JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Feb. 02, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Urban SDK, a connected mobility and safety analytics platform empowering cities to address their emerging needs for big data analysis, automation and predictive insights, today announces it has raised $1.66 million in funding. The funding round was led by the Florida Opportunity Fund and matched by DeepWork Capital, a venture capital firm investing in early-stage companies in Florida. This funding is instrumental in the continuous development of Urban SDK’s next-generation mobility and safety platform.
“We are focused on the 90,000 state and local government agencies across the United States that need the right tools to appropriately plan our cities and infrastructure of the future,” said Drew Messer, CEO and co-founder of Urban SDK. “We also have potential to go beyond serving state and local governments, and we have seen interest from real estate developers, logistics and insurance companies – all of which are areas we hope to serve in the future to create truly connected and safe cities.”
The cash infusion allows for expansion into new states and public sector markets and the development of products and features to accommodate fast-changing transportation dynamics, as cities and departments of transportation deal with uncertain schedules and funding. The company also intends to continue hiring sales, marketing and engineering talent from its base in Jacksonville, Florida.
“The Florida Opportunity Fund invests in companies that are focused on growth within Florida. Urban SDK’s mission to leverage technology to provide federal, state and local governments with the data to drive policy is incredibly valuable,” said Jennifer Dunham, a partner with Arsenal Growth Equity, investment advisor to the Florida Opportunity Fund. “Ultimately, the Florida Opportunity Fund seeks to invest in innovative organizations with a strong potential to have a positive impact in Florida.”
The state and local government market is large and decentralized, with 3,031 counties, 19,519 cities and towns, and 17,000 law enforcement agencies across all 50 states. Thus, there is an increased focus on improving the planning of cities, and the urban planning software market alone is expected to reach $2.6B by 2024. In line with industry growth, the software-as-a-service (SaaS) company has grown rapidly over the past year, with 12 state and local government customers in Florida and an impressive pipeline of near-term candidates.
“Traditional urban planning cannot scale to take advantage of the emerging data we need to develop and pass city and transportation policy initiatives that will ultimately allow us to build the city of tomorrow,” said Justin Dennis, CTO and co-founder of Urban SDK. “Our platform simplifies the collection of data, accelerates decisions, automates services and ultimately results in improved communities.”
Urban SDK is a Techstars company and was selected to participate in a global Techstars Smart Mobility accelerator – joining mobility portfolio investments such as Uber, Cargo, Zagster and big data companies like DataRobot. It provides transportation, mobility, civil engineering and government organizations with real-time operational insights and predictive trend analysis of mobility and road networks through IoT, telemetry and satellite imagery data collection, reporting and mapping.
“Through its next-generation platform, Urban SDK has proven to be an effective partner for cities striving to more effectively manage data and use it to inform policymakers,” said Mitchel Laskey, managing partner and co-founder of DeepWork Capital. “The software company is positioned well to not only expand its work in the public sector but also gain traction in the private sector due to the platform’s overall versatility.”
Urban SDK has worked with multiple state and municipal organizations, such as the Florida Department of Education, Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) and Palm Beach Transportation Planning Agency (TPA). For more information, visit www.urbansdk.com.
About Urban SDK
Urban SDK is a next-generation smart mobility platform connecting city and transportation planners to the reliable data sources they need to accelerate mobility intelligence, improve decision quality and unlock a higher quality of life for communities.
The platform enables unlimited data integrations of real-time data sources, geo-spatial analytics, workflow automation and predictive intelligence on a singular, manageable platform. It also combines leading data collection practices with performance measurement analytics to better inform decision makers within local and state governments as they evaluate policy and projects to improve infrastructure.
