Urban Living Futures today announced the first 20 innovators selected for the inaugural cohort of the UPPlift: Toronto Urban Pilot Platform. The selected innovators will have the opportunity to work with UPPlift partners Microsoft, QuadReal Property Group, the City of Toronto and Intel to refine their ideas and leverage their technology to maintain Toronto’s liveability as the city grows and demands more from our built environment.

The UPPlift: Toronto platform launched at the beginning of the year to support an ongoing movement to transform the city into a tech-enabled model of sustainable urban living. The platform is an evolving ecosystem that matches cities and city-based companies with smart city solutions to accelerate change and improve urban centres around the world. Multiple technology partners and multiple test-beds offer innovators a range of opportunities to improve and trial their innovations.

“We were extremely impressed by both the quantity and the quality of submissions,” said Mikele Brack, Founder and CEO of Urban Living Futures and creator of the UPPlift platform. “It is inspiring to see how many innovators across Canada are working on forward-thinking solutions for sustainable urban living, and how many of them are ready to pilot.”

The selected innovators will join a five-week program that includes workshops with UPPlift partners, and professional support from other sponsors. At the end of the program, innovators will present a tailored business plan that addresses a specific use case and 5 to 8 innovations will be invited to pilot. Selected innovators are eligible for up to $25,000 to cover pilot costs from the Independent Electricity Systems Operator (IESO) and a Start Up Program of legal services from Fasken.

The inaugural cohort is focused on solutions that deliver long-term sustainability and resource efficiency, and improve tenant/resident experiences within existing Toronto properties. Proposed solutions leverage a diverse range of technologies and applications, including the Internet of Things, Blockchain, and Artificial Intelligence and are all designed to enhance the modern urban living experience.

The twenty innovators in the first cohort include:

ArgosAI
Digitized data stream used to count people, space usage, advertisement impact, automate parking space, and individual parking space management without sensors.

Binners Junk Removal
Junk removal app focused on continuously organizing and simplifying item removal and sustainable disposal.

Bosch Canada
In-store retail analytics for real-time customer traffic data allowing brick and mortar stores to compete more effectively in a digital world.

Eddy Home
Intelligent leak protection and water monitoring through smart products that offer a comprehensive water management system that protects, controls, and conserves water.

Emagin
Operational intelligence platform for water and wastewater facilities to make informed, real-time decisions.

Infranovate
Smart bench and smart material, called STERED, that can clean the air, reduce noise pollution, mitigate flooding and green our environment.

Intuitive Robotics
Oscar, a machine learning and computer vision integration for disposal units that diverts items away from landfills and oceans while also providing waste insights to create smarter zero waste buildings and cities.

Invixium
Biometric products that are secure, convenient, and simple to use.

Kodisoft
World-leading interactive smart table and touch sensor technology with lightning-fast response times and unlimited multi-touch ability.

NetraMark Corp
Applications designed to optimize learning through easy to use interfaces which allow for AI and human expertise to converge with real life solutions efficiently.

Rockbar Construction
Customized clean water solutions for a variety of property types.

Rover Parking
App connecting empty and unused parking spots with those looking for affordable and convenient parking.

SensorSuite
A complete suite of monitoring and control solutions for boilers and electrically heated buildings.

Southwest Energy Inc
Supplier and installing contractor for mechanical and green energy solutions.

sPark*
Premium electric vehicle charging stations.

Strawberry Energy
Solar-powered urban furniture for smart and sustainable cities.

Vseta
Groundbreaking facility sensors to solve facility service challenges using IoT.

Xesto
Gesture recognition startup that enables developers and creators to easily make their applications touchless.

ZEITDICE
Long-term visual data collection and extraction with a patent pending camera that does not run out of battery or memory and can be deployed anywhere.

Zonetail
Customized mobile platforms that connect hotel guests and condo users to the amenities and services of their building.

“There is a lot of smart talent in Toronto, creating the tools that will further meet the needs of sustainable smart cities, now and in the future,” said Michael Kolm, Chief Transformation Officer, City of Toronto. “This initiative is a great opportunity to support local innovators in developing solutions that may benefit residents, businesses and communities through smart technology.”

Top innovators were selected in collaboration with UPPlift: Toronto sponsors and leading experts in technology, innovation and city building. Criteria to advance to the Urban Pilot Prep included innovation, impact and viability of the solutions. The innovations that best suit the City of Toronto and QuadReal Property Group test-bed properties will be chosen to explore a pilot in May 2018 and commercialisation assistance will be offered to enhance their progress. Successful pilots and all submissions will be considered for implementation in international cities as the UPPlift platform expands.

About UPPlift

UPPlift is an urban pilot platform (UPP) designed and delivered by Urban Living Futures Inc. The platform identifies innovations and facilitates live demonstrations of technologies aimed at resolving challenges in the built environment, ensuring asset owners and managers achieve cost savings, improved operations and enhanced experiences for their users. The process creates a living lab in the host city, attracting and retaining an innovator ecosystem, and facilitating deployment of “smart” and resource-efficiency technology into the city’s infrastructure and built assets.

About Urban Living Futures Inc.

Urban Living Futures Inc. designs and delivers innovation programs creating convergence between urban innovators (supply) and built asset owners/managers (demand) to create efficiencies and enhanced user experience with smart technologies. We bring together private sector companies, city authorities and global technology leaders and harness their support to help innovators pilot and ultimately commercialize emergent technology.