ReimaginE CITY LIFE.
Dear URBAN-X Community,
URBAN-X started in 2016 with the goal to reimagine city life and to showcase MINI's ability to find clever solutions to today's urban challenges. We began our journey in a small office on Wall Street before moving to A/D/O in Williamsburg. Our hypothesis was that New York had just the right mix of urban challenges that needed solving, capital to fund new ideas, and skilled innovators to propose solutions. We dubbed our approach ‘urbantech’, intersecting technology with specific problem sets in mobility, energy, the built environment and beyond. In 2020 we moved into our most recent location at Newlab in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
For almost a decade, we collaborated with amazing venture partners, including SOSV, Third Sphere, and JVP. We worked closely with city officials, agencies, and representatives in cities including Paris, Rotterdam, and New York City to facilitate startup work, inform policy, and enable pilot projects with lasting impact. In 2022, URBAN-X expanded to collaborate with startups from around the world including Mexico, Italy, Japan, and many other countries. Startups would travel to New York for an intensive in-person week at URBAN-X, with the results of their collaboration promoted in their home markets, helping add a new facet to MINI's pledge of Love for the People, Planet, and Progress.
After close to a decade of innovation, URBAN-X will conclude its activities at the end of this year. As a team, we look back fondly and with great pride on the demonstrated impact and achievements of URBAN-X. We believe that MINI has played a crucial role in shaping what "urban tech" means and has been an inspiration to founders and the startup ecosystem writ large. We are confident that the startups supported through URBAN-X will continue to play an important role for cities around the world and anticipate the learnings from URBAN-X will continue to be valuable to MINI’s thinking well into the future.
Signing off,
Sarah, Tristan, Johan, Emily, Tara, James, Karol, JC, Dean, Zihao
In our programs we give founders the platform and tools to drive scalable and real-world impact.
The URBAN-X platform provides tailor-made programming, connections and resources to early-stage founders.
Our founders.
Founders in our portfolio tackle some of the toughest challenges that cities face today as they confront a new climate reality.
A just future for cities requires diverse founding teams who represent the people they hope to serve. This is why we are committed to focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
35
Portfolio companies with at least one women as a cofounder
43
Portfolio companies with at least one person of color as a cofounder
OUR PURPOSE IS TO MAKE CITIES MORE SUSTAINABLE, LIVABLE, AND RESILIENT.
Cities make up more than half of the world’s population. They will play a pivotal role in mitigating climate change.
We will require breakthrough hardware and software solutions to achieve net-zero goals and other important milestones.
We’re taking a grassroots approach in supporting founders that will positively impact climate, cities, and communities.
Created by MINI.
MINI was started out as a direct response to the fuel shortage caused by Suez Crisis, with the innovative design of a fuel efficient “proper miniature car” taking less space in cities.
MINI founded URBAN-X to support startups who share those values as part of a continued exploration of work that improves urban life.