In 2015, the Level 39 CEO, Eric Van der Kleij, created a forward-thinking programme for technologies to power smart cities of the future, the “Cognicity Challenge”.

Cognicity was an intensive accelerator with the vision of creating London’s first “smart city of the future” in Canary Wharf. The programme ran for 12 weeks, with six startups selected from a number of finalists in various verticals to win a £50,000 cash prize and pilot their solution with Canary Wharf Group. The Cognicity Challenge was spread across a number of verticals from integrated transportation and energy management to automated building information management.

Its primary objectives were:

To incorporate smart cities technologies into Canary Wharf estate and new building projects 

To invoke cultural change within CWG towards innovation 

To demonstrate that Canary Wharf Group is an innovative business

Under the umbrella of six key themes, created and designed to guide participating startups, the accelerator aimed to help corporates tackle new problems facing modern cities. Interoperability of solutions was a key metric for successful participants. The programme led to the creation of the Cognicity Hub and engaged a wide variety of different stakeholders (36 companies, 100 mentors, 12 partner companies)

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