What is Urban Technology Accelerator for Sustainable Cities program?

The program is in accordance with the UAE’s strategic plan Net Zero by 2050, a national effort to achieve net-zero emissions by that year. By encouraging a bottom-up entrepreneurial attitude in the built environment in the UAE, the URB Incubator is intended to speed up the 2050 net zero goal. The start-up program will enable a new generation of innovators to take the helm of urban digital solutions in the UAE for a sustainable future.

The chief executive officer of URB, Baharash Bagherian, who is responsible for the designs of various sustainable towns that are being built, outlines the incubator’s main goals.

The 2023 incubator is open to Urban Tech start-ups in the following categories:

• Energy
• Water
• Food
• Waste
• Mobility
• Building Material
• Smart Tech

Why enter this program?

• The Incubator for Sustainable Cities by URB has gained recognition as a leading global urban-tech accelerator program since its debut a year ago. The incubator is on a mission to enhance urban quality of life in the United Arab Emirates and is housed at URB headquarters in Dubai Design District.
• Our scaling program, which will quickly raise each start-valuation, up’s will be advantageous to them all. We offer to mentor to help our start-ups gain a competitive edge and a leadership position. URB has top-notch resources for developing urban technology and a vast partner network to build start-ups with a track record of successful funding.
• In the areas of energy, water, food, trash, mobility, building materials, and other issues, we support startups developing scalable solutions. Urban-tech projects that reimagine and modernize our cities are of interest to us since they enhance urban living.
• Our incubator puts an emphasis on the people behind the inventions, giving entrepreneurs access to more resources than simply money. We offer operational and ongoing specialized help for startups in their early stages of development. International specialists with a track record of expanding startups to success make up our team of partners.
• The Incubator provides up to 10 million USD in investment opportunities to winning entrants who meet our incubation criteria.

Procedure to submit

• Each participant must submit one urban-tech project produced by the applicant that displays high sustainability standards with innovation that will shape the future of sustainable cities.
• Each submission should be emailed to incubator@urb.ae in A4 PDF landscape format with a maximum file size of 10MB and a maximum of 10 pages.
• Each applicant must additionally print and sign the declaration form (available in this document), which must be delivered as a separate attachment with the email submission. Please keep in mind that each candidate is only allowed one entry. Any contribution that does not adhere to the submission guidelines will be disqualified.

What is the date of submission?

Deadline for submission 01ST / JUNE / 2023
Shortlist announcement 01ST / AUGUST / 2023
Winners announcement 20TH / OCTOBER / 2023

Who are eligible?

• Available to anybody above the age of 18.

What are the requirements?

• Any project that is submitted must include a proof of concept. Proof must be supplied via a past pilot experiment or a current pilot project.
• Our primary criterion is the project’s impact on molding the future of cities. The focus is sustainable cities, hence urban technology initiatives should be relevant to this theme and fall into one of the following categories: Energy, Water, Food, Waste, Mobility, Building Material, and Smart Tech.

How project gets selected?

• Shortlisted applicants will be asked to a 10-minute online pitch session to further describe their proposal. This will be followed by a 10-minute Q&A session to go over the company concept and financials.
• The winners will be revealed and announced at an award event held in conjunction with GITEX Global.

What are the terms and conditions?

• The author will own the rights to each project (s). URB maintains the right to use the projects in publications, books, press, exhibitions, websites, newsletters, and other promotional materials for the Incubator.
• Those who submit information or participate in the Incubator are deemed to have granted URB an irrevocable free license to use and reproduce any of the content submitted for all purposes related to promoting the Incubator.
• The participants forever waive, release, and absolve URB and its employees of any and all liabilities, costs, loss, damages, or expenses that they may have in the future as a result of their participation in the Incubator, including (but not limited to) personal injury and property damage, whether or not such liabilities are direct, indirect, or foreseeable.
• The participant is responsible for protecting URB and its staff from any liability, damage, loss, or expense incurred as a result of their participation in the incubator.
• Shortlisted applicants are responsible for paying their own travel costs to attend the award presentation in Dubai.
• URB reserves the right to completely or partially cancel or modify the Incubator. The participant is responsible for protecting URB and its staff from any liability, cost, damage, or expense incurred as a result of cancellation or any changes.
• Without warning, any entry that does not adhere to the rules and submission process will be eliminated. Only entries that satisfy the requirements will be emailed an acknowledgment. The following email address will be used for all correspondence: incubator@urb.ae

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