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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.

AAHOA President & CEO Chip Rogers to Join Zonetail’s Board of Directors

Zonetail Inc. (“Zonetail”), a mobile technology company and the Asian American Hotel Owners Association, Inc. (“AAHOA”) are launching a single, one-app platform which will be named “Zonetail” and will feature AAHOA’s 15,000 hotel members along with Zonetail’s other hotel clients worldwide. This platform will connect hotel guests to the amenities and services of their hotel through the convenience of their own mobile device and offers hotels new service options to increase revenues and customer engagement. Guests can select their hotel destination and the app will “reskin” (tailor the content) to provide information and connectivity to any Zonetail-supported hotel worldwide. All local area information on attractions, events, dining and shopping will be provided. The app will drive direct bookings, avoiding the substantial commissions charged by the online travel agencies, increase incremental revenue, decrease operating costs, build loyalty and enhance the entire guest experience.

“We believe Zonetail is uniquely positioned to become the mobile application of choice for hoteliers. Zonetail’s product quality and earnings potential for hotel owners make Zonetail the natural leader in this market segment. We are extremely pleased to conclude a partnership with them as we are of the view that Zonetail’s “anchored local” approach will serve our members well. I am delighted to accept a position on the Zonetail Board of Directors and I look forward to helping the Company grow into a recognized leader in the hospitality technology solutions space” said Chip Rogers, President & CEO, AAHOA.

“Our agreement with AAHOA is a major milestone for Zonetail in its efforts to substantially expand our hotel client base in North America. We are thrilled to partner with such an influential and prestigious voice in the hotel industry and to work with its members. I would like to welcome AAHOA’s President & CEO, Chip Rogers, to Zonetail’s board of directors. He will be an invaluable partner as Zonetail continues to provide services to the rapidly evolving hotel market” stated Mark Holmes, Zonetail’s President & CEO.

About Asian American Hotel Owners Association: Founded in 1989, the Asian American Hotel Owners Association, Inc. (AAHOA) is the largest hotel owners association in the world, with over 15,000 members. AAHOA members own more than 25,000 hotels amounting to approximately 50 percent of all hotels in the United States and employ nearly 700,000 workers, accounting for over $10 billion in payroll. For more information visit www.aahoa.com.

About Zonetail: Zonetail is a mobile technology company that provides an anchored local mobile platform, custom-branded to hotels, which connects guests to the full range of hotel services and businesses in the surrounding neighborhood. To date, Zonetail has signed agreements with more than 25,000 hotels as well as over 1,800 condominium buildings.

For more information, visit www.zonetail.com.

For additional information:

Beverly Brooks
President, Brooks Communications
416 482 8889
Brooks.communications@rogers.com

Priding themselves on what they call ‘anchored local’, Zonetail provides property information, access, interaction and contextually relevant content about the surrounding neighborhood for any traveler looking for more information or places to visit in the area.

“Zonetail is the world’s first free mobile app and platform, custom branded to hotels, which connects guests to the full range of hotel services and businesses in the surrounding neighborhood,” according to a Zonetail press release.

Pull out your smart technology and download one of the many free apps the company offers with a click of a button and find information on hotels, condos, property amenities, restaurants, stores, services, entertainment and attractions all nearby with location services to identify where you are on a map.

I downloaded the Baymont Inn & Suites Zonetail app and had the option of searching hotel information with a provided link to make a reservation and a list of front desk and hotel amenities and services from the fitness center, if you’re feeling brave on a vacation, to dry cleaning which is offered on site.

With the Explore page, I searched through attractions, shopping, take out and restaurants all in the area with location services turned on in my settings.

The company launched in 2013 with offices in Toronto, Ontario and Palo Alto, California. The app is available worldwide with 100 hotel partners evenly split between the US and Canada with a few offshore. Zonetail recently signed 1,800 condominium buildings, which includes 35% of the Greater Toronto Area market, according to President and CEO Mark Holmes.

Tom Tittel, Vice President of Operations of Silverbirch Hotels, started using Zonetail in 2014. “The app immediately provided us with mobile identity and incredibly simple access for our guests to make everything from reservations, general enquiries, special requests and to feel comfortable in the downtown neighborhood while using customized features of the Zonetail app,” said Tittel.

Holmes brings fifteen years of experience to the company after owning and managing Kingsway Agencies, the birthplace of Zonetail. Kingsway Agencies began in 1960 and offered sliding devices to attach to hotel guest phones displaying hotel information, amenities and services, as well as local area advertising. Zonetail is the modern version of the business with targeted sponsored content on a free mobile platform.

“Anything they [travelers] used to have to do through a landline or at the front desk they can now do on their own phone whenever they want and from wherever they are,” said Holmes. “Location-based apps such as Yelp, and Trip Advisor provide unstructured, general area information. Zonetail is anchored to the places where people live, stay, work, and congregate.”

When I searched Zonetail on my IPhone, the list of apps seemed to go on forever. From Cambridge Suites Toronto to the Quality Inn Pooler Savannah to Port Inn Portsmouth, hotels and attractions from places all across the country and Canada are listed in a number of different Zonetail apps. I find that rather than downloading a new hotel or condo brand’s app each time, the information would be easier and much more convenient if it were all in one.

With the company’s content management system, hotels and condos can load content onto their app in real time. Advertisers can change any content by day, for a specific occasion or whenever they want to take ‘advantage of contextual relevance and time-sensitivity’ with the system.

“You could almost say it [the app] represents the digital version of a comprehensive in room guest directory, right in the palm of the guest,” said Tittel. “The bonus features such as maps, attractions, local favorites and the ability to make future reservations top it off.” The easy-to-use app, creative team members, no cost to produce and maintain the page and positive reviews from guests is what makes joining Zonetail well-worth it for Tittel.

Zonetail is working to establish and own the anchored local category and grow the company into a ubiquitous presence across the hotel and condo market.

The most rewarding part of it all for Holmes has been seeing the idea of ‘anchored local’ become reality, “Taking what we believe to be a solid human insight and need, building a product to fulfill that need and watching interest grow throughout North America,” he said.

App developer Zonetail has raised capital.

The Toronto startup has secured $2.3 million in Series A financing through private investors. The financing will help the Canadian company further develop its “anchored local” white-label hotel app, it says.

“People don’t just check into a hotel, they check into the neighbourhood of a city,” said Mark Holmes, CEO, Zonetail. “Most of people’s lives, whether at home or traveling, are spent within five miles of their home base. By organizing the information that matters most to them, we are saving them time, and making their experience more rewarding.”

The app platform taps into people’s desire to travel to new cities, but to shop, dine, and explore like a local.

To date, Zonetail has signed agreements with more than 100 hotel properties in 10 Canadian provinces and 15 U.S. states, including three offshore hotels.

The app is free for hotels to use, with revenue streams coming from retail advertising from the surrounding area.

While it was launched as a hotel app, the Zonetail platform can be applied to any location where people live, work, stay, or congregate. Future plans include servicing condos, office towers, and large-scale events, among others.

The company was founded in 2013.

App developer and tech startup Zonetail Inc. (Zonetail) has raised roughly $1.7 million in Series A financing through private investors. The round of financing will help further develop its “anchored local” white-label hotel app, and grow its market and revenue.

Zonetail is a free mobile app and platform, custom-branded to hotels, which connects guests to the full range of hotel services and businesses in the surrounding neighborhood. The app platform taps into people’s desire to travel to new cities, but to shop, dine, and explore like a local, according to the company. According to a 2014 Trip Barometer survey, 90% of U.S. travelers use their mobile phones when vacationing. Further, 62% used it to search for restaurants, 52% to look for activities, and 62% to search for hotels.

To date, Zonetail has signed agreements with more than 100 hotel properties in 10 Canadian provinces and 15 U.S. states, including three offshore hotels. The company is also in negotiations with major international hotel chains to launch the app on a chain-wide basis, according to the company.

The app is free for hotels to use, with revenue streams coming from retail advertising from the surrounding area.

Mark Holmes from Zonetail joins Greg Hollenback and Jesper Jonsson on the Modern Eater to talk about their hotel app.

Solving hotel guest’s local search problems.
Local advertising that’s an essential part of the guest experience.
The reinvention of the mobile ad, including a content management system that allows advertisers to change their message instantly.