Dutch consulting engineer Arcadis and American seed investor Techstars have announced the 10 fledgling firms selected by their "City of 2030" competition. This is intended to promote idea that will prepare cities to deal with the effects of urbanisation.
The 10 winners, and their ideas, are:
- Niricson (Canada): A robotics and computer infrastructure asset management product
- ISeeChange (US): This uses local data to provide insights into climate change
- Crea.vision (UK & Canada): A security firm set up to provide recognition, mobility and localisation data
- Yellowbox (Australia): A smart locker application
- Data for Good (Netherlands): A standardised sustainability project for cities
- Agilicity (Slovenia): Urban design and 3D zoning software
- Downtown.AI (Canada): This analyses maps and predicts human movements in cities
- Geofluxus (Netherlands): A solid waste analytics platform Â
- Propfolio (UK): A real estate, digital security and asset marketplace
- Cobalt Water Global (US): An urban water management tool.
Arcadis and Techstars will invest in the companies, each taking in return a 3% equity stake.
The start-ups will now take part in a three-month accelerator programme in Arcadis’ offices in Amsterdam, and will receive support for their business growth and product development.
Stephan Ritter, Arcadis’ executive for innovation and transformation, said: "We are excited to support the second year of the accelerator programme and to work with these innovative start-ups to help cities plan for the future.
"These start-ups bring cutting-edge ideas to address the challenges of urban communities that are in need of unconventional solutions."
Arcadis recently launched a new digital business called Arcadis Gen, consolidating two acquisitions made over the past two years.
Image ©GCR, illustration by Denis Carrier
