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Beyond tech fetishism – with Marius Sylvestersen
Marius is Director of Smart Cities at Copenhagen Solutions Lab, overseeing the development of smart and sustainable city solutions to realize the goal of becoming the world’s first CO2 neutral capital city by 2025. Copenhagen Solutions Lab is the City of Copenhagen’s incubator for smart city initiatives working cross-sector. Prior to joining Copenhagen Solutions Lab,...
‘We must democratize urban planning through digital tools’ – Q&A with Christina Haupt Toft
We had an opportunity to check back in with Christina Haupt Toft - who is helping one of the startups in the 2021 Urbantech Mentoring Program. How do you wish your field of expertise would look like in 10 years? I wish to see my future field of expertise as someone who can communicate strategy...
A new vision for sustainability – Emilie Hvidtfeldt
Emilie is the Deputy Director of Global Initiatives and Climate Partnership at C40 – a network of the world’s megacities committed to addressing climate change. C40 supports cities to collaborate effectively, share knowledge, and drive meaningful, measurable, and sustainable action on climate change. Prior to joining C40, Emilie worked on cities and climate action in...
‘We’re going to need to be better storytellers’ – Q&A with Nyla Mabro
A quick Q&A with Nyla Mabro, Head of Strategy and Marketing at The Clean Fight New York What is your most surprising prediction about cities? Nyla Mabro Maybe not a prediction, but this is my hope: That we put as much investment and enthusiasm into finding nature-based solutions for the cities of the future as...
‘The skills we’ll need in 10 years will not differ from the ones today’ – Q&A with Roi Rodríguez de Bernardo
A quick Q&A with Roi Rodríguez de Bernardo, Program Manager at FundingBox What is your most surprising prediction about cities? Roi Rodríguez de Bernardo What Alex McDowell did on the production design of Minority Report is just outstanding. Many of the technologies that appear in the film are today a reality, like driverless cars, wearable...
‘Search for new ideas in people and culture’ – Q&A with Palle Riismoller
A quick Q&A with Palle Riismoller, Managing Director of CONNECT Denmark, Entrepreneur and Mentor What do you think the cities of the future will look like? Palle Riismoller Cities will become increasingly green and will spread out to have access to light, better air and space for community. There will be a larger number of...
‘Explore the city and observe how people are using it’ – Q&A with Anders Sloth
A quick Q&A with Anders Sloth, Senior Investment Manager - Head of Smart City Section at Copenhagen Capacity What is your most surprising prediction about cities?' Anders Sloth Urbanization is increasing as 55% of the world's population live in cities, which is expected to reach 70% by 2050. My prediction would be that this number...
‘Do important work with people who inspire you’ – Q&A with Grace Aranow
A quick Q&A with Grace Aranow, Program Associate at The Clean Fight NY What is your most surprising prediction about cities? Grace Aranow Perhaps not a surprise, but the widespread adoption of a Circular Economy mindset, where the life cycle of every resource is reimagined using a systematic approach. Europe is ahead of the US...
Investing in the urbantech stack – with Christian Jølck
Christian is former Director in NREP, the leading Nordic private equity real estate manager. He recently co- founded 2150, a European sustainable venture capital fund focused on urbantech. Previously Christian co-founded and served as chairman for SYNERGI. Christian focuses on developing new business opportunities to enrich people’s lives in the built environment. Urbantech: Tell us...
‘There is a desire to have even greener cities…’ – Q&A with Sophie Mølgård Hansen
A quick Q&A with Sophie Mølgård Hansen, Head of Partnerships at TechBBQ What is your most surprising prediction about cities? Sophie Mølgård Hansen I think that with the past chaotic year in mind, with a full-blown pandemic and lockdown, people have found back to nature and the appreciation of it. When cities were shut down,...
‘We will see a drastic change in how we use city centers and retail space’ – Q&A with Karl Fjelde Nevland
A quick Q&A with Karl Fjelde Nevland, Head of Nordic Edge Innoasis What is your most surprising prediction about cities? Karl Fjelde Nevland Not sure if it is super surprising, but here it goes. In practical and political discussions about the future of our cities, we often tend to put viable cities equal to profitable...
‘Coming out of this crisis will require massive collaborative effort’ – Q&A with Irene Arias Hofman
A quick Q&A with Irene Arias Hofman, CEO, IDB Lab. What is your most surprising prediction about cities and sustainability? Irene Arias Hofman First, at this time of extreme inter-connectedness, I’m optimistic about the potential for emerging ecosystems and platforms, such as D-Local, an all-in-one payment platform for global merchants and emerging markets, which is...
‘Innovation needs to be diverse in every sense of the word’ – Q&A with Ylva Lidin
A quick Q&A with Ylva Lidin, Executive Director at VentureLab by Lund University Where is the best place for new ideas? Ylva Lidin It is perhaps not so much about the place but the people? It is in meetings with people from different backgrounds great ideas can grow. At VentureLab we do several events during...
2021 Ecosystem Kick-off and Support Event
On January 21st we hosted the 2021 Ecosystem Kick-off and Support Event together with BLOXHUB, Tech Nordic Advocates, and Proptech Denmark. The event aimed to inform startups and ecosystem members about opportunities and support available in 2021, as well as to answer specific questions around the support opportunities available. It included both signposting and the…
‘The role of cities is changing and growing in importance’ – Q&A with Mariann Xie Noureddine
A quick Q&A with Mariann Xie Nouredinne, Business Manager at BLOX GLOBAL What is your most surprising prediction about cities? Mariann Xie Noureddine The role (power) of cities is changing and growing in importance. There are many examples already of how cities are increasingly beginning to work strategically with long-term goals. Cities are solving societal...
Nordic Fund Day – Apply now
Nordic Fund Day is an interactive virtual event aimed at connecting start-ups with compatible investors. Up to 16 start-ups will get the opportunity to present their business idea to the collected international investor network of Microsoft for Startups, Telia Startups, Urbantech and Nordic Edge Innoasis. Apply now to join the event and get: Pre-matched meetings with the most relevant investors Prep...
‘Most worthwhile projects are undertaken by communities’ – Q&A with Dr. Claus Springborg
A quick Q&A with Dr. Claus Springborg, Executive coach at CoCreation and Lecturer at CBS How can co-creation and community make cities more sustainable? Dr. Claus Springborg Making cities more sustainable is a complex task. To engage successfully with this task, people from many different professional and social backgrounds need to work together. Such collaboration...
‘People will leave the big cities and move to smaller towns’ – Q&A with Pia Thomsen
A quick Q&A with Pia Thomsen, Partner at ArkiTours. What is your most surprising prediction about cities and sustainability? Pia Thomsen We believe that the importance of nature for our well-being will be enhanced. More people will leave the big cities and move to smaller towns, perhaps in flexible ways, just for 4-6 months of...
‘Cities will be controlled by AI – thinking like a human brain’ – Q&A with Matthew Delany
A quick Q&A with Matthew Delany, previously Head of Cleantech & Sustainable Urban Development at Copenhagen Capacity and now International Programme Director at Bech-Bruun. What is your most surprising prediction about cities and sustainability? Matthew Delany Cities will be controlled by Artificial Intelligence and begin to think like a human brain. CO2 will be sucked...
2020 Demo Day in numbers and moving images
We just reached a key milestone: Demo Day. On November 26, our second program cohort, partners, and the wider ecosystem, celebrated the acceleration of the development of sustainable cities – together in a hybrid format. 50 people attended live from the Danish Architecture Center whilst 100+ others watched the live broadcast on Hopin. Here's a...
Women’s Entrepreneurship Day
Happy Women's Entrepreneurship Day 2020! Did you know that only around 16% of entrepreneurs in Europe are female (Statista)? In addition, female-founded digital startups outperform male-founded ones and yet VCs are more likely to invest in male-founded start-ups (Forbes) The data, makes one thing clear: We need to encourage more females to become entrepreneurs...
‘…action rather than words’- Q&A with Lars Sønderskov
A quick Q&A with Lars Sønderskov, Head of Secretariat at Byggesocietetet. What is your most surprising prediction about cities and sustainability? Lars Sønderskov It's not really surprising but I feel certain that technology will play a huge part in our efforts to reach a sustainable world and sustainable communities. Bigger than we expect. Solutions will...
‘Trust yourself and trust the process’ – Q&A with Nadim Stub
A quick Q&A with Nadim Stub, Managing Director & Proptech Innovation Evangelist @Proptech Denmark What is your most surprising prediction about cities and sustainability? Nadim Stub Consider what our cities looked like just 100 years ago, then go back 500 - and relatively to today, not much has changed. Going forward we are going to...
‘Every city will have to design its own future journey’ – Q&A with Christina Haupt Toft
A quick Q&A with Christina Haupt Toft, Head of ConTech Lab, Molio What is your most surprising prediction about cities and sustainability? Christina Haupt Toft It must be a reinvention of how and where we work and live. Disruptive technologies have the potential to transform the way cities currently operate and boost everything from the...
‘Purpose will complement profits’ – Q&A with Anne-Marie Gillon
The latest numbers from OECD indicate that pension funds hold investments surpassing almost €30 trillion. And the priorities are shifting on how they and where they are allocated. To that end we checked in with Anne-Marie Gillon, a Chartered Financial Analyst and veteran investment professional and pension fund trustee. In her role at IC Select, Anne-Marie...
‘Green Innovation: everything that’s doing more with less’ – Q&A with Frederik van Deurs
A quick Q&A with Frederik van Deurs, CEO at GREEN INNOVATION GROUP A/S How do you define green innovation? Great question - it can get mindbogglingly complex, but to me, it's pretty simple - it's everything that's doing more with less. If you could only recommend one thing Danish, what would it be? Frederik van...
‘Focus on enhancing urban resilience, tackling both causes and effects of major global challenges’ – Q&A with Nicola Tollin
A quick Q&A with Nicola Tollin, Professor wsr in Urban Resilience SDU Civil and Architectural Engineering, Department of Technology and Innovation, University of Southern Denmark What is your most surprising prediction about cities? Nicola Tollin Today 50% of the world population lives in urban areas, consuming 60-80% consumption of energy and producing 60-80% greenhouse gas...
‘Encourage diverse idea exchange’ – a Q&A with Rikke Petersen from CopCap
Who is the person who has most influenced the way you think about cities and technology? Jan Gehl’s humanistic city planning approach. What is your most surprising prediction? Upcycled materials (perhaps not too surprising)! Several firms are already investing heavily in such business models and in research & development of upcycled materials. Yet, there is...
‘In 2050, our kids will no longer know what rubbish is….’
A Quick Q&A with Katherine Richardson, Professor at Københavns Universitet and Leader of the Sustainability Science Center. What is the most important research you have been working on? Earth System Science – It’s about seeing the Earth as one system, and understanding the interactions between biological, geophysical, chemical and human activities in the system. I…
AEC and innovation events around the world
Returning to the office is as good an excuse as any to take a fresh look at the calendar for the rest of the year. With so many events switching to virtual, will you attend more, or less? Here’s a quick look at some of the interesting events coming up – here, there and around…
Sustainability as core business
Sustainability has shifted from being a societal talking point – to a core business focus for a range of organisations. This is true for startups all the way to large corporates. We gathered some of the latest data on how different businesses are approaching the subject. It is a quick snapshot, and if you have…
Increasing Urbantech investments – with Andrew Baum
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a lot of changes. And one thing is certain: it left us with uncertainty. How will society and economy change, and which post-COVID trends will emerge? We wanted to try to draw a picture of how the Urbantech industry might be affected, speaking to practitioners in the field. ___________________ Perspective…
‘Humanity is going through the radical shift of values and moral norms, at an unprecedented rate’
A Quick Q&A with Tasha Tolmacheva, Co-Founder & Community Services at PropTech Finland Who is the person who has most influenced the way you think about cities and technology? I guess what influenced my view on technology most, was during my Ph.D. when I stumbled upon ‘An Economic Theory of Technological Change’ by William D….
Five resources for Urbantech startups
Tools for traction DDC’s Toolbox can help you use design strategically – and our friends at Kvadrant has a range of useful download-and-keep guides to help you boost your solutions sales capability. Funding to help you extend your impact For Nordic funding opportunities, have a look at The Hub – they can also help you…
Climate Change: 70% of global CO₂ comes from cities
The Economist: 'A new opportunity to tackle climate change: Countries should seize the moment to flatten the climate curve' COVID-19 has not made Climate Change go away. That said, the lockdown of cities has had an immediate effect on our climate: Production slowed down. Traffic on the streets vanished. Planes grounded. Satellite pictures over China...
5 quick tips for any startup presentation
Here’s some of the feedback we shared with the 10 startups that pitched as part of a pre-WDBE event organized and hosted by KIRAhub. It was great to be part of the jury alongside Anna Hyrske and Eero Sihvonen. Unfold this thread to get 5 fairly timeless ideas for your next presentation… This was super…
Urbantech 2020 applications
200+ applications from almost 20 countries around the world came in, vying for a place in the 2020 Urbantech program. An impressive haul during these testing times. Thank you to all who helped spread the word. And especially of course to those who threw their proverbial hat in the ring. So many great startups have...
Urbantech Virtual Talk – Startup in a Pandemic, Future business opportunities, Innovation
The new post-Covid world boosts the challenges of climate change, but many of those challenges that we have seen before the Corona crisis arose, have been left for us to solve. That doesn’t decrease the complexity, it doesn’t decrease the need of public-private collaboration, it only adds to that equation - Torben Klitgaard Listen to the...
‘Tech in Denmark: very professional on one side, but also very approachable’
Another in a series of espresso-sized Urbantech insights coming from the Global Denmark. This episode features a wide-ranging conversation with Julia Gerbert, Founder and CEO of RYSTA, where they talk about how they approached sensors designed for indoor and outdoor environments, the UrbanTech experience, partnering with EWII, and the elimination of mold. Be sure to…
‘Involve your customers in the design process, think like a designer and focus on customer needs…’
Timm Beyer, Managing Director of Powerfox, talks about their mission, the essence of capturing and managing energy data – and the journey with Urbantech, and what the Danish market can teach German companies. Another in a series of espresso-sized Urbantech insights coming from the Global Denmark. Be sure to subscribe (and share).
‘Soon organisations, countries and companies will be run by a piece of code…’
A Quick Q&A with Kaidi Ruusalepp CEO of Funderbeam Who is the person who has most influenced the way you think about cities and technology? It actually goes back to 1996 when I worked as the first IT lawyer of Estonia. We had the youngest Prime Minister back then and he had an information and…
How to develop resilient cities?
Given the developments in the last couple of weeks, one question rises to the top: ‘how can we develop resilient cities?’ Cities have to be prepared for health crises like pandemics, but also other threats like climate change, natural disasters or cyber attacks in the future. Resilience is defined as the ability to adapt, transform…
Top tips from AEC professionals from 33 countries – courtesy of #HACKBLOXHUB2020
154 attendees from 33 countries convened for #HACKBLOXHUB2020 – and we were proud to lend the Urbantech space to one of the 22 groups working on knotty problems and interesting challenges. The focus was exploration of the unique issues related to urban environments. And practical hacks to address them. Having such a critical mass of…
How do we adapt our cities for 2.5 billion more citizens by 2025?
A 100 year shift More and more people live in cities. According to the United Nations’ research, only around one third of the world’s population lived in cities in 1950. In 2007, for the first time in history, the global urban population exceeded the rural population. By 2050, more than two thirds (68%) are expected…
Workshop Sprint: Open standards in the Built Environment?
How might one explore a topic in some depth, yet at incredible speed? This week, we hosted a series of workshop sprints at BLOXHUB for 60 lecturers from KEA who work and teach in architecture and building industry. We got involved because we love to spark discussions about the built environment, get minds thinking –…
Urbantech hotspots: cities that have become platforms for urban innovation
TOP 5 URBANTECH COUNTRIES We looked through 2.660 urbantech startups – and cross-referenced them with where they were founded, investment stage etc. Here is what we found: -North America, India and Europe lead the way for Urbantech investments and startup density at a regional level. -USA, Canada, India, United Kingdom and Germany are the top…
“…how do we find new technologies, new ways of improving lives in cities?”
That’s one of the many interesting questions Tina Mayn, Senior Vice President at Velux, answers in this interview with Thomas Mulhern on the Global Denmark podcast. She also talks about the value of collaboration across the partners in the Urbantech program. Listen in below [the Urbantech segment starts at 14:32], get the shownotes, and be…
New Podcast out now: Urbantech Sessions #2
November 14, DAC hosted Urbantech Session #2. Through talks and workshops guests and speakers explored how new digital practices and technologies are changing efficiency, sustainability and creativity in building design and construction processes. Digital technologies are rapidly evolving and implementation of new digital tools is key to increased productivity, sustainable production and value creation. Yet,…
2019 Demo Day in numbers and moving images
We just reached a key milestone: Demo Day. November 8, our program cohort, partners, and the wider eco-system, celebrated the acceleration of the development of sustainable cities – together with 200 attendees at the Danish Architecture Center. Here’s a quick recap of the event The 2019 Urbantech Cohort And here’s the programme in numbers. 12…
Urbantech Demo Day 2019 Coming up
The 2019 Urbantech cohort, selected through a rigorous process in the first half of the year, are now building up to Demo Day. On November 8, 10 cutting-edge startups will celebrate that they have been hard at work for 12 intense weeks. At the Danish Architecture Center the cohort will showcase their latest Urbantech innovation…
Get your tickets: The digital future of building design and construction
November 14, DAC is hosting Urbantech Session #2. Talks and workshops will explore how new digital practices and technologies are changing efficiency, sustainability and creativity in building design and construction processes – and how it will completely change the way we work. Digital technologies are rapidly evolving and implementation of new digital tools is key…
Meet us at C40 Mayors Summit
The C40 Mayors Summit 2019 takes place in Copenhagen next week. We will be present around town to join the conversation on how we can take bold climate action and build a healthier and more sustainable future together. “We are thrilled to see C40 Mayors Summit come to Denmark. We seek to connect Danish strengths and…
Urbantech Sessions Podcast #1 Out Now
September 12, Danish Architecture Center (DAC) and the Urbantech program, shared new insights as part of the event series: Urbantech Sessions. The premise for these events are that new urban technologies will change the way we design cities and change the way you work with them. Through a series of sessions, we will guide you through…
Discuss: How Data and Sensors Will Change the Way We Design Cities
From optimism to dystopia and back again. All in the space of an afternoon. Smart Cities vs. Urbantech During the first of six Urbantech sessions with the Danish Architecture Centre (DAC) we talked about the future of cities. Morten Skov from the Alexandra Institute opened with a sweeping review of the emergence of Smart City…
Get your tickets: How Data and Sensors Will Change the Way We Design Cities
New urban technologies will completely change the way we design cities and change the way you work with them. Through a series of sessions hosted by the Danish Architecture Centre, we will guide you through new requirements and show you opportunities that will come with these highly innovative urban technologies. The first Urbantech session will…
Danish design and hard work ahead
The 10 startups are arriving in Copenhagen to kick-off the Urbantech program together with the partner companies. We asked RYSTA and Powerfox a few questions about what goes through their minds as we start this process. First, meet Julia Gebert, Founder and CEO of RYSTA: What do you expect from the first weeks of the…
Explore the City with DAC (A quick interview with Nikolaj Sveistrup)
A Quick Q&A with Nikolaj Sveistrup Head of Programme, Danish Architecture Center (DAC) Tell me more about the work you do at DAC – and what you’re the most excited about I am Head of the Sector Programme at DAC and lead DAC’s activities for professionals within architecture, urban planning and the building industry. This…
The numbers behind the impact of design (a quick interview with Monica Maria Moeskær)
A quick Q&A with Monica Maria Moeskær, Design anthropologist & Senior Project Manager at the Danish Design Centre (DDC). Tell me more about DDC – and what you’re most excited about… At the moment we are very excited about startups hacking, rethinking and challenging the status quo – especially when looking into design solutions that…
BLOXHUB: An opportunity machine (a quick interview with Torben Klitgaard)
A quick Q&A with Torben Klitgaard, the director of BLOXHUB (home of the Urbantech program). Tell me more about BLOXHUB – and what you’re the most excited about Together with Rainmaking I’ve been working for a couple of years to get the Urbantech program up and running. We are finally here, and have the pleasure…
The Urbantech Mentoring Team gets to work
Expert mentors will be joining the Urbantech program to support startups in their collaboration with the program partners. Mentors are being added continuously during the 3-year program, including internal champions from COWI, EWII and VKR/VELUX. The mentors are all contributing pro-bono to the acceleration of pilot projects and corporate-startup engagement. Follow along on the mentor…
Ten international tech-startups are ready to accelerate the development of sustainable cities
Ten startups have now been selected, by some of the leading Danish companies within sustainable urban development, to join the Urbantech innovation- and accelerator program. From energy-producing windows to geotechnical analysis systems, the ideas range widely among ten startups selected to take part in the 2019 Urbantech Program. All have one thing in common: they…
Introducing Urbantech
Urbantech is a new Danish accelerator, for the newest, most promising and innovative tech companies, Urbantech, will attempt to strengthen the development of tech based solutions for sustainable construction and urban development. Both Danish and international tech startups are invited to apply to be part of the new program. Startups are now able to submit…