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AcceliCITY is Leading Cities’ global accelerator initiative helping high-potential solutions in climate tech, urban tech, and govtech move from innovation to real-world deployment. Through direct access to city leaders, industry experts, and pilot opportunities, AcceliCITY helps innovators validate their solutions, build public-sector readiness, and accelerate growth.
AcceliCITY helps startups turn promising solutions into deployable solutions for cities and communities. Through expert mentorship, strategic industry connections, and direct engagement with city leaders, the program helps founders strengthen market readiness, navigate public-sector realities, and scale solutions that advance resilience, sustainability, and community impact.
AcceliCITY Challenges
AcceliCITY challenges are built to solve one of the biggest problems in innovation: too many strong solutions never reach implementation. Each challenge aligns innovators, cities, industry experts, and partners around real priorities, giving promising solutions a clearer path to validation, adoption, and long-term impact.
Instead of rewarding ideas in isolation, AcceliCITY focuses on what it takes for solutions to work in the real world: readiness, stakeholder alignment, and practical pathways to deployment inside city systems.
That means innovators engage with real municipal use cases, receive feedback from decision-makers and practitioners, and strengthen their ability to operate within the realities of policy, procurement, and implementation.
The result is more than visibility. It is a faster, more credible path toward solutions that cities can actually adopt.
The QBE AcceliCITY Resilience Challenge
The QBE AcceliCITY Resilience Challenge supports solutions that help communities become stronger, safer, and better prepared for the risks they face. Working with municipalities and global city networks, the challenge advances innovations that improve prevention, preparedness, and long-term resilience.
Solutions are sourced and vetted against real city needs and risk priorities, with an emphasis on readiness for adoption and measurable impact in operational environments. This is not innovation for innovation’s sake. It is innovation built to work where it matters most.
$100,000 USD
Grand Prize
Additional Prize Pool
Worth $75,000 USD
Cities Face Urgent Challenges.
We Move Solutions Into Action.
01
Surface Real Challenges
We work with cities and communities to identify urgent challenges and define what solutions need to deliver in practice.
02
Prepare Solutions for Adoption
We help innovators align their solutions with how cities operate and reduce risks through mentorship, expert guidance, and public-sector insight.
03
Enable Real-World Deployment
We connect solutions with cities, partners, and funding pathways to pilot, validate, and scale what works.
The "Missing Middle"
AcceliCITY was built to close the gap between intention and implementation. While cities are under growing pressure to address climate risk, infrastructure challenges, and social inequities, they often lack access to the right solutions, partners, and pathways to act. At the same time, many high-potential innovations struggle to navigate public-sector realities and move beyond pilots or early traction.
AcceliCITY exists to bridge this “missing middle” by creating the conditions that allow solutions to become deployable, scalable, and impactful in real-world city contexts.
Our Impact
AcceliCITY Impact Data since 2018
6,000
Jobs Created
AcceliCITY alumni have created more than 6,000 jobs and continue to grow.
16,000
Communities
Leading Cities' network includes more than 16,000 communities worldwide.
$3.3 B
In Funds Raised
AcceliCITY alumni have raised $3.3 billion in funding to date.
983
Patents Filed
AcceliCITY Alumni have filed 983 patents and counting.
The AcceliCITY Model
Surface Real Challenges with Communities Globally
We work directly with cities, corporate partners, and community leaders to identify urgent priorities, from infrastructure resilience and climate adaptation to humanitarian response. AcceliCITY is shaped by implementation needs, not abstract themes, so solutions are grounded in what communities actually need.
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Prepare Solutions For Adoption
Selected innovators receive mentorship, expert guidance, and public-sector insight to align their solutions with how cities actually operate. Through curriculum, industry engagement, and direct feedback from decision-makers, they strengthen readiness for adoption.
Enable Deployment and Scale
AcceliCITY connects prepared solutions with cities, sponsors, and funding pathways that can move them into real-world implementation. Whether through structured deployment opportunities, investor matchmaking, or post-program engagement in LaunchPad 11, the goal is not recognition, but adoption.
Power a Global Challenge
AcceliCITY partners with corporations, foundations, municipalities, and industry leaders to design custom innovation challenges aligned with strategic priorities. Sponsors gain access to curated solution pipelines, insight into emerging market needs, meaningful brand visibility, and structured engagement with high-potential innovators positioned for real-world deployment.
Sponsorship can include...
Named Challenges or Prizes
Thematic innovation calls
Industry-specific prize categories
Employee mentorship & judging participation
Direct exposure to vetted startups
Our Innovation Pathway
AcceliCITY is the sourcing and readiness engine within the broader Leading Cities ecosystem. For many innovators, it is not the end of the journey, but the beginning of a longer pathway to deployment, partnership, and scale.
From there, alumni can continue through:
Frequently Asked Questions
AcceliCITY is Leading Cities’ global accelerator for innovators building solutions that can help cities and communities become more resilient, sustainable, and effective. The program connects entrepreneurs with municipal leaders, industry experts, and ecosystem partners to help move promising solutions toward real-world deployment.
AcceliCITY is organized around challenge-based programs focused on urgent community needs. Its two primary tracks are the QBE AcceliCITY Resilience Challenge, centered on climate and infrastructure resilience, and the QBE AcceliCITY Humanitarian Challenge, focused on solutions that help communities prepare for, respond to, and recover from crisis.
AcceliCITY is built for solution providers developing innovations that address critical urban and community challenges, including climate resilience, infrastructure, sustainability, mobility, water, public safety, and disaster preparedness.
The program welcomes innovators across sectors whose technologies or services can help cities and communities operate more effectively, respond to growing pressures, and improve outcomes for residents.
Participants range from emerging companies refining their approach to more established organizations seeking to enter municipal markets, pilot their solutions, and build the readiness required to work successfully with government.
Yes. AcceliCITY accepts applications from innovators around the world.
No. Applying to AcceliCITY is free.
As a nonprofit, Leading Cities does not charge companies to submit applications to the program.
AcceliCITY welcomes solutions at a range of development stages, but companies that are moving toward pilot readiness (TRL 3+) tend to benefit most. Because many opportunities are tied to real-world deployment with cities and communities, teams with a clear use case, defined value proposition, and readiness to engage in implementation are often strongest candidates.
Yes. Many innovators apply multiple times as their solutions evolve. We encourage applicants to reapply in future cohorts as their technology, team, or market readiness develops.
Yes. Companies can participate in multiple AcceliCITY challenges if their solutions align with the focus areas.
For example, one company first became a Top 10 finalist in the Resilience Challenge and later went on to win the Humanitarian Challenge, demonstrating how solutions can grow across multiple tracks of the program.
Participants gain access to:
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Mentorship from industry and city leaders
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Business development opportunities with potential clients
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The Leading Cities Academy certified training curriculum (a $20,000 value)
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Global networking with cities, investors, and innovators
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Pilot opportunities with municipalities through AcceliGOV
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Exposure to investors and ecosystem partners
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A global alumni community of smart city innovators
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AcceliCITY is designed as more than a standalone accelerator. It is an entry point into the broader Leading Cities ecosystem. After the program, participants can continue building relationships with city leaders, partners, investors, and fellow innovators working to advance resilience and sustainability.
Through LaunchPad 11, members can stay engaged through ongoing programming such as City Solutions Forums, virtual events, expert office hours, and networking sessions that connect solution providers with municipal leaders and ecosystem partners around the world.
That continued engagement helps founders move beyond a single accelerator experience and into a longer-term pathway toward partnership, pilots, and implementation.