Smart City Works, a next generation business accelerator focused on solving urban challenges through infrastructure and IoT innovation, seeks entrepreneurs, startups, and companies focused on improving the livability, sustainability, operations, and resilience of cities to apply for the Fall 2020 cohort. The program is open to all companies globally whose visionary founders are willing to bring their products and passions to participate in a unique and impactful business acceleration program.

SMART CITY WORKS VENTURE LABS is an award-winning new class of business accelerator, called a BUSINESS ACTUATOR, that can more rapidly move early stage ventures to commercialization, reduce risk for downstream investors, and improve likelihood of product uptake in the marketplace. Our mission is to accelerate innovation and speed commercialization of solutions that improve the livability, operations, and resilience of cities. We are uniquely focused on urban infrastructure, the built environment, and on changing the way we design, build, and operate civil infrastructure. Our Spring and Fall sessions are designed to propel graduating companies into the marketplace, endowed with proven products, and equipped with the skills to grow and compete for funding and market share. 

For our Fall 2020 cohort, we are looking for innovative commercial solutions that address significant and timely social and civic challenges in cities and urban environments—infrastructure cost and performance, cybersecurity, transportation, affordable housing, environmental sustainability, energy, decarbonization, and resilience, but also solutions that support COVID-19 recovery. These solutions must impact and improve one or more of the ways cities support daily life to include, for example, public health, social distancing, tele-working, energy storage and use, food supply or disposition, waste reduction, housing costs, and IoT device and data security.

 Mobility – Solutions that reduce transportation costs, reduce congestion, improve inter-modalities (i.e., between car, train, bus, bike, pedestrian), support ‘last-mile’ transport, or leverage autonomous/ intelligent transportation solutions to improve transportation infrastructure networks. 

 Resilience, Public Health and Public Safety – Solutions and/or IoT technologies that address the safety, security and resilience of urban dwellers; that mitigate the impact of pandemics, rising sea levels, extreme weather events, or other natural or man-made shocks; or that protect critical infrastructure. 

 Cybersecurity/ Use of Urban Data and IoT Technologies - Solutions that can safeguard data sets and IoT communications at scale, to include technologies that utilize AI solutions to improve the value, use, and trust of data sets; or that leverage IoT technologies and devices to improve social trust, government and business processes, supply chain security, and/ or urban life. 

 Energy/ Carbon Reduction – Solutions that increase the use and availability of renewables, foster greater energy storage capacity, reduce energy use or improve efficiency; reduce reliance on fossil fuels; cut pollutants like methane and soot; expand carbon sinks; or spur decarbonization. 

 Affordable Housing – Solutions and technologies that improve our ability to reduce the costs of housing, to include how we build, rent, operate, or finance housing. 

Application Deadline: This is a rolling admission process; applications will be processed as received. Applications open September 7, 2020. We will begin selecting companies on September 30, 2020 until the cohort is full. Selections are on a first come, first serve basis. Minority and women-owned businesses are encouraged to apply. 

For more information, email us: [email protected]