10 Top Smart City Startups and Companies to Watch in 2026

Executive Summary: Which are the Top 10 Smart City Startups to Watch?

1. Parke (India): Develops a mobile parking app that enables users to pre-book parking spaces, provides real-time availability updates, supports secure digital payments, and streamlines parking management for improved trip planning.
2. Hydroguard (Germany): Builds an IoT-based water monitoring system using smart buoys, real-time sensors, and machine learning to predict toxic algal blooms, analyze water quality, and enable sustainable water management.
3. MISTO (Ukraine): Develops a smart city platform that integrates municipal services, urban data, and citizen engagement with AI-driven analytics.
4. Kuafu (Switzerland): Provides an AI-powered grid-edge energy management platform that optimizes distributed resources like electric vehicles (EVs), heat pumps, and batteries, enables participation in grid services, balances energy demand, and reduces carbon emissions for sustainable operations.
5. whereable.ai (South Korea): Builds an AI-powered autonomous driving platform and its product, linq, which integrates physical AI, intelligent navigation, and advanced sensors to improve indoor mobility, enhance wayfinding, and deliver safe and accessible transportation.
6. IQLand (USA): Offers an AI-powered land intelligence platform that analyzes zoning regulations, construction costs, and project feasibility while providing instant property appraisals, optimal land-use suggestions, and architectural plan matches.
7. Blue In (Malaysia): Develops an AI-driven security and infrastructure analytics platform that integrates facial recognition, liveness detection, vehicle detection, footfall analysis, and smart parking systems.
8. Neeve (USA): Builds an edge cloud platform for smart buildings that integrates operational technology (OT) cybersecurity, zero-trust remote access, AI-powered edge intelligence, and data-driven insights.
9. Smart Cities (Spain): Offers CEAP IoT, a smart waste management system that uses internet of things (IoT)-enabled sensors, enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, and intelligent routing.
10. Shaheen AI (Saudi Arabia): Provides AI-driven smart city solutions that integrate IoT, real-time monitoring, predictive analytics, traffic optimization, energy management, and AI-powered public safety.

Global Startup Heat Map highlights Emerging Smart City Startups to Watch

Through the Big Data & Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, covering over 7M+ startups, 20K+ technology trends, plus 150M+ patents, news articles & market reports, we identified the top smart city startups.

The Global Startup Heat Map below highlights emerging smart city startups you should watch in 2026, as well as the geo-distribution of 1800+ startups & scaleups we analyzed for this research.

According to our data, we observe high startup activity in the USA and India, followed by Germany. The top 5 Startup Hubs for Smart City are London, Dubai, Bangalore, San Francisco, and Singapore.

Discover Emerging Smart City Startups to Watch in 2026

We hand-picked startups to showcase in this report by filtering for their technology, founding year, location, funding, and other metrics. These emerging smart city startups work on solutions ranging from a parking app and integrated infrastructure to AI-based urban energy management and security analytics.

1. Parke

• Founding Year: 2025
• Location: Kochi, India
• Use For: Smart Parking App

Indian startup Parke offers a mobile application that enables users to pre-book parking spaces in advance. It connects drivers with available parking spots across various locations and processes reservations instantly through its integrated booking system.

Further, the app provides real-time availability updates, supports secure digital payments, and offers location-based search to assist users in finding suitable parking near their destination. By streamlining parking management, the startup reduces wait times and improves trip planning.

2. Hydroguard

• Founding Year: 2023
• Location: Brunswick, Germany
• Use For: IoT-based Water Monitoring

German startup Hydroguard develops an IoT-based water monitoring system that uses smart buoys with advanced sensors to track water quality, nutrient levels, and environmental parameters in real time. The system autonomously collects data from lakes and transmits it via long-range wide area network (LoRaWAN) to cloud servers. This data is further analyzed by machine learning algorithms to predict toxic algal blooms and detect blue-green algae early.

Thus, it mitigates ecological risks and supports sustainable water management. Its automated monitoring, wireless data transmission, and accurate forecasting reduce manual sampling, lower operational costs, and improve environmental safety.

3. MISTO

• Founding Year: 2023
• Location: Kyiv, Ukraine
• Use For: Urban Digital Infrastructure Platform

Ukrainian startup MISTO develops a smart cities platform that integrates municipal services, urban data, and citizen engagement into a unified digital ecosystem. The platform connects with existing city infrastructure to collect, analyze, and manage information across housing, mobility, public safety, utilities, and emergency response systems.

It uses AI-driven analytics and situational awareness tools to support authorities in monitoring urban operations, optimizing resources, and improving decision-making.

Through its mobile app, residents and visitors access city information, interactive maps, real-time alerts, service requests, and digital payments for utilities, parking, and transport. Additionally, MISTO enables e-democracy features such as local polling, feedback channels, and direct communication with city officials to promote transparency and participation.

4. Kuafu

• Founding Year: 2024
• Location: Dübendorf, Zürich, Switzerland
• Use For: AI-Powered Energy Management Platform

Swiss startup Kuafu provides builds an AI-powered grid-edge management platform that manages and optimizes local energy resources such as heat pumps, building batteries, and electric vehicles. The platform connects energy management system providers with grid operators by monitoring consumption patterns and dispatching flexibility from distributed assets to balance energy demand and supply.

Further, it enables providers to unlock new revenue streams by participating in grid services while supporting grid operators in integrating decentralized resources more efficiently. By reducing energy portfolio imbalances, optimizing resource utilization, and lowering carbon emissions, the startup enhances grid stability and delivers a cost-effective approach to sustainable energy management.

5. whereable.ai

• Founding Year: 2024
• Location: Seoul, South Korea
• Use For: AI-powered Autonomous Driving
• Startup Stage: Seed

South Korean startup whereable.ai offers an AI-powered autonomous driving technology that enables smart mobility solutions. Its product, linq, integrates physical AI-based autonomous driving technology with advanced sensors and intelligent navigation systems to safely transport users across long distances. It addresses mobility challenges by offering convenient and accessible rides.

Additionally, the product enhances wayfinding by guiding passengers through complex layouts while maintaining safety and reliability. It combines scalable infrastructure with sustainable design to improve indoor mobility. Also, it reduces walking strain and ensures a more connected and efficient movement experience for residents, visitors, and operators.

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6. IQLand

• Founding Year: 2023
• Location: Atlanta, Georgia, USA
• Use For: Land Intelligence Platform

US-based startup IQLand offers an AI-powered land intelligence platform that simplifies property development for residential real estate developers, agents, architects, and homeowners. The platform integrates tools to analyze zoning regulations, estimate construction costs, assess project feasibility, and generate instant property appraisals using data-driven insights.

Its Copilot product provides real-time guidance by answering project-related queries and suggesting optimal land use strategies. Another product, SmartBuild, matches parcels with over 30,000 architectural plans, visualizes key metrics, and compares similar properties to support informed decision-making.

Further, Appraisal IQ product delivers instant valuation reports by combining comparable sales, cost-based estimates, and income potential analysis to evaluate property worth accurately.

7. Blue In

• Founding Year: 2023
• Location: Penang, Malaysia
• Use For: AI-Driven Security Analytics

Malaysian startup Blue In builds AI-driven security and smart infrastructure solutions that integrate facial recognition, liveness detection, vehicle detection, license plate recognition, and vision analytics into a unified ecosystem.

Its technology uses advanced machine learning (ML) to authenticate users and prevent spoofing attempts. Also, it enables secure access across applications such as payment systems, facility management, and attendance tracking.

Further, the startup leverages footfall analysis to optimize energy consumption and monitor crowd movement. It enhances safety through real-time alerts on trespassing and vandalism. Additionally, its vehicle detection and smart parking systems improve traffic flow, automate parking bay counting, and enhance urban mobility.

8. Neeve

• Founding Year: 2024
• Location: San Francisco, California, USA
• Use For: Smart Building Platform

US-based startup Neeve builds an edge cloud platform that secures, connects, and optimizes smart buildings and operational technology (OT) environments. The platform integrates solutions for zero-trust remote access, OT and cyber-physical systems (CPS) cybersecurity, smart building operations, and AI-driven data intelligence.

Its secure edge and secure link technologies provide controlled access to devices and applications. Additionally, it protects building systems from ransomware and network vulnerabilities.

By aggregating real-time data from multiple sources, the platform delivers insights that improve energy efficiency. It enhances asset performance and supports AI-powered innovations through edge intelligence.

9. Smart Cities

• Founding Year: 2025
• Location: Vitoria-Gasteiz, Álava, Spain
• Use For: Smart Waste Management Systems

Spanish startup Smart Cities offers CEAP IoT, a smart waste collection system. It integrates IoT-enabled sensors, cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, and intelligent routing. The system installs sensors in garbage, textile, paper, and glass containers to monitor fill levels in real time and transmit data.

This data connects to the startup’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform, which processes container status and automatically generates optimized daily collection routes for drivers. This reduces unnecessary trips and improves resource allocation. Also, it prevents container overflows, minimizes operational costs, and lowers CO2 emissions through route optimization.

10. Shaheen AI

• Founding Year: 2025
• Location: Riyadh, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
• Use For: AI-Driven Smart City Solutions

Saudi Arabian Shaheen AI offers smart city solutions that integrate IoT, AI, and advanced data analytics to optimize urban infrastructure, services, and sustainability. Its platform connects sensors, devices, and data streams across city systems to enable real-time monitoring, predictive maintenance, and efficient resource management.

Moreover, it supports intelligent infrastructure control and traffic and mobility optimization. Also, it aids environmental monitoring, energy management, and AI-powered public safety through video analytics and automated threat detection.

By leveraging real-time data, the platform enhances citizen experiences with smoother transportation, safer public spaces, and improved environmental health. Additionally, it aids municipalities in reducing operational costs through energy savings, waste reduction, and efficient resource allocation.

Discover All Emerging Smart City Startups

The Smart City startups showcased in this report are only a small sample of all startups we identified through our data-driven startup scouting approach. Download our free Smart City Innovation Report for a broad overview of the industry or get in touch for quick & exhaustive research on the latest technologies & emerging solutions that will impact your company in 2026!