Omraan, the global contest for urban tech start-ups, has announced its first round of shortlisted applicants. Eight outstanding startups and innovators, each with an idea to make cities better through technology, were picked by an international jury and now have the chance to win USD $30,000 of seed funding and a 100-day acceleration program in Amman, Jordan.
And surprise-surprise, One of the eight shortlisted candidates is: ‘Let’s Ride’, a Pune-based mini social platform for ridesharing that addresses road congestion and commuting problems with an aim to reduce the number of vehicles on roads at peak hours. The idea is to connect people from the same area for ridesharing through a web and mobile application.
The other 7 Omraan shortlisted tech startups include:–
Adsvolution (Spain): An interactive information platform in which the user can view topics of interest related to the urban environment. The platform offers advertising services for three types of contracts: interactive, static and video. It also offers the possibility of integrating climate sensors, noise, and pollution, traffic which makes the app fully customized and fits the needs of a city.
AgroCentral (Jamaica): Jamaica’s first digital agricultural clearinghouse utilizing Web-to-SMS/SMS-to-Web technology to connect small farmers and businesses. Through Agrocentral, businesses will have the ability to source large amounts of crops directly from farmers and farmers will be able to sell their available produce directly to businesses.
Cidadao21 (Brazil): A startup focused on reducing bureaucracy and simplifying processes within civic authorities. The Cidadao21 team has created a series of simple technologies that focus on streamlining internal processes and increasing transparency for the benefit of citizens.
Green Power Solutions (Jordan): Offering a comprehensive solution that involves replacing old lighting systems with a Smart-High-Efficiency System, using LED lights instead of the existing HIDs/HPS lights. Their new system is achieved by sensing and reacting to approaching vehicles where lights are only switched on at the presence of vehicles and remain off on empty roads.
LifeBridge (Poland): A Smart City E-Health innovation. The solution will considerably reduce the delay in first-aid response in case of accidents and life threatening situations. With LifeBridge, a non-expert may perform basic life-saving activities before professional emergency response teams arrive at the scene. The application is not a substitute for professional responders, but complementary to them.
Meezan (Jordan): Meezan develops technology solutions for building, farming and energy/water saving for Jordan and the Arab World. It combines five systems in one unit that incorporates eco-farming, solar renewable energy production, rainwater harvesting, a shading system and a rooftop insulation system.
UFE (Ireland): Urbanflow Engine is a new kind of planning and analysis software to collaboratively design better plans for urbanization with the power of data. It introduces state-of-the-art geospatial technology to enable collaborative urban planning.
Omraan was launched in 2014 by the New Cities Foundation – an international non-profit – and Oasis500, an early stage and seed investment company in Amman, Jordan, with an aim to nurture the most creative and forward-thinking technology start-ups from across the globe, and develop their ideas into concrete projects in Middle Eastern cities, for the benefit of cities worldwide.
John Rossant, Chairman of the New Cities Foundation, said: “This first Omraan shortlist captures the wide array of urban challenges that can be tackled if bright minds come together to use technology in smart and new ways. It’s fantastic to see shortlisted candidates from such a range of nations, and we look forward to see which startups will make it to Amman to make their ideas a reality.”
The New Cities Foundation and Oasis500 put out a call to global tech startups in March 2014. Any startups can enter the Omraan contest online by providing an idea for a technological solution to an urban problem. Each applicant is required to demonstrate innovative use of technologies including mobile, web, cloud, ecommerce, gaming, entertainment, enterprise software, digital news, digital advertising or social networks.
Yousef Hamidaddin, CEO of Oasis500, stated: “Omraan is our ambitious goal to attract and develop the best and brightest tech start-ups from around the world to the Middle East. We are happy that we are now one step closer to achieving our goal and to make exciting new discoveries and create the smart cities of the future.”
The Omraan judging panel, also announced today, includes:
Takis Salpeas – Global rail & transit systems director at Parsons
Toru Hasegawa – Principal, Proxy, a multi-platform design firm
Hazem Zureiqat – Founder & CEO, Sowt
Ayman Smadi – Director of Transport and Traffic Management, Greater Amman Municipality
Naureen Kabir – Director, Urban (co) LAB, New Cities Foundation
Yousef Hamidaddin – CEO, Oasis 500
Charbel Aoun – Senior Vice President for Smart Cities, Schneider Electric
Meisa Batayneh Maani – Founder and principal architect, Maisam Architects and Engineers
The selection process for Omraan is divided into two phases. Winners from this first phase will be announced in early October 2014. The shortlisted candidates and winners for phase two will be announced in early 2015.