Denmark is at the forefront of the urban tech movement. Ten startups selected by leading Danish companies within sustainable urban development, are showcasing their cutting-edge ideas this week.
From energy-producing windows to geotechnical analysis systems, the ideas range widely among ten startups selected to take part in the Urbantech Program. All have one thing in common: they can make our cities more sustainable.
A rigorous three months selection process narrowed 400 international startups down to 10. They are now ready to showcase the work they’ve done through an intensive 12-week program based out of the BLOXHUB coworking space in the iconic BLOX building on the Copenhagen waterfront.
Through partnerships with a number of Danish companies, the program contributes to the development of new solutions for the cities of the future. It will run over three years, supporting 10 startups each year. The goal is to help these startups make construction more efficient, buildings and energy systems more flexible, and public spaces more multifunctional. Many of the startups also have a focus on how CO2 emissions can be reduced. It is all connected to the Danish tradition of putting users and citizens at the centre of urban development. And a strong focus on quality of life – both inside and out.
The 2019 Urbantech cohort has drawn on the unique Danish strengths within architecture, design and city planning. They’ve also had access to international experts, technological innovation and business development. These Danish and international startups will enjoy tailored support to help them accelerate growth and impact. The program is a collaboration between private companies and the leading institutions in the respective areas, which all contribute to giving the selected startups an intense and tailor-made acceleration, access to business units and even customers.
Urbantech expects the participating startups will be able to scale their businesses even further after the program has ended, and be a part of creating the future of sustainable cities. This is a global ambition as well as within Denmark’s borders. This will also support the Urbantech programme’s even greater ambition: to strengthen Denmark’s leadership position in creating sustainable cities. As well as the ecosystem enabling it.
The program partners are COWI, VKR Holding / VELUX and EWII, who are all investing both money and time in the program. In collaboration with their own business units, they work with the selected entrepreneurs to further develop their technology and business. The entrepreneurs will also have the opportunity to work with the program partners on innovation-focused pilot projects.
In addition to the business partners, Urbantech is also supported by the philanthropic association Realdania and The Danish Industry Foundation. Urbantech is run by Rainmaking in collaboration with BLOXHUB, Danish Design Centre, Danish Architecture Center and Amazon Web Services.
The ten startups selected for the program include:
- Next Energy Technologies, a US firm whose cutting edge solar technology transforms windows into energy producing assets with unsurpassed aesthetics, performance, and economics.
- Luxembourg’s AIRBOXLAB’s Foobot, which monitors 24/7 indoor air pollution and creates Demand Control ventilation, filtration and purification through algorithms.
- Spanish SAALG Geomechanics, a software solution based on inverse analysis, cloud computing and machine learning algorithms to minimise geotechnical uncertainties.
- Anyware Solutions from Denmark, which offers a unique Customer Engagement and Analytics Platform for partners based on data collected by the award-winning Smart Adaptor.
- German Moeco is a blockchain-powered platform designed to provide global IoT connectivity.
- Norwegian startup Bimsync by Catenda saves time, money and the environment. It is the next generation cloud based collaboration platform where construction information comes alive.
- Danish PurCity has developed a self-cleaning and highly-efficient air purification system that can be easily integrated into any new or existing building and turn them into large scale air purification systems.
- German startup RYSTA facilitates sustainable protection of real estate assets by providing a modular IoT monitoring solution to reduce costs and increase efficiency.
- German startup Powerfox provides a solution that makes household energy data available for various parties on a scalable platform.
- UK-based OrxaGrid provide smart solutions through retrofitting IoT sensor devices on critical grid nodes and predicting efficiency improvements.
