Fort Lauderdale's Ubicquia is on a mission to help cities deploy smart city technology to make neighborhoods safer and more connected – and now, the company's chief executive is winning recognition for the startup's efforts.
CEO Ian Aaron was among seven founders and executives to snag an Ernst and Young's 2022 Entrepreneur of the Year Award, which recognizes leaders of high-growth companies based in Florida and Puerto Rico.
Founded in 2014, Ubicquia's smart city and grid platforms use artificial intelligence to implement lighting control, accelerate 5G deployment and monitor real-time air quality through streetlights. Its platform can help municipalities reduce energy consumption – and, as a result, save money.
"We saw the streetlight not only as a way to save cities money and reduce CO2 emissions, but as a fundamental building block for public safety, bridging the digital divide and helping mobile operators accelerate 5G deployments," Aaron told Miami Inno.
Last year, the company raised $30 million in a financing round led by Fuel Venture Capital in Coconut Grove.
Ubicquia's smart city and grid platform is being used by more than 450 cities and utilities across the U.S., Canada and Latin America.
"The beauty of our solutions is that they are compatible with streetlight and transformer infrastructure globally," Aaron said.
He wasn't the only South Florida entrepreneur recognized by Ernst and Young. The other local founders and CEOs on the list are:
- Harry Hurst, founder and CEO of Pipe, a Miami revenue trading platform that allows businesses to trade future recurring revenue into upfront capital. The fintech reached a $2 billion valuation last May.
- Jan Bednar, founder and CEO of Shipmonk. The Fort Lauderdale company provides a variety of shipping and logistics services for small- to medium-sized e-commerce businesses. It has a $700 million valuation, according to Crunchbase, which included the venture on its recent "emerging unicorn" list.
- J.J. Kardwell, CEO, and David Aninowsky, co-founder, and J.J. Kardwell, CEO, of The Constant Co. The West Palm Beach cloud computing company is backed by $150 million in investor capital.
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