Crowdless

Crowdless app

downloaded 60,000 times

Crowdless is being used by the public to avoid supermarket crowds, and by Saïd Business School to protect students and staff

"Our vision is to build the world's most detailed hyper-local places database. During the current Covid-19 environment, we're helping people manage crowding to stay safe. After Covid-19, this data will be highly useful for people looking to save time, and for businesses that want to manage crowds at their venues”

One of the ideas supported by the OXFO Rapid Solutions Builder, Crowdless was developed to provide real-time information on, for example, how crowded supermarkets are. This has enabled individual users to choose to shop at less busy times or in less teeming areas, but at the same time could provide the data to help supermarkets and other organisations proactively manage visitor numbers and social distancing. Now, as universities and office-based firms seek to manage a safe return to work and study amidst changing regulations, Crowdless is becoming even more popular. Oxford’s Saïd Business School, connected through the Oxford Foundry, is just one organisational client using the app to help students, faculty, and executive clients maintain social distancing. Several Oxford Foundry Covid-19 Action Plan volunteers supported Crowdless during the busy summer and the Foundry introduced Crowdless to Ben Lewis, former CEO of River Island, Charged Up, Vodaphone Innovation, Taylor Vintors, alumni mentor Srin Madipalli from airbnb, May Figures, Teneo consulting, and potential clients. US pricing expert and founder of HelloAdvisr Ed Lee continues to mentor and put Crowdless in touch with contacts. The Foundry enabled Crowdless to be featured on BBC South TV news, knowing the Crowdless team very well following their winning of the Foundry's AllInnovate competition. Crowdless, (formerly know as Lanterne) has been downloaded free by more than 60,000 people, and is increasingly being adopted by large organisations to help manage the flow of people in their buildings. Crowdless has raised £275k, and won an Innovate UK Business Response to Covid-19 Disruption grant (£50k) and the Sustainable Innovation Fund (170k).

Saïd Business School deploys app to help students maintain distance, 30 October 2020

The University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School is using a new app, Crowdmanager, to help students maintain distance while using social spaces on campus.