Open Call: QBE AcceliCITY Resilience Challenge

Powered by Leading Cities and the QBE Foundation, this challenge connects visionary startups with the funding, mentorship, and real-world city partnerships needed to turn bold ideas into tangible impact. Startups don’t just compete for non-equity prize money—they gain direct access to municipal leaders eager to deploy innovative solutions that make communities more resilient, sustainable, and future-ready.

Prize Information

• Participants considered for the PropTech Prize will follow the full Resilience Challenge curriculum—gaining access to mentorship, networking, and city partnerships—while also benefiting from exclusive PropTech-focused sessions and tailored support from QBE experts. This includes customized guidance in areas such as operations, access to data and analytics, use cases, and insights from QBE Ventures, Underwriting, Actuarial, CAT Modeling, and Risk. All PropTech applicants are also automatically considered for the $100,000 Grand Prize and pre-paid pilot opportunity.
• The AcceliCITY Resilience Challenge is a single competition, but upon application, startups have the opportunity to be considered for four prizes: the $100,000 Grand Prize for overall resilience innovation, two $25,000 People’s Choice Awards, and the $25,000 PropTech Prize, dedicated to sustainable, loss mitigation solutions for the commercial property sector. They are searching for innovations that can identify or minimize potential hazards more quickly, lessen the effects of property damage, reduce business disruption or home evacuation caused by property damage, and offer other creative solutions for property insurance and sustainability.
• Startups can apply for both prizes in their application, ensuring they are considered for all available opportunities to scale their impact. Discover the two prizes:
  • The Resilience Prize
    • $100,000 USD Grand Prize to implement a city pilot
    • Open to all resilience-focused startups, regardless of industry
    • Focuses on broad urban resilience, sustainability, and infrastructure solutions
  • PropTech Prize
    • $25,000 USD Prize in non-equity funding
    • Open to startups tackling resilience through property technology
    • Includes exclusive PropTech-focused networking and sessions

Who should Apply?

• If Your Solution:
  • Strengthens communities, infrastructure, or the environment.
• If You’re Looking for:
  • Funding, mentorship, and connections to global city leaders
• If You Want to Make:
  • A real-world impact with your sustainable solution

Eligibility Criteria

• To make AcceliCITY accessible to innovators worldwide, they run the program in two divisions based on geographic regions. Each division accepts 50 startups, ensuring that 100 high-impact entrepreneurs receive the same world-class programming, mentorship, and opportunities—at times that work best for their region.
  • QBE AcceliCITY Resilience Challenge West Division:
    • Regions best suited for this timezone: North America, South America, Europe and West Africa
  • QBE AcceliCITY Resilience Challenge East Division:
    • Regions best suited for this timezone: Asia, Australia & Oceania, Middle East and East Africa
• Regardless of division, all participants go through the same curriculum, engage with expert mentors, and gain access to city leaders and industry networks. This structure allows startups from across the globe to participate without time zone barriers while fostering regional collaboration.

For more information, visit QBE Foundation.