Innov8rs London

Rikesh will cover Transport for London’s approach to innovation covering some case studies, approach and challenges.

Rikesh leads Transport for London’s award winning market innovation activity to create new value for London by working with start-ups, corporates, academia, accelerators and venture capitalists. He was responsible for creating TfL’s first Innovation Hub which has delivered some pioneering projects on areas such as air quality, road safety, active travel, enhancing customer experiences to retail and property development. The Hub sets out the organisation’s key challenges and problem statements, bringing in the best innovators from across the world, piloting and scaling innovative solutions with the potential to commercialise, as well as establishing the right culture in the company focusing on agility and design thinking to work with market innovators who either have a new mobility product or an innovative idea to help solve an existing city challenge through new technologies by doing things better, quicker or cheaper. Rikesh was previously responsible for TfL’s world leading open data programme which has 17,000 registered users, 700 apps powered by TfL data used by 42% of Londoners which an independent review stated that it’s worth to London is £130m per annum. He also was actively in involved during the 2012 Olympic Games and TfL’s response to COVID-19. Most recently, Rikesh has been recognised in the Top 100 Asian Stars in UK Tech in 2019 and 2020, being named one of the top five for sustainability. Rikesh also sits on the Smart London Board to deliver the Mayor of London’s vision to make London the smartest city in the world, as well as sitting as a Non-Executive Director at the London Transport Museum on the Enterprise Board. He also sits on the Advisory Board for Nitrous and Citytech Collaborative in Chicago. In academia, he Co-Chairs the Institute of Civil Engineering Data and Digital Advisory Board as well as Guest Lecturing on Open Innovation at the Royal College of Arts and the University of Oxford. He was also an Ambassador for London Tech Week in 2022.