Happy Cities Summit Pitch Competition 2018 for Startups with Urban Innovation (Fully-funded to Amaravati, India)

Deadline: March 18, 2018

The Government of Andhra Pradesh in partnership with Omidyar Network and Dalberg Advisors is hosting a pitch competition to identiful impactful and scalable urban innovations that enhance “citizen happiness”. Applications for Happy Cities Summit Pitch competition are open to Startups with Urban Innovation.

Are you a city-preneur with an urban innovation? Can you make 21st century cities happy? Compete with the best and get a chance to win cash prizes, secure funding and sign MoUs with city governments across the world. Finalists get an all-expenses paid trip to the Summit.

Background

Rapid urbanization is taking place, especially in the developing world. Many new cities are emerging and several existing cities are expanding rapidly. Case in point: Amaravati, the green field capital of Andhra Pradesh in India, is being developed with a planned population of 3.5 million!

While these cities aspire to become liveable, smart and sustainable, they face unique constraints such as competing pressures on land, limited budgets, and socio-economic diversity. There is need for bold and disruptive thinking.

Themes

They are looking for innovative solutions under three themes:

Citizen-centric governance: Making governance data-driven and participative across socio-economic classes
- A. Smart governance: Harnessing data through technologies to improve decision making and service delivery
- B. Citizen engagement: Engaging and incentivizing citizens to participate in city design & planning, financing, and governance
Liveable communities: Creating safe, equitable, and accessible neighborhoods
- A. People-friendly mobility: Offering integrated transport & mobility solutions that are accessible and environment friendly, and promote good health
- B. Inclusive housing & public spaces: Housing & public spaces that are climate sensitive, inclusive, adaptive, and promote citizen interaction
Clean & healthy environment: Building an ecologically diverse and resilient urban ecosystem
- A. Blue-green spaces: Integrating nature-inspired water and green bodies in city design to improve biodiversity and environmental resilience.
- B. Waste and pollution-free ecosystem: Advancing healthy living through waste management and pollution mitigation solutions

Benefits

Sign MoUs with governments: Finalists will have the opportunity to sign MoUs with Government of Andhra Pradesh and city governments from around the world to pilot or roll-out their solutions.
Receive funding: Finalists can potentially secure seed funding, growth capital, or grants from leading investors and donors.
Pitch solutions to an eminent jury: Finalists will get a chance to share their solutions with leading thinkers, city administrators, and funders, and receive valuable, real-time feedback.
Showcase solutions: Finalists will have the opportunity to display and present their concepts and solutions to the diverse range of attendees in an ‘exhibition’ that will run through all the days of the summit.
Network and get global recognition: Finalists will get the opportunity to engage with the global urban innovation community. Moreover, the summit will be covered by leading Indian and international media houses, lending high visibility to their ventures.

Eligibility

To be eligible to apply:

The applicant must be a registered entity – i.e. it could be a company, partnership, limited liability partnership, sole proprietorship or not-for-profit organization
The solution should map to at least one sub-theme
The applicant should have at the minimum a prototype in place for the proposed solution

A panel of experts will assess applications on the following criteria: