Winners of the 2017 Urban Future Competition earned $50,000 each and a spot in the NYU Tandon Urban Future Lab’s ACRE incubator. Left to right: Oliver Davis, CEO of simuwatt, NYCT Smart Grid category; Sulaiman Sanni, CEO of Dollaride, BP Smart Mobility category; and Raffi Holzer, CEO, and Atira Odhner, chief technology officer, both of Avvir, NYCT Smart City category. The competition by the Urban Future Lab was sponsored by BP Ventures, The New York Community Trust (NYCT), and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. (PRNewsfoto/NYU Tandon School of Engineering)

The NYU Tandon School of Engineering recently announced the winners of its Urban Future Competition, which debuts the world’s most revolutionary smart mobility, smart city, and smart grid technologies. Held by the Urban Future LabNew 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 VenturesThe 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. Dollaride won 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 and 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 competition’s $50,000 cash prizes are funded by BP Ventures, NYCT, and NYSERDA.

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 ManagementAlex Wallen of Breakthrough Energy Ventures; and Adam Ruder, program manager at NYSERDA.

Urban Future Competition finalists came from a diverse range of industry verticals including construction, ride sharing, grid infrastructure, agriculture, building automation, artificial intelligence, machine vision, blockchain, electric vehicle, and autonomous vehicle technologies.

For more information, visit urbanfuturecompetition.com.

 

 

By artsbiz365

Andrea Karen Hammer, a Philadelphia-based freelance writer, is the founder, CEO and owner of Artsphoria Inclusive & Collaborative Publishing, Media Group & Shop (https://www.artsphoria.org). She leads the operation and innovation at Artsphoria: Arts, Business & Technology Center (https://www.artsphoria.biz), Artsphoria Event Advertising & Reporting (https://www.artsphoria.info); Artsphoria International Magazine (https://www.artsphoria.com), Artsphoria Movie Reviews & Film Forum (https://www.artsphoria.us); Artsphoria: Food for the Soul (https://artsphoria.live); Artsphoria's Animation & Imagination World (https://www.artsphoria.net) and Artsphoria Shop (https://artsphoriashop.com).

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