Cisco rolls out billion dollar smart cities program

Cisco introduced the City Infrastructure Financing Acceleration Program, a $1 billion fund aimed at financing smart cities around the world that are struggling for resources to adopt technologies that will transform their communities.

The funding will be provided through Cisco Capital in partnership with private equity firm Digital Alpha Advisors and pension fund investors APG Asset Management (APG) and Whitehelm Capital.

“Funding is a major stumbling block for municipalities beginning their smart city transformation, With our partners, Cisco will bring the capital and expertise it takes to make smart city projects a reality. Digital Alpha, APG, and Whitehelm Capital bring a fresh perspective on investment in an area that has previously been perceived as too new and, therefore, too difficult to finance.” said Anil Menon, Global President of Smart+Connected Communities at Cisco.

The program helps cities with solutions, whether cities are looking to reduce energy usage, ease traffic and parking, or boost public transportation ridership and revenues. Revenue-share financing, for instance, even allows a city to tie financing to desired outcomes and extend future operating budgets through revenue streams from the new services that a digitized infrastructure makes possible.

Cisco also announced added functionality to its newly renamed connected digital platform, Cisco Kinetic for Cities, which integrated with the Cisco Kinetic IoT data platform. The new features provide enhanced support for public safety. From the new full-policy automation options to an improved dashboard with integrated video, updates to the platform put citizen safety first. Real-time notification of emergency information now draws on additional IoT data sources and Cisco Spark Collaboration, enabling faster emergency response.

Cisco further unveiled the new purchasing options for Cisco Kinetic for Cities, including prepackaged starter solutions, which combine the Cisco IoT data platform, solution, and services with those from our ecosystem partners into ready-to-roll-out, end-to-end solution suites.