Leading Cities, a global non-profit driving city resiliency and sustainability, in partnership with QBE North America, has named 11 urban technology start-ups selected as finalists for the QBE AcceliCITY Resilience Challenge.

According to Leading Cities, with the Covid-19 pandemic as a backdrop it has become “even clearer” that there is greater need for improvement in the foundations, efficiency, and health of cities globally to create long term sustainability and resilience.

Urban environment

It claims this year’s QBE AcceliCITY finalists represent the innovative solutions that are becoming crucial for cities in the face of increasing threats in the ever-changing urban environment of the 21st century.

This year, these globally sourced start-ups were selected from several hundred that applied from 37 countries. The entrepreneurs leading these ventures are committed to tackling common urban challenges in areas such as air quality, digital infrastructure and communications technology, to public transportation, renewable energy, and more.

“Communities around the world are in desperate need of innovative solutions, but antiquated and broken procurement systems often prevent such innovation within government”

Some 50 semi-finalists were previously selected and participated in a business-to-government focused, web-based curriculum. Each of the teams received one-on-one mentorship from global experts. The 11 finalists will participate in the AcceliCITY boot camp (5-8 October) and compete for $100,000 in prize money.

“Communities around the world are in desperate need of innovative solutions, but antiquated and broken procurement systems often prevent such innovation within government,” said Michael Lake, president and CEO of Leading Cities.

“The QBE AcceliCITY Resilience Challenge identifies the best of the best and makes them accessible to local governments.”

At its core, AcceliCITY aims to lower the cost of innovation for start-ups as well as cities and corporations by streamlining the innovation and implementation cycles for smart city solutions.

Leading Cities’ AcceliCITY programme connects start-up’s smart solutions directly with business users and said it provides the channels and know-how to deploy in cities.

About the finalists:

• Bioo (Spain): renewable electricity capture powered by organic matter found in soil
• Breeze Technologies (Germany): air quality analytics technology that uses artificial intelligence to improve clean air action plans
• Carbon Upcycling (Canada): technology to chemically absorb CO2 emissions into exfoliated inorganic solids, creating sustainable products from pollution
• Circuit (US): a free, all-electric transportation system working to reduce carbon emissions and urban traffic.
• Collective Liberty (US): eradicating human trafficking by synthesising data and communications between relevant actors
• Dynamhex (US): artificial intelligence and data analytics software used to forecast emissions and track and engage climate projects
• EVA (Portugal): drone infrastructure for urban areas to make the future of drone applications more operational, secure, and scalable
• Lazarillo (Chile): an intelligent platform enabling those with disabilities to navigate digital and physical services with increased autonomy
• Oxygeni (Poland): an air filtration system used with street lighting infrastructure to improve urban air quality.
• WeavAir (Canada): proactive solutions for air distribution systems that prevent contamination while reducing energy and maintenance costs
• ZaaK (Germany): combatting erosion by engineering smart sand from industrial waste.

Leading Cities seeks to connect cities across the globe with innovations and insight to drive resiliency, equity, and sustainability. This is achieved by cultivating a global network of forward thinkers from the public, private, academic, and non-profit sectors as well as delivering advanced research, emerging trends and vetting solutions that will address urban challenges.

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