VU.CITY and Crossmap endorsed by Mayor of London

Proptech companies VU.CITY and Crossmap have each won a £15,000 grant from the Mayor of London, as part of the Civic Innovation Challenge.

VU.CITY and Crossmap are working in partnership with Transport for London on the Delivering Affordable Homes project. This will use city data to help developers find the best locations for affordable housing.

As part of the project, VU.CITY will combine the power of data with the largest 3D digital model of London to build an interactive platform built on game engine technology, to produce a tool to help housing developers and local authorities understand the implications of changes in the built environment. Meanwhile, Crossmap is a web tool to visualise and extract insight from geo-localised data dedicated to the built environment. It comprises of an intelligence module and a visualisation interface, which lets users orientate through complex datasets on an interactive map with the possibility of cross-querying different data layers.

VU.CITY and Crossmap are 2 of 8 tech firms who have won financial backing from the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, as they work on developing solutions to some of the capital’s most pressing social and environmental problems.

Also amongst the winners is Connected Kerb, who are developing smart charge points so EV users can easily and cheaply charge their vehicles.

The winners will now be paired with a range of public bodies and private companies to help develop their technologies, including Bethnal Green Ventures.

The Civic Innovation Challenge was launched in June as part of the Mayor’s Smarter London Together roadmap, which sets out how he will realise his ambition for London to become the world’s leading smart city. More than 100 applicants were whittled down to a shortlist of 14 companies, which further developed their ideas in response to seven challenges set out by the Mayor when he launched the contest at this year’s London Tech Week.

The challenges were designed to help tackle some of the most pressing issues for Londoners, including accessing affordable housing, reducing the harmful effect of dementia, cleaning up our air by promoting electric vehicles and helping people lead healthier, more active lives by increasing their physical activity.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “Many of London’s advances in the application of data and smart technologies are recognised around the world and I want London to become a global test-bed for civic innovation.

“I’m delighted to be able to match the winners of the Civic Innovation Challenge with established public bodies and private companies, and I am confident they will go on to deliver exciting solutions to some of the most pressing problems facing Londoners every day.

“The fact that our city’s tech community is home to some of the most creative businesses anywhere in the world is something of which we can be really proud. We want London to be the world’s smartest city and these dynamic companies have a crucial role to play.”