The accelerator, which has backing from Mini, included nine new companies in its third cohort. Among them were Qucit, a company looking to help government use data to make predictions in a few specific areas, and Roadbotics, a Carnegie Mellon University spin-out company using computer vision to assess road infrastructure and its condition.
Qucit uses artificial intelligence to crunch data and make predictions in four areas: traffic incidents, parking, bikeshare programs and perceptions of spaces. The company boasts the ability to let users know 12 hours in advance where bikes in a bikeshare program will be available, how long it will take to park in a certain area and even where incidents might happen on the highway. The last point might put them in competition with another startup, WayCare.
Roadbotics uses vehicles to drive along roads capturing video, then uses artificial intelligence to crunch the video and understand where pieces of road infrastructure are and what conditions the pavement is in. The company then delivers a map of the area with stretches of road categorized by their condition.
URBAN-X invests $100,000 in the companies that run through its accelerator and offers further financing as well. Urban.Us partnered with URBAN-X earlier this year in order to work more with early stage startups.
The other companies in URBAN-X’s cohort are:
- Blueprint Power: Working on setting up a “transactive energy marketplace” centered around buildings.
- Versatile Natures: A data company serving construction sites.
- Upshift: Delivering Prius rentals to people on demand.
- Lunewave: Creating radar sensors for self-driving vehicles.
- Swiftera: Providing real-time, high-resolution urban imagery.
- Good Goods: Offering retail space-as-a-service.
- Hosta Labs: Crafting 3-D models for design purposes.
