CU Denver Welcomes Second Class of Companies into Smart Futures Lab Incubator and Accelerator Programs
Companies will benefit from the university, Colorado Smart Cities Alliance and Innosphere Ventures partnership to support innovative solutions for urban environments.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Denver, CO [April 8, 2024] – 11 companies from Colorado and across the nation will benefit from CU Denver’s Smart Futures Lab incubator and accelerator programs beginning this month.
The companies, local, national and international, are led by New Majority entrepreneurs, which includes Black, Indigenous, People of Color, Women and People with disabilities. From finding ways to automate how cities detect sewer line defects to helping track 5G network signals, these companies are developing technology aimed at solving problems confronting quality of life in communities across Colorado, including transportation safety, mobility for people with disabilities, climate change, water, and urban planning.
This is the second set of companies to go through the program. CU Denver faculty members are translating their research to the marketplace by leading two of these companies. Last year’s graduating classes of twelve companies have already started to see successes.
The program was created in partnership with Colorado Smart Cities Alliance and Innosphere Ventures, and made possible thanks to a $2 million grant from the US Economic Development Administration (EDA) to support startups and entrepreneurs in the civic innovation space
Participants complete the no-cost six-month program, with the goal of developing and growing their tech companies. Program members will have access to a new physical coworking and prototyping space at 14th and Larimer featuring a private 5G network for research and development of Internet of Things technologies. As part of the program, they will engage with a custom education curriculum, and extensive partnership networks, among other additional benefits.
The incubator program is focused on helping entrepreneurs and companies transform their ideas into proof of concepts ready for real-world demonstration. The 2024 Smart Futures Lab incubator companies are: Addazu, InfraSmart Solutions, Point-It-Out, Grelomar, and Civic Trust. InfraSmart Solutions and Point-It-Out are founded by faculty members at CU Denver.
The accelerator program is geared towards elevating and scaling businesses with minimum viable products or services. The 2024 Smart Futures Lab accelerator companies are: N5 Sensors, Ecosystem Informatics, State of Place, Taro AI, GO See the City, and Tiami Networks.
The five companies accepted into the 2024 Smart Futures Lab incubator include:
InfraSmart | Denver, CO | CU Denver Faculty Founder
Founders: Brian Zavareh and Dr. Farnoush Banaei-Kashani,
InfraSmart Solutions is innovating in urban infrastructure with AI, focusing on making sewer pipeline defect detection automatic. They plan to bring their advanced solutions to cities across the country, aiming to change how infrastructure maintenance and city development are done.
Addazu | Denver, CO
Founder: Kelly Pickering
Addazu proudly steps into the workforce and entry-level housing sector, leveraging its unique position as a design, engineering, and sales firm with a groundbreaking panelized modular housing system.
https://addazu.com/
Point-It-Out | Denver, CO | CU Denver Faculty Founder
Founder: Caroline Clevenger
Point-It-Out uses augmented reality to helps assist individuals with cognitive impairments navigate unfamiliar indoor environments
Grelomar | Denver, CO
Founder: Greg Sullivan
Grelomar is developing a renewable energy solution using the power of water and gravity to generate clean electricity.
Civic Trust | Boulder, CO
Founder: Matt Harder
Civic Trust provides process design, technology, and strategic communications support that allows your city to execute successful participatory budgeting initiatives. They help cities build, grow and lead civic engagement through participatory budgeting.
www.civictrust.us
The six companies accepted into the 2024 Smart Futures Lab accelerator include:
Tiami Networks | Elk Grove, CA
Founder: Amitav Mukherjee
Tiami Networks extracts radar sensing information from ambient 5G network signals to track people, vehicles, and objects.
https://www.tiaminetworks.com/
GO See The City | Orlando, FL
Founder: Aneshai Smith
GO See The City is a tech startup dedicated to combating food waste and hunger in municipalities across the nation and beyond. Through their platform and app, they connect eateries of all types, including restaurants, stadiums, festivals, and food trucks with surplus food to customers at a discount, or to nonprofits.
www.GOSeeTheCity.com
N5 Sensors Inc. | Rockville, MD
Founder: Debra Deininger
N5 Sensors provides precise, timely and actionable intelligence to keep people, communities, and infrastructure safe from wildfires and environmental hazards.
https://n5sensors.com/
Ecosystem Informatics Inc | Ontario, Canada
Founder: Shirook Ali
Ecosystem Informatics Inc offers a comprehensive air quality monitoring (AQM) system via a combined hardware and software solution. It is deployed in sectors where accuracy, precision, timeliness, and reliability are non-negotiable.
https://ecosinfo.ca/
Taro AI | San Francisco, CA
Founder: Cynthia Wu
Taro AI helps communities automate monitoring and issue detection for trees and urban infrastructure. They leverage existing imagery, machine learning, computer vision, and engage local residents to map and monitor risks in a built environment.
https://www.taroai.com/
State of Place | Boston, MA
Founder: Dr. Mariela Alfonzo
State of Place helps developers create more just, thriving communities more effectively, cost-efficiently, and inclusively by harnessing the power of AI to produce data-driven, evidence-based approaches that help governments identify optimal environment investments.
https://www.stateofplace.co/
“We’re excited about the diversity of problems that this year’s cohort are trying to solve with their technology, from augmented reality designed to help individuals with cognitive impairments navigate physical spaces, to AI-driven tree and canopy monitoring for urban environments, all of these solutions hold huge potential for advancing the way we confront challenges facing our communities,” said Colorado Smart Cities Alliance Executive Director Tyler Svitak. “With more Colorado companies in the mix than ever before, we’re eager to see how the physical coworking space at 5G testbed get utilized.”
CU Denver, Colorado Smart Cities Alliance and Innosphere Ventures expect outcomes from this initiative will have a positive ripple effect across the state, including the growth of technology jobs and the development of solutions to key quality of life issues, like transportation, energy, and water.
Applications for the 2025 Smart Futures Lab cohorts will open at the end of this year.
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About the University of Colorado Denver
The University of Colorado Denver is the state’s premier public urban research university and equity-serving institution. Globally connected and locally invested, CU Denver partners with future-focused learners and communities to design accessible, relevant, transformative educational experiences for every stage of life and career. Across seven schools and colleges in the heart of downtown Denver, our leading faculty inspires and works alongside students to solve complex challenges through boundary-breaking innovation and impactful research and creative work. As part of the state’s largest university system, CU Denver is a major contributor to the Colorado economy, with 2,000 employees and annual economic impact of $800 million. For more information, visit www.ucdenver.edu.
About Colorado Smart Cities Alliance
The Colorado Smart Cities Alliance is the first state-wide alliance of its kind in the nation, bringing together public, private, federal research, and academic sector leaders committed to advancing smarter communities. Through partnership development, education and capacity-building, the Alliance has facilitated some of the most innovative government technology projects in the state.
Contact
Chelsea Barrett
Colorado Smart Cities Alliance
chelsea@coloradosmart.city
