Invested in progress

Who are we?

Urban Morph is full-stack Urban Tech venture studio and service delivery organization working to shape the future of cities. We co-create solutions with public and private partners, incubate innovative technologies, and implement scalable models to solve complex urban challenges. Our work spans mobility, public infrastructure, and citizen engagement, with a strong emphasis on sustainability and real-world impact.

What we offer?

Innovate

  • Oorulabs within Urban Morph is urban tech accelerator, we either build our own technologies like Altmo, WattsNext & SyntheSYS, or we work with a set of partners whose solution can help solve urban problems.

  • Altmo is an employee engagement and climate action technology platform helping companies manage and measure their employee health and transport emissions. 8600 from 860 companies across 115 cities have saved 2 lakh liters of petrol and offset 500 tons of CO2 emissions. Read here why this is important for your organisation in achieving your ESG, SDG and employee wellbeing goals. Get started today

  • WattsNext Energy is a smart battery management system for battery pack makers to save on warranty replacement costs, which can be sometimes be upto 40% of their revenue, by providing analytics of inappropriate usage.

  • In the era of entropic content SyntheSYS brings an informed view of Urban problems with added perspective from experts for quicker understanding of root causes. Beyond aggregating content for contextuality it is supported by the OoruLabs podcast to clarify and make informed decisions. If you are someone who wants to solve problems in the urban space and not sure where to deploy capital, this is the go-to product for you.

Write to us if you operate in the urban space and have a problem to be solved.

Orchestrate

  • For Philanthopies, Regranters and Organisations planning to deploy CSR capital for impact, we are able to provide a thesis and strategy to deliver long term sustainable impact in the urban space. We understand how to string portfolios that create sustainable collaborations based on mutual incentives and a deep understanding of the problems to be solved. We can setup inpact portfolios around strategies and run them as a service or transition to lean teams which can operate around this framework.

  • As a strategic partner for the India-UK Netzero center called ITES setup between Energy Systems Catapult of UK and Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, we enabled multiple India and UK innovators to establish collaborative partnerships in India.

  • We have signed an MoU with the Sustainable Transportation Lab of Indian Institute of Science as orchestrators of the Active Mobility Center of Excellence. We provide orchestration services for the center in taking research out to the real world via partners, governments and communities.

  • We have experience of delivering thesis, strategy and orchestration for one of India's leading CSR organisation's with a grant budget of upto USD 100 million.

Write to us to understand how we do this.

Accelerate

  • We use inhouse expertise in complex systems and urban problem solving, intellectual properties from the OoruLabs engine and external partners to deliver impactful change on the ground. Our work is able to integrate Government, Market and Society in creating place based sandboxes and implementations that have shown to create impact.

  • Church street first in Bengaluru was an award wining sandbox for bringing together government, market, research institutions and society into a sandbox that allowed people to experience streets of the future. It provided space for innovators testing out electric micro mobility solutions and air quality monitors. A few of the innovators have successfully learned on the ground and made it to the mainstream. It enabled creative artists from across the city to engage the public, even today church street in Bengaluru carries the legacy of busking and artists like Ed Sheeran performing there. It allowed research institutions like IISc to gather data an document quantative and qualitative evidence of urban transformation.

  • We have delivered multiple solutions in active mobility from tactical interventions to frameworks like pedestrian frendly streets, bicycle seperators, counters, bicycle stands, bicycle repair kiosks, shared pathway designs, transport accessibility index, walkability audits. All of these and more are what has given us learnings that can be brought together and made to work in synchronization.

  • Engaging citizens is a bedrock of public problem solving. We have done this for more than a decade. From the country's first and longest running open streets event called Cycle Day to the marquee Pedaluru, we have engaged with more than 80+ communities in Bengaluru.

Get in touch with us to understand more.

Testimonials and awards

This team delivers

When you need impact, know who you are engaging with.

Sathya Sankaran

Co-Founder/Director

Sathya is a Computer Science graduate with a Post graduation in Public Policy. He brings three decades of experience in using technology and data to solve Urban issues in Mobility and Energy. 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. It is now helping corporates meet their ESG goals. 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 is the host of OoruLabs podcast, India's premiere urban affairs podcast. He is the strategy lead delivering a thesis based investing for urban sustainability, waste, energy and materials at Rainmatter foundation. He is the CEO at WattsNext Energy which is redefining the way power is delivered for vehicles and built forms. He is an adjunct faculty teaching Urban Governance and public problem solving for masters students in public policy at Kautilya School, Hyderabad and Mount Carmel, Bengaluru. He is 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 Urban Planning from the School of Policy, Planning and Development at the University of Southern California. Over the past 10+ years she has worked extensively in the government on infrastructure for sustainable mobility. She led the team from the Directorate of Urban Land Transport, Government of Karnataka in the Smart Cities Mission’s Cycles for Change initiative where Bengaluru was chosen as one of the winners for planning and executing cycling infrastructure during the COVID times. She was part of strategizing and designing the first dockless bicycle sharing system in Bengaluru through the permit system. She started her career in the government by anchoring community outreach activities like the longest running Open streets campaign in the country, Cycle Day and Open Streets and assisted in designing the unique Sustainable Mobility Accords which empowers communities through innovative funding towards taking action to make their neighbourhoods move towards sustainable mobility. She has played a key role in bringing to the city UMI award winning Church Street First, a fully pedestrianised street piloted in the CBD of Bengaluru. She currently serves as the Chief Research and Innovation Officer at the Directorate of Urban Land Transport, Government of Karnataka heading the Centre for Research & Innovation (CERI) to provide the necessary impetus to support research initiatives and accelerate innovation in sustainable urban mobility in the State of Karnataka. She is also the Director of Strategic Partnerships, Marketing and External Communications at the BYCS India Foundation.

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.

Knerav Kodolikar

Product Manager

Knerav has a Bachelors in Economics from Christ University, Bengaluru. With expertise around multiple open source tech stacks, he drives product strategy and development for AltMo platform. An avid cyclists he has completely switched to riding a bicycle or using the bus for commute. Apart from driving Altmo to be a game changer for tranforming mobility in cities, he has raced his bicycle for the Equipe Goa amatuer racing team and at the Indian National Championships.

Renuka Kulkarni

Marcomm Lead

With a Bachelors degree in Public relations, Advertising and Applied Communications, Renuka has been leading and implementing branding and design solutions at many agencies like Dentsu webchutney, DDB Mudra, Schbang, Rio etc. She leads Marcomm and design for AltMo and other projects at Urban Morph. She also runs a design agency called Studio Ikigai

Susheel Nair

Creative Director

Susheel quit the consumer goods industry and dedicated himself to public impact story telling. For more than a decade he has been pushing the creative canvas for public change making. You can see his work scattered across the city of Bengaluru, whether it is the cycle stands on Church street, Malleshwaram, HSR or marquee programs like the Church Street First, which pedestrianised an entire street in the city for over 6 months on weekends. At Urban Morph he is the Creative Director for campaigns & programs, like Pedaluru and engaging colleges in changemaking. He also runs a creative agency called Artand.