Here at CityZone, we deal with various technologies across different industries, as urban tech has a multidisciplinary scope – mobiliturity, safety, education, travel, business, energy, infrastructure, and essentially anything local authorities manage, in order to make their cities more liveable.
However, there are 4 pillars, which are transverse concepts that we make sure each one of the startups in our program does not disregard. Each one of these 4 pillars is represented by a specific challenge in our call for applications, but regardless of the challenge a startup is applying for, any startup joining CityZone must consider:
Privacy by design
Tel Aviv has always been quite a proactive protector of people’s privacy, applying self-regulation where lawmakers did not act on a nationa
l level yet. This means making sure no PiD finds its ways to unauthorized hands, both inside as well as outside the relevant authorities. This means that any technology used by the city, is inspected by the legal department, making sure there is no potential for any privacy violation, or choosing solutions that offer a better treatment of privacy issues (like RoadSense for example). And this means that when the municipality proactively seeks solutions to privacy threats before moving forward with the implementation of new technologies for different needs, such as the case with our very own D-ID.
Cybersecurity by design
The more technologically advanced and connected a city is, the more it is vulnerable to malicious attacks. As local governments are resp
onsible to some major civilian infrastructure that is directly linked with human lives – energy, water, traffic lights, etc. – it is our first duty to make sure all angles are covered.
Sustainability by design
Tel Aviv is a member of C40 and RC100, and now also promoting a major environmental initiative of a “clean air city”. Naturally, CityZone startups will not promote any technologies that are counter productive in this sense of protecting our environment.
Accessibility by design
Smart cities are also inclusive cities, meaning that each person, regardless of gender, age, disability or socio-economic status, can make an enjoyable life there. We find it extremely important that our startups take into account that the technology they are developing will serve and benefit everyone, and of course will not exclude anyone.
Naturally, startups working lean, will first focus on building their core capabilities, the key value proposition. It is clear that cybersecurity or accessibility will not be at the center of attention from day one. It is our job, at CityZone, to introduce this line of thought from an early stage, in order to save time and resources later. And of course we will not be selecting startups that deliberately compromise people’s privacy, expose the city to a security threat, kill our planet or exclude certain groups of people. Such solutions will never get through any public tender process anyway, so please bear this in mind when thinking about your long term goals as an entrepreneur.
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