In a year chock full of moves in Brooklyn tech, nothing stands out quite so much as the number of successes the NYU Tandon Future Labs produced in 2016.
The organization, run by NYU Tandon School of Engineering, offers promising startups a place to work and access to academics, experts and top-notch talent in three separate foci: the Data Future Lab, Urban Future Lab and Digital Future Lab (the latter two based in Brooklyn).
Here’s what their 2016 looked like:
- Geometric Intelligence was acquired for an undisclosed amount by Uber to launch Uber AI Labs.
- Clarifai raised the largest-ever venture financing for a New York City AI company, a $30 million Series B round.
- United Wind, the global leader in distributed wind power, closed its Series B round with investments from global energy leaders Statoil, Total, and TEPCO. It also received a commitment for more than $200 million in project financing from Forum Equity Partners to roll out approximately 1,000 projects across the United States.
- Sealed raised $7.5 million from the NY Green Bank for residential energy efficiency projects.
- Opus One Solutions closed a Series A round with investments from ENGIE and Energy Impact Partners – a utility-backed fund representing seven of North America’s largest utilities – and multiple project awards from five utility companies in the United States and Canada. With ACRE graduate Smarter Grid Solutions, it won a $16.4 million transactive energy contract, and the two were awarded Greentech Media’s Grid Edge 2016 Award.
- Avanan raised the largest-ever Series A financing for any incubator company at the Future Labs (as opposed to one of the graduates) – $14.9 million. It also recently identified a new cyberattack targeting online shoppers’ Office 365 credentials.
- Paperspace launched Paperspace ML, an iteration of its powerful cloud workspace for machine learning. Rentable by the hour, Paperspace ML opens the opportunity for anyone, anywhere to access computing infrastructure for machine learning.
- Bandwagon announced a partnership with Arro, allowing taxi riders to pool rides and split fares in New York’s yellow and green cabs.
- Board Vitals was acquired for an undisclosed amount.
- WeDidIt won a $500,000 grant in the prestigious 43North competition.
- Alexapath was tapped as one the world’s more promising science startups and the representative of NYU and the United States East Coast at the Falling Walls Venture conference and competition in Berlin; It also won the American Society of Mechanical Engineers competition for Best Hardware-Led Social Innovation.
- Vengo Labs pitched on Shark Tank and raised $2 million
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