Smart City Works Venture Labs (a.k.a. “THE ACTUATOR”) is the world’s first business actuator — a new class of business accelerator that can more rapidly commercialize new technologies and innovations. Established in 2016, Smart City Works was founded on three simple premises: our world and the way we live is at an inflection point. Rapid urbanization, failing infrastructure, and climate change are putting tremendous stress on cities and communities. At the same time, digitization, advances in material science, AI, and cloud, and an extraordinary entrepreneurial spirt across North America and the globe offer a must-seize opportunity to disrupt the way we design, build and operate cities. Today, we now can—and for all that is going on, we must—improve the livability, sustainability, and resilience of cities. That is our goal, our purpose, our mission: to build smarter and live better. And to help founders and start-ups seeking to do the same by helping them get to market faster, grow and scale better, and achieve their vision sooner. The Smart City Works ACTUATOR is uniquely focused on urban tech, infrastructure, on improving cities and planet earth. Our business acceleration programs take some of the world’s most promising high-tech ventures and helps them to grow from good to great, from ideation to commercialization, and from early-stage to high-growth ventures. Our goal is to help founders make a difference, and for them to do good and do well, at scale.
