metro stations will soon have bicycle parking. This enables the metro to reach people upto 5KM radius from their stations with cheap last mile options.
  • Bicycle Routes & Rentals: We work with organisations that are in the space of renting bicycles and make these available to companies on an opex. basis so they can make available carbon neutral commuting options to their employees. We also publish crowd sourced alternate safe streets map for cyclists to find their way through the city and avoid crowded main roads where possible.
  • Catching them young: We also work with schools in collaboration with non profit organisations to encourage sustainable thinking by conducting programs like Walk & Cycle to school and Bicycle Heroes programs.

Stitching it together

Between on ground actions which bring changemakers and businesses together to provisioning tracking measurement and climate action tools, Urban Morph is investing in the next generation of change making combining behavioural sciences, technology, public policy and having skin in the game with products and services.

Accolades

"Urban Morph has been a key partner for us on our work in Bengaluru. They have really helped us maximise the impact of our work and develop innovative approaches to the issues we have engaged with."

Catapult

"The industries were onboarded to the cycleto.work (now altmo.app) platform that gamifies cycling for commute through a leaderboard. We congratulate Silvassa Smart City Ltd. for a successful rollout of the #Cycle2Work campaign and thank Urban Morph for their support."

ITDP

The Clean Air Street testbed in Bengaluru gets DULT, Urban Mobility Institute Commendation Award 2021

MoHUA

The Clean Air Street testbed in Bengaluru gets DULT, the Volvo Innovation Awards 2021

Volvo

Cycle To Work gets Silvassa Smart City, India Digital Empowerment's, Excellence in Innovation Award 2022

APAC

These are the people who make it happen

When you need impact, know who you are engaging with. This team delivers.

Sathya Sankaran

Co-Founder/Director

Sathya is a Computer Science graduate with a Post graduation in Public Policy. He brings more than 25 years of experience in using technology and data to solve transportation problems. Over the last 13 years, as an advocate for sustainable transportation he has been a part of bringing in Rs. 34,000 crore Suburban Rail services to Bengaluru. He is the architect of AltMo, a gamified mobility intelligence platform for the future of climate friendly cities. The data from this platform enabled a 342% increased allocation in the Comprehensive Master Plan for cycling and walking, helped put up more than 20 kms of cycle tracks in Bengaluru and won Silvassa Smart City an award for Excellence in Innovation. He founded Council for Active mobility, a collective of 13 organisations working towards accelerating UN SDG's. His Relief Riders initiative during the COVID pandemic won the 2021 UN World Bicycle Day Special Award and nominated for the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize. He runs the OoruLabs podcast which is a soapbox for Urban Sustainability. He is also an adjunct faculty teaching Urban Governance for masters students, a director at the waste management startup, Bioman and the Bicycle Mayor of Bengaluru.

Sonal S Kulkarni

Co-Founder

Sonal has a Bachelors in Architecture and Masters in Policy & Urban planning from University of Southern California. Over the past 10 years she has worked extensively in the government on infrastructure for sustainable mobility. She architected, designed, coordinated and executed the Smart Cities Mission's award winning cycling infrastructure in Bengaluru. She has architected and designed bicycle sharing system in Bengaluru. She has conducted feasibility, designed and executeed pilot interventions of slow streets. She has been a part of many community outreach programs like the longest running Open streets campaign in the country, Cycle Day. She has played a key role in bringing to the city UMI award winning Church Street First, a fully pedestrianised street in the CBD of Bengaluru. Her passion for sustainability has made her step back into the government for a while. She currently serves as the Chief Research and Innovation Officer at the Directorate of Urban Land Transport.

Subbaiah TS

Co-Founder/Director

Subbaiah has has a Bachelors in Architecture and Masters in Design from IISc, Bangalore. He has been running successful Architecture, Design and Waste management businesses which have brought positive change in the lives of many people. Over the past 10 years he has been working on civic change and public participation. As a trustee of Citizens for Sustainability he worked on multiple initiatives that have transformed neighbourhoods in the city. He coordinated the transformation of a 3 km street in Sanjaynagar and a Hebbal improvement challenge. He has held the post of Secretary at Indian Institute of Architects for many years. In his current stint as Co-Founder of waste management company Bioman, he has been championing the Zero waste to landfill program aiming to transform the impact waste management will have on the city. Bioman has transformed the way wet waste is processed and is constantly spending on R&D to get the best out of waste.

Raghuram BK

Chief Architect

Entreprenuer and code guru with four decades of experience under his belt in IT infrastructure and software development. He is not only a minimalist by nature he also has a rigourous approach to building solutions. He is currently architecting AltMo the sustainable transport intelligence platform for companies to baseline and improve their scope 3 emission reduction targets.

Mohan Gopalakrishna

Mentor

Four decades after finishing his M.Tech from IIT Madras, steering business as a senior leader in companies like Texas Instruments, he started and successfully exited a home automation company which was a leader in its space. Mohan is mentoring Urban Morph develop game changing deep tech and IoT innovations in new age sustainable energy systems.

Dr. Ashwin Mahesh

Mentor

With a Ph.D in atmospheric remote sensing from University of Washington, his pivot to solving urban problems has led him on a three decade journey to his theory of change “Increasing the number of problem solving people”. Ashwin helps Urban Morph navigate the wicked world of public problem solving.

Ananya KC

IoT Engineer

Ananya has a Masters in Electrical & Electronics Engineering from Mount Carmel College, Bengaluru and a Gold Medal reciepient from Bengaluru University. She develops IoT products at Urban Morph for the next generation of Electric Vehicles.

Nidhi KS

Urban Designer

With a Masters in Architecture and Urban Design from BMS School of Architecture, Bengaluru, and previous work in urban spaces, Nidhi handles sustainability projects at Urban Morph. She is the co-ordinator driving social change projects and building capacity in association with Catapult, BYCS and other partners.

Nivya

Technology Developer

With a Masters in Computer Applications from Mount Carmel College, Nivya builds full stack applications for customers.

Knerav Kodolikar

Tech Analyst

Knerav has a Bachelors in Economics from Christ University, Bengaluru. He conceptualises and builds economic incentives for sustainablity projects at Urban Morph. He is also technology developer building the AltMo platform. He rides for Equipe Goa amatuer racing team and at the National Championships.