
Meet The Partners
New York City Economic Development Corporation creates shared prosperity across New York City’s five boroughs by strengthening neighborhoods and creating good jobs. NYCEDC works with and for communities to provide them with the resources they need to thrive, and we invest in projects that increase sustainability, support job growth, develop talent, and spark innovation to strengthen the City’s competitive advantage. To learn more about our work and initiatives, please visit us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

MINI is an independent brand of the BMW Group. In the United States, MINI USA operates as a business unit of BMW of North America, LLC, located in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey and includes the marketing and sales organizations for the MINI brand. The MINI USA sales organization is represented by a network of 113 MINI passenger car dealers located throughout the US. MINI USA began selling vehicles in the U.S. in 2002 with the introduction of the MINI Cooper and MINI Cooper S Hardtops. Since then, the MINI Brand in the U.S. has grown to encompass a model range of five unique vehicles.

Margalit Startup City is a socioeconomic development model initiated by Dr. Erel Margalit, Founder and Chairman of JVP. The model promotes the growth of cities and regions, while advancing them to the next level. This unique model is centered on the development of game changing centers of excellence, which integrate technological innovation with social entrepreneurship, and cultural initiatives.
Each of the excellence centers in Israel and New York, are based on a thematic ecosystem that attract entrepreneurs from all over the world.
Collaboration is a requisite and takes place among the public and private sectors, including investment funds and startups, in collaboration with leading universities, research institutes, multinational companies, governmental programs and tech, business and social entrepreneurs.
The first Margalit Startup City was established in Jerusalem, followed by the Cyber Center in Be’er Sheva, the International Cyber Center in New York, the FoodTech Center in the Galilee, the Fintech Center in Tel Aviv, and the Digital Health Center in Haifa.
The centers promote a new urban socioeconomic reality, generating thousands of new jobs, bringing young people back to the city centers, building connections with local and international investors, attracting multinational companies, leading new business opportunities and international partnerships.

URBAN-X is the platform for founders reimagining city life. Built by MINI in 2016, URBAN-X partners with startups to build bold technology solutions for a sustainable planet. Breaking from traditional startup program molds, URBAN-X provides entrepreneurs from Seed to Series B with individualized and tailored support that accelerates growth and builds successful businesses for the next generation of climate- and city-focused innovators. Core to its platform, URBAN-X offers world-class engineering and design resources, industry-leading investment capital from our venture partner JVP, a global network of investors, policymakers, corporate strategies and end-customers, and premier educational content for a global network of founders. Find URBAN-X on Twitter & Instagram at @urbanxaccel and on Facebook at facebook.com/urbanxaccel.
Why partner?
The new partnership between MINI and JVP invests in, builds, and scales emerging and fast-growth companies from Seed to Series B that are shaping the future of cities through novel climate and urban-focused technology solutions. This partnership leverages global networks, strong strategic partnerships, and company-building expertise to support and scale new ideas and innovators through URBAN-X as they pioneer new technologies in cities across the globe.
JVP offers Fortune 500 companies and major industry players the opportunity to partner and collaborate on the Accelerator in ways that are of mutual benefit. Enjoy positioning as a thought leader in the space, gain market understanding, unprecedented access to deal-flow, co-investment opportunities, ability to shape startups’ future; you will also have the opportunity to provide support through vertical market guidance, POC validation, joint go-to-market, and more.
The entrepreneurs we partner with share our passion for innovation and technology. We seek to identify emerging companies with strong performance and organic growth that have the potential to accelerate their expansion and scale globally. Together we are able to grow their businesses with our capital, insights, global resources and network.
The growth and value we create translate into consistent and attractive performance for companies as well as family and institutional investors around the world.