There has been a rise of urban tech companies over the past decade.
They're some of the largest venture capital investments. According to CityLabs, urban tech investment more than doubled from less than $20 billion to $44 billion between 2016 and 2017. That's as its share of global venture investment surged from 13 percent to 22 percent.
Boston isn't immune to this trend—there is an abundance of startups focusing on urban tech innovation in Bean Town, and we highlight ten of those companies below.
One of our 19 startups to watch in 2019, Armored Things, uses artificial intelligence to transform data into safety insights. It engages in technology, like cameras and smart door locks, that is already being used in venues to gather data to provide physical security. This helps security officers spot patterns in crowd behavior that are consistent with incidents, with the ultimate goal of predicting attacks. Armored Things, founded in 2016 by Julie Johnson and Charles Curran, raised $5.5 million last summer, totalling to $8 million in funding. In February, the startup appointed Kevin Davis, a former Police Commissioner in the Baltimore Police Department, as the new Chief Security Officer.
Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT) uses smartphone data to provide insights on driver behavior and vehicle dynamics to auto insurers, fleets, auto makers, wireless carriers, and government agencies. The Kendall Square-based startup, founded in 2010 by Bill Powers, Hari Balakrishnan, and Sam Madden, is among the developers of Boston’s Safest Driver app, which provides users feedback on their driving habits based on their speed, acceleration, braking, cornering and phone distraction. This past December, the company raised half a billion dollars—one of the biggest funding rounds of the year for a Massachusetts company— from SoftBank’s Vision Fund.
Public community meetings can be inconvenient, however they can contain important information and discussions. The Cambridge-based startup coUrbanize is helping developers gather feedback about projects via online forums instead of in person meetings—This is to increase engagement and to allow residents to voice their opinions about about urban planning and real estate development. The startup, launched in 2013, is part of BostInno’s 2019 Startups to Watch List. CoUrbanize is led by founder and CEO Karin Brandt and raised a total of $1.7 million through Techstars Boston and other investors.
CIVIQ Smartscapes makes large touchscreen-based signs that integrates Wi-Fi, mobile LTE, and smart sensor technologies. CIVIQ Smartscapes, founded in 2014, created smart kiosks that provides transit information, high speed USB charging, and a photo booth. In December, the startup announced that it will provide smart kiosks for the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority and Signature Boston—these kiosks are meant to improve the Boston tourists experience. Smart kiosks from Civiq Smartscapes are now operating around the world, including cities like New York City, Dallas, London, Montreal, and Singapore.
Guardion’s mission is to help governments reduce the risk of nuclear terrorism with networkable, low cost, ultra-sensitive ionizing radiation sensors. Guardion tracks the dirty bombs in cities. This startup, which was a $50K Gold Winner at MassChallenge in 2017, has a research contract with NASA and the U.S. Air Force.
If people are not using their own private parking spaces, they can rent thiers out to someone who needs one using the Hasty Parking app. This “Airbnb for parking” app is different from other parking apps because Hasty Parking provides the parking space owners with a numbered space marker that serves as a physical locator for the parking spot—this is so the driver has an easier time locating the parking. The app now has more than 50 parking hosts, who set their own rates.
Soofa is putting a modern spin on city amenities with the smart benches and solar-paneled signs in Kendall Square and Faneuil Hall. The MIT-born startup created in 2014 is also collecting sensor data from these benches and signs to help cities with urban planning. Both the bench and the sign have the ability to measure how much cell phone noise is in proximity, which the company uses to indicate the level of activity in the area. This data helps urban planners and other entities who want to take a more data-driven approach to understanding and developing spaces over time. The Soofa Signs, already in Atlanta and Las Vegas, are being implemented in the Miami-Dade County after winning the Ford Motor Co. challenge last December; the startup also received $50,000 from Ford.
State of Place helps cities and developers prioritize the most impactful placemaking and Smart City initiatives by quantifying what people love about places. It is what they call the “real-life version of SimCity.” State of Place, founded by Mariela Alfonzo, bases the data on over 290 urban design features collected for every block and explains why it makes economic sense to improve the location.
After creating the Copenhagen Wheel, an electric hybrid bicycle wheel, Superpedestrian is shifting gears to build electric scooters that it hopes to supply to scooter-sharing startups like Lime and Bird. The Cambridge-based startup founded by Assaf Biderman made this announcement in December. The average e-scooter lifespan is about three months, but Superpedestrian’s e-scooters are meant to remain in circulation for as long as 18 months. Superpedestrian has raised $44 million in total funding.
Zoba uses spatial analytics to better understand the relationships between different phenomena in order to improve the efficiency of cities. Zoba, co-founded by Joseph Brennan and Daniel Brennan in 2016, is predicting the demand for scooters and bikes in particular areas as scooter and bike sharing are quickly becoming staple commodities in cities. To support the mission, Zoba raised $2.9 million in January in a seed round led by CRV with participation from Founder Collective, Mark Cuban and others. The total funding to date is $3.45 million.
