Urban Future Prize Competition to Showcase World’s Top Smart City and Smart Grid Technology Startups
Winners will get $50,000 each and spots in New York City’s longest-running cleantech incubator program
BROOKLYN, New York, Friday, November 16, 2018 – The Urban Future Lab, New York City’s hub for smart cities, smart grid technology, and clean energy at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, has launched its 2018 Urban Future Prize Competition.
The competition seeks out the world’s most revolutionary smart city and smart grid technologies by bringing the brightest entrepreneurs together with mission-driven investors, policy leaders, and corporate sponsors for a prestigious pitch competition in New York City. Two winners get $50,000 and the opportunity to grow their businesses into successful ventures in New York City’s longest-running cleantech business incubation program, ACRE, housed in the Urban Future Lab in Downtown Brooklyn.
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), New York Community Trust, and Con Edison are providing support for the competition.
“The Urban Future Prize Competition is an excellent vehicle for startups in the clean energy, smart city, and smart grid space to scale up and get funding,” said Pat Sapinsley, managing director of cleantech initiatives at NYU Tandon. “The winners will not only each be given a $50,000 grant funded by the New York Community Trust, but acceptance into our incubator, which entitles them to apply for as many as three $100,000 NYSERDA Ignition Grants. The help that our incubator has given to companies in the past has resulted in over $350 million in funding and in a 90 percent survival rate for our startups — a phenomenal success rate compared to the national average.”
"Helping cities become environmentally sustainable and more resilient are heavy lifts, but the dynamic entrepreneurs that compete for these prizes are clearly up to the challenge,” said Arturo Garcia-Costas, environmental program officer at the New York Community Trust. “Their innovations could help shape the future of the Big Apple.”
The non-dilutive, non-equity, cash prizes will be awarded to the top companies in each of the competition’s two categories: the New York Community Trust Smart City track and the New York Community Trust Smart Grid track. Applications to the Smart City track should pertain to urban infrastructure and resiliency, Internet of Things, sensor networks, analytics, and related themes. Applications to the Smart Grid track should pertain to renewable energy, energy efficiency, grid modernization, distributed generation, microgrids, and can include other solutions – even financing.
In joining the ACRE incubator at the Urban Future Lab, winners gain unprecedented access to the competition’s strategic partners and corporate sponsors, as well as the opportunity to establish pilot demonstration projects with those organizations on the forefront of New York State’s nation-leading energy strategy, Reforming the Energy Vision (REV), Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s strategy to build a clean, resilient, and affordable energy system for all New Yorkers.
Apply to the Urban Future Prize Competition
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About the NYU Urban Future Lab and ACRE
The Urban Future Lab (UFL) at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering is New York City’s premier innovation hub for smart cities, the smart grid, and clean energy. The UFL is home to programs focused on policy, education, and market solutions for the green economy. ACRE, the UFL’s flagship program, is a business incubator that supports the growth of high-impact early-stage venture companies addressing climate change. ACRE incubator companies receive 24/7 access to desk space and conference rooms at an office in Downtown Brooklyn, in addition to professional business advisory and support services (legal, accounting, design) and introductions to ACRE’s network of market partners, investors, mentors, and startup resources. The UFL and all its programs are supported by NYSERDA, Wells Fargo,Daikin, BP and Orrick. More at ufl.nyc.
About the NYU Tandon School of Engineering
The NYU Tandon School of Engineering dates to 1854, when the NYU School of Civil Engineering and Architecture as well as the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute (widely known as Brooklyn Poly) were founded. Their successor institutions merged in January 2014 to create a comprehensive school of education and research in engineering and applied sciences, rooted in a tradition of invention, innovation and entrepreneurship. In addition to programs at its main campus in downtown Brooklyn, it is closely connected to engineering programs in NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai, and it operates business incubators in downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn. For more information, visit engineering.nyu.edu.
