Call for Startups: Upgrade Cities for Climate Change
Despite the many shifts of 2020, urbanization remains a characteristic trend of this century. The challenges for urban life and communities have compounded through the realities of the Covid-19 pandemic, racial injustice, and environmental consequences on already stressed and straining communities. Our team has found both sorrow and hope in witnessing cities move through chapters of response, slowdown, protest, adaptation, and reopening throughout this year. While there is much uncertainty in what is to come, we remain adamant that sustainable urban systems are urgent and critical to the actions we need to take to reverse global climate change.
For the last 5 months we have been working with our eighth cohort of companies: Adiona, Aquagenuity, Climate Robotics, Mobilyze, Resonant Link, and Xtelligent. The teams have worked with Urban Us partners and our Experts-in-Residence to tackle their most pressing development needs: industrial designs, functional mechanical systems, user-researched interfaces, and validated business models. We have hosted sessions on customer development, pipeline quantification, culture building, and fundraising. Now, the founders are gearing up for Demo Day on Oct. 15.
Call for Startups:
Urban Us is looking for early stage companies that upgrade cities and urban systems to face climate change. We are deeply committed to investing resources and time into supporting startups taking on a low-carbon approach to improving infrastructure, energy, or mobility systems. Urban Us invests across technology areas, with a majority of our portfolio having some type of hardware in their stack. We have developed additional funding approaches specifically for hardware.
We don’t have a preference for how great solutions get into the world. We frequently work with B2B models, but we have not shied away from B2G companies. Sometimes marketplaces are appropriate and we’re always excited about consumer-oriented solutions. Our portfolio includes One Concern, Rachio, OneWheel, Blokable, Bowery Farming, Thrilling, Kibbo, Cove.tool, and Varuna. You can see the full list here: https://urban.us/portfolio.
Here are our current priority areas:
Decarbonization
With the increased momentum and funding into climate tech, we are seeing more and more opportunities for replacement technologies in carbon intensive building materials like steel, cement, and petrochemicals. Startups offering carbon-free alternatives for building materials, equipment, and processes could have a major impact on the built environment.
Electrification of Everything
We’re not sure what the mix will look like in energy generation, for example maybe Nuclear becomes a bigger piece of the solution or perhaps storage prices don’t decline enough to hand the win to solar and wind. But we do know that we need to electrify as much demand, as fast as possible — everything from building and industrial heating to all forms of transportation.
Social equity and civic participation
Polarization and distrust of politics have created a groundswell of activism and protests in cities worldwide. With a growing problem with misinformation and distrust of the press, there is a need for solutions that can safely relay the needs and opinions of vulnerable communities with local officials and vice versa. Our future needs companies dedicated to citizen engagement, promoting justice, and improving access for those who have been underserved.
Resilience
This year maybe the warmest of the last 100 years, but it’s likely to be the coolest of the next 100 years. This means worsening natural hazards like floors and fires. How can we reduce the impacts of these events to reduce loss of life and disruption.
Packaging and waste streams
Moving away from single-use plastics and diverting organics from landfills have proved to be decades-long challenges. There is a massive opportunity for sustainable packaging alternatives and circular economy systems that can lighten consumption and encourage a regenerative approach to our resources.
Not sure if an accelerator is right for you? Our program is the best of what our firm can offer condensed into a 5 month timeline. Companies get weekly workshops with our investment partners, services and advising from an interdisciplinary group of experts in residence, proactive introductions to customers and investors across the network, and special sessions built around the needs of pre-seed and seed stage urbantech companies. Applications are open until October 8. Apply Now.
Still not sure? There is an easy way to get to know the Urban Us community of nearly one thousand founders, investors and customers focused on upgrading cities for climate change. We host online events, run multiple Slack channels and send regular email updates. Join Now.
