Government of Slovakia hires Smart City Works to help the country’s top urban technology companies accelerate growth and crack the U.S. market

Washington D.C.—Smart City Works, a next generation business accelerator that dramatically speeds commercialization for early stage ventures worldwide, won a contract with the Government of Slovakia to help train top-performing Slovak start-ups, support their business growth and commercialization, and ready them for the U.S. market.

“We are honored at the invitation to work with the Government of Slovakia and some of the country’s most promising startups,” said David Heyman, co-founder of Smart City Works. “Innovation is no doubt a global phenomenon today and the opportunity to work with and bring to market the best ideas, the best talent, and the best companies from this program will not only help Slovakia and European cities, but will no doubt more rapidly bring leading-edge solutions to U.S. cities and communities, as well.”

Slovakia, a NATO country bordering the Czech Republic in eastern Europe, has a growing technology sector, rich with startup companies working in fields such as virtual reality, augmented reality, traffic management and other smart cities technologies. Smart City Works will help these companies accelerate their growth and bring products to an international market faster.

Slovakia’s Office of Investment and Informatics will conduct a nationwide competition for companies that want help commercializing their technology for export. Company applications will be reviewed by a joint panel of Slovak and U.S. experts and their principals will be invited to pitch their technology to Smart City Works.

The Office of Investment and Informatics will then select two winners of the national challenge to travel to the United States for an intensive, three-month immersion course in business acceleration, innovation and commercialization offered by Smart City Works. The companies will be introduced to U.S. experts in technology, marketing, government procurement and other disciplines, and will pursue strategic partnerships with U.S. companies, nonprofits and local governments.

“We’re excited to partner with the Government of Slovakia on this creative and forward-looking initiative,” Heyman said. “Slovakia, like other countries, is taking full advantage of a global innovation system that serves global markets. American cities, like their European counterparts, have enormous infrastructure needs in areas such as security, construction, transportation and many others. Helping companies and cities fill these needs is a major part of our mission, whether they are based here in the United States or abroad.”

About Smart City Works. Smart City Works is a next generation business accelerator—called a business actuator—that can rapidly move early stage ventures to commercialization, help speed products to market, and reduce investor risk. We focus on companies that improve the livability, operations and resilience of cities, with a special emphasis on urbantech, IoT devices and the built environment. Smart City Works offers business acceleration, innovation and commercialization programs to companies of all sizes, and to governments seeking to solve discreet challenges. Working at the intersection of government and private industry, our mission is to transform the way municipalities design, build and operate cities and city infrastructure.

CONTACT: David Heyman at [email protected].