A fresh approach to supporting startups across Australia and New Zealand is underway with the announcement that the Smart Cities Council has broadened its partnership categories to include early stage startups.
Under the new partnership program startups will have the opportunity to leverage the local support and global presence of the world’s longest running smart cities organisation focused on catalysing smart cities action and investment.
Executive Director of SCCANZ Adam Beck said, “This new category of partnership is an exciting opportunity for the Council in helping our government and private sector partners connect with and engage with startups”. Mr Beck continued, “of the many benefits startups enjoy is our Smart Cities Startup Exchange which hosts quarterly national and international exchanges”.
“We are excited to announce our first startup partner in Australia New Zealand as Yellowbox, a company which has developed locker technology which is transforming the short-term storage experience,” Mr Beck said.
Adrian Brossard, who is Co-founder of Yellowbox sees the partnership as a unique opportunity to help their company get connected into the smart cities marketplace.
“Yellowbox is so pleased to participate in the launch of this new initiative with SCCANZ. For the first time startups will have a platform to participate in professional discourse within the evolving smart cities discussion”, Mr Brossard said.
Ho Jun Tang, the other Co-founder of Yellowbox, added his excitement to joining the Smart Cities Council, by saying “I’m excited for the whole startup space which has been incredibly eager for their unique perspectives on smart city development to be heard in an environment the SCCANZ has created”
Yellowbox themselves have developed a world first network of share economy smart-lockers used in public spaces by anyone needing to put down some excess baggage for a couple hours. The offer to smart cities is a physical network of technology that can be used not only to activate smart spaces, but also to provide communities with smart-city technology that they can directly engage with, increasing public awareness of smart-city developments. Yellowbox is rapidly expanding, with installations in almost ten public places across New South Wales including beaches, bars and clubs, convenience stores and other public places.
Further information about the Yellowbox solution is available here.
If you are an early stage startup in the smart cities space you may find value in a partership with the Smart Cities Council.
