2026 Urban Future Summit: 10 Years of Impact
The 2026 Urban Future Summit is supported by New York Community Trust, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, MUFG Bank, and NYU Tandon School of Engineering - this year is extra special as we’re celebrating 10 years of supporting climate innovation and the entrepreneurs who have shaped it.
2 PRIZE TRACKS. 8 FINALISTS. HEAR THEM PITCH ON 10/22.
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Climate Adaptation Prize: focused on solutions that help communities and ecosystems adapt to and build resilience against the impacts of climate change.
Airbuild: Autonomous biological nutrient recovery systems that convert wastewater nutrients into carbon-sequestering biochar fertilizer, helping municipalities meet EPA compliance and cut costs while creating new revenue for farmers.
Class 3 Technologies: Engineering-grade, building-level climate risk assessments powered by Iris, a proprietary simulation engine, helping large property owners quantify physical vulnerability and evaluate resilience strategies across their portfolios, while extending that same risk intelligence to underserved communities.
Rarefied: A sunlight-driven propulsion mechanism enabling persistent flight in near-space, building a new atmospheric data layer to improve weather forecasting, disaster resilience, and climate risk modeling - data especially valuable in equatorial and developing regions, where sparse observations weaken storm and drought forecasts.
Supercool Earth: An end-to-end precipitation enhancement platform that uses biology to increase rain and snowfall on demand for ski resorts, water utilities, hydropower operators, and agriculture, giving water-scarce communities a tool to stabilize supply before rationing or crop failure set in.
Climate Mitigation Prize: focused on solutions that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the impacts of climate change.
Arcticar: An intelligent, clean energy platform for the cold chain, replacing diesel-powered trailer refrigeration with lower-cost electric units and integrated battery storage, eliminating the emissions and noise pollution reefers create.
Emulate Cities: AI infrastructure that helps local governments automate permit review, cutting permitting timelines from weeks to minutes to accelerate deployment of housing, clean energy, and climate-resilient infrastructure.
Every Electric, Inc.: Operator of New York City's largest plug-in powerbank network, giving households access to affordable backup power while strengthening grid reliability for all New Yorkers.
Ultropia: An ultrasonic mechanical water extraction platform that removes moisture from materials, targeting the energy-intensive gas dryers used across the industrial laundry industry.
For more than a decade, the Urban Future Prize Competition has identified and accelerated the founders building the technologies, infrastructure, and systems that cities need to thrive in a changing world. What begins as an early-stage idea has repeatedly become a market-shaping company: 23 startups supported, more than $1 million awarded in non-dilutive funding, and over $515 million in follow-on capital raised - a remarkable 515x return on prize dollars deployed.
At this year’s Urban Future Summit, attendees will actively participate in the next chapter of that story. The Summit will culminate with presentations from the 2026 Urban Future Prize Competition finalists - founders tackling some of the most urgent challenges we’re facing today, from climate resilience and emissions reduction to mobility, energy, and the circular economy. These entrepreneurs are not only competing for funding; they are competing for the opportunity to join ACRE, New York’s longest-running climatetech incubator, where breakthrough ideas are transformed into scalable businesses.
This year marks an important milestone for the Urban Future Prize Competition. For the first time, four awardees will be selected across the Climate Adaptation and Climate Mitigation prize tracks. Two winners get access to $50k and two runner-up teams in each track will also receive $10k in non-dilutive funding and admission into the ACRE Incubator. By expanding support to a broader cohort of entrepreneurs, we’re investing in a larger pipeline of innovators at a moment when climate resilience and decarbonization must advance together.