The NYU Tandon School of Engineering announced the winners of its 2017 Urban Future Competition, which debuts the world’s most revolutionary smart mobility, smart city, and smart grid technologies. Held by the Urban Future Lab, New York City’s hub for smart cities, smart grid, and clean energy, the competition brought together the brightest entrepreneurs, mission-driven investors, policy leaders, and corporate sponsors for a prestigious pitch competition.
The competition drew a record-breaking number of applications, with submissions from more than 22 countries and sponsorships from BP Ventures, The New York Community Trust (NYCT), and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).
The three winners, chosen by industry-leading investors and corporate leaders, represent the world’s most promising companies and technologies across three tracks: BP Smart Mobility, NYCT Smart City, and NYCT Smart Grid. Dollaridewon the BP Smart Mobility category, Avvir won the NYCT Smart City category, and simuwatt won the NYCT Smart Grid category.
- Brooklyn-based Dollaride empowers every-day people to overcome the challenges of living in transportation deserts by using “dollar vans.” The company’s ride sharing technology makes this private network of vans accessible to more passengers & neighborhoods who struggle with weak public transit options.
- Avvir is a construction technology company based in New York City that employs computer vision and deep learning to provide automated construction verification and progress monitoring. It offers customers assurance that buildings are developed to spec and on schedule.
- Boulder, Colorado-based simuwatt enables building owners, experts, and utilities to identify, prioritize, and realize energy efficiency investments through standardized data acquisition, modeling, and analytics.
Each Urban Future Competition Prize winner received a non-dilutive, non-equity cash prize of $50,000 and office space in Urban Future Lab’s internationally recognized cleantech incubator program, ACRE, for a minimum six-month engagement. These winners will join a portfolio of market-ready companies that strategic funders and corporate investors turn to for new deals and technology investments.
“The Urban Future Competition attracted a record number of applicants from all over the world. The best of the best will now work at Tandon’s Urban Future Lab in Downtown Brooklyn, building their market-ready solutions to climate change and making our cities, our grid, and our transportation sectors smarter, cleaner, and more equitable,” said Pat Sapinsley, managing director of cleantech initiatives at NYU Tandon. “We are thrilled to be building the New York clean-energy economy by helping these young companies scale up.”
All finalists participated in an exclusive pitch competition in New York City on February 22, 2018. Competition jurors included Daniela Proske of BP’s Corporate Ventures Team; Lila Preston, partner at Generation Investment Management; Alex Wallen of Breakthrough Energy Ventures; and Adam Ruder, program manager at NYSERDA.
“New York is the leader in urban sustainability, evident in all the entrepreneurs who participated in this year’s Urban Future Competition,” said Arturo Garcia-Costas, NYCT program officer, Thriving Communities National and NYC Environment. “Realizing energy-saving innovations is impossible without cooperation between public and private entities. These awards provide a much-needed boost for companies meeting intractable problems head on.”
“We are constantly seeking to support and nurture companies and technologies that will lay the foundation for the future of mobility in a lower carbon world,” said Meghan Sharp, managing director, BP Ventures. “The BP Smart Mobility track and the Urban Future Competition provide a platform for innovators to make a positive impact and contribution to mobility in cities, while minimizing the impact on the environment.”
Competition finalists came from a diverse range of industry verticals including construction, ridesharing, grid infrastructure, agriculture, building automation, artificial intelligence, machine vision, blockchain, electric vehicle, and autonomous vehicle technologies.
For more information, visit urbanfuturecompetition.com.
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