Cisco Announces $1 Billion Program for Smart Cities

In an effort to expand the market opportunity around “smart cities,” Cisco has introduced a $1 billion infrastructure financing acceleration program designed to help bring the costs of smart cities within reach of a wider range of municipalities. 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,” said Anil Menon, Global President of Cisco’s Smart+Connected Communities. “With our partners, Cisco will bring the capital and expertise it takes to make smart city projects a reality.”

The program is intended to help cities assemble the right type or suite of finance instruments to fund and deploy innovative technology with minimal initial investment. Depending upon the specific project, benefits may include reduced energy usage, eased traffic congestion, simplified parking, or increased 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 has also announced added functionality for its connected digital platform, “Cisco Kinetic for Cities.” The new features provide enhanced support for public safety, including an improved dashboard with integrated video.

Channel Impact^®
Although smart city features can provide a wide variety of benefits, depending upon the chosen applications, many municipalities simply lack the resources to take the opportunity to the next level. Programs such as this one can move the smart cities discussion into a nearer-term time frame, thereby delivering value to the cities as well as sales opportunities for Cisco and its partners.