Five North American startups selected to participate in three-month digital transformation program

Highlands Ranch, Colorado — March 9, 2020 — Arcadis has selected five North American startups to participate in its City of 2030 Accelerator program. In its second year, the program will help 10 startups develop and implement innovative concepts to grow their businesses. 

Led by Arcadis and powered by Techstars, a worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs, the program matches selected companies with industry mentors to help them develop strategies to improve products, build relevant networks and explore collaboration opportunities with Arcadis and its clients. 

The North American companies selected for the 2020 program are:

• Niricson (Canada) — Predictive asset management for infrastructure, enabled by a combination of robotics and computer vision technology
• ISeeChange (United States) — Mobilizing communities to provide valuable insight and micro-data about climate impacts
• crea.vision (Canada) — Long-range computer vision platform featuring passive detailed recognition, mobility and localization data
• Downtown.AI (Canada) — Machine learning and big location data to analyze, map and predict human movements in cities
• Cobalt Water Global (United States) — Artificial Intelligence and modeling for sustainable urban water management 

Startup teams will share learnings throughout the process, helping Arcadis bring some of the latest industry innovations to clients, making this a beneficial partnership for everyone involved. 

“These startups are developing digitally focused, innovative ideas around themes that are so important to cities in the U.S., Canada and the rest of the world,” said Peter Glus, Arcadis senior vice president and city executive. “Bringing together Arcadis experts and innovators from these startups around themes like urban planning, resilience, sustainability, new mobility and logistic services has the potential to improve quality of life for millions of people.” 

The core technology and products of the various startups complement Arcadis’ current business and strategic vision. The companies will work with the program team during a three-month accelerator program in Amsterdam and take part in a “demo day” to showcase their ideas May 28. 

In 2019, Arcadis supported many startups that are successfully raising capital for growth and working closely with the company and its clients on pilot projects and commercial agreements. Cityflag, a Texas-based collaborative and artificial intelligence-enhanced platform that helps municipalities communicate directly with residents, raised $1.2 million in investments, led by Good Growth Capital, a U.S. based early stage venture fund. The Arcadis Digital Studio continues to work with Cityflag to explore and leverage the strengths of both companies to develop new propositions that serve the needs of its clients around asset management. 

The “City of 2030” theme relates to the fact that most people will live in cities by the end of the next decade. 

“We’re looking forward to working with these innovative startups to help cities plan for the future,” Luke Chilton, head of the program in North America for Arcadis. “These startups bring some incredible ideas to the table to help urban communities in need of outside-the-box thinking.” 

The remaining five startups are:

• Yellowbox (Australia) — Smart lockers application for logistics and new mobility solutions
• Data for Good (Netherlands) — Online overarching generic sustainability standard that is created to support organizations and cities in making themselves and the world more sustainable
• Agilicity (Slovenia) — Parametric urban design software with interactive 3D zoning
• geoFluxus (Netherlands) — Solid waste visualization and analytics platform
• Propfolio (United Kingdom) — Marketplace for real estate, digital securities, and assets