London’s first smart city ecosystem opens in Canary Wharf

Canary Wharf Group has launched a dedicated smart city hub at its Level39 technology accelerator, building on the success of its recent Cognicity Challenge.

The “Cognicity Hub”, activated by graduates of the Cognicity Challenge, an initiative to discover, develop and deploy smart cities technologies on the Canary Wharf estate, will create a dedicated space for Level39 smart cities members and other smart cities companies to grow their businesses, showcase their technologies and take advantage of the collaborative and supportive working environment at Level39.

The first occupants of the Cognicity Hub will be based at High Growth Space: 24, a 25,000 sq ft co-working space on the 24th floor of One Canada Square, one of the three floors that comprise Level39.

The Cognicity Hub will incorporate alumni of the 2015 Challenge and is also seeking new, high-potential smart cities companies which wish to benefit from being affiliated with the Cognicity brand and its status as a major source of innovation and thought leadership within this sector.

The shared workspace will enable companies to work together to find smart cities solutions, which are capable of operating in an interconnected way, drawing on Big Data and the Internet of Things (IoT).  This will include Cognicity pilot companies Boldmind, Voyage Control and Demand Logic, all of which have been selected to pilot their technologies at Canary Wharf to help create efficiencies and convenience in the operation of the estate.

To turbocharge the growth of smart cities companies at Level39 – a tailored Cognicity curriculum has been designed, providing Cognicity Hub members access to Level39’s long-standing partners, industry players and investors, as well as one-to-one mentorship with smart cities and IoT experts and a range of complementary startup activities and events.

Canary Wharf Contractors’ Managing Director, Cormac MacCrann said:  “The high growth environment at Level39 has proven highly effective at helping promising new companies reach their potential.  By creating a dedicated Cognicity Hub, we aim to support the development of some of the most exciting breakthrough technologies in the smart cities space, to benefit our own development pipeline and the whole sector.

“This highly supportive and dynamic workspace is designed to deliver tangible, authentic innovation which will have the power to transform the way that we live in and manage our cities.”

“We are very excited to be part of such a forward-thinking ecosystem that will help us develop new ideas and deploy interoperable real world solutions, while collaborating with like-minded innovators,” said James Swanston, Founder & CEO of Voyage Control.