Dutch design consultancy Arcadis has selected ten start-ups selected for the second wave of its City of 2030 accelerator, funded by US seed accelerator Techstars. This is year two of the programme, which is aimed at identifying and developing innovative start-ups to transform the natural and built environment.
 
The start-ups featured are focused on developing ideas around urban planning, resiliency, sustainability, mobility and logistic. The core technology and products of the various start-ups complement Arcadis’ existing business and strategic vision.
 
The companies will work with the programme team during a three-month accelerator programme in office space provided by Arcadis in Amsterdam, and take part in a Demo Day to showcase their ideas on May 28. The companies will get support from industry mentors to develop strategies to grow their business, fine-tune products and business development efforts, build relevant networks, and explore scalable opportunities for collaboration within Arcadis and its clients.
 
Arcadis and Techstars will invest in the ten selected companies, each receiving a three per cent equity stake.
 
The first year of the programme has supported many start-ups who are raising capital for growth and working closely with Arcadis businesses and their clients worldwide on pilots and commercial agreements. As an example, Cityflag, a collaborative and AI-enhanced digital platform for municipalities to communicate directly with residents, raised a $1.2m investment round led by Good Growth Capital, a US early-stage venture fund. Furthermore, the Arcadis Digital Studio continues to work with CityFlag to explore and leverage the strengths of both companies to develop propositions that serve the needs of its clients around asset management.
 
The ten start-ups in this year’s accelerator are:

• Niricson (Canada): Predictive asset management for infrastructure, enabled by a combination of robotics and computer vision technology.
• ISeeChange (USA): Mobilising communities to provide insight and micro-data about climate impacts.
• Crea.Vision (UK and Canada): Long range computer vision platform featuring passive detailed recognition, mobility and localisation data.
• Yellowbox (Australia): Smart lockers application for logistics and new mobility.
• Data for Good (Netherlands): Online overarching generic sustainability standard that is created to support organisations and cities in making themselves and the world more sustainable.
• Agilicity (Slovenia): Parametric urban design software with interactive 3D zoning.
• Downtown.AI (Canada): Machine learning and big location data to analyse, map and predict human movements in cities.
• Geofluxus (Netherlands): Solid waste visualisation and analytics platform.
• Propfolio (UK): Marketplace for real estate, digital securities and assets.
• Cobalt Water Global (USA): AI and modelling for sustainable urban water management.

The theme City of 2030 of the accelerator relates to the strategic vision developed by Arcadis and is based on the fact that in the next decade the vast majority of people will live their lives in cities. Arcadis believes it is perfectly positioned to play a role and shape future cities.

“We are excited to support the second year of the accelerator programme and to work with these innovative start-ups to help cities plan for the future,” said Stephan Ritter, Arcadis group executive for innovation and transformation. “These start-ups bring cutting-edge ideas to address the challenges of urban communities that are in need of unconventional solutions.”

Arcadis employs 28,000 people and is active in more than 70 countries that generate €3.5bn in revenues.