Urban Change Protocol is the world’s first decentralized blockchain protocol that enables any urban community to have their own urban coins created to drive economic and social prosperity. $5.5 million has been raised towards the development of the Urban Change Protocol in a recent investment round backed by Aleph, Node.Capital, DCG, Borderless, Algorand Foundation, Alumni Ventures and Benson Oak. The protocol promotes civic engagement and empowers city leaders to incentivize residents to act in a way that benefits their community: shopping locally, supporting minority- or women-owned businesses, and making sustainable choices to protect the environment. Its decentralized cryptocurrency system enables cities to shape their local economy and foster community ownership while remaining open to the global economy. Urban Change is a non-profit protocol that will be managed by a foundation. The Urban Change Foundation is establishing a consortium of city leaders, academic institutions, and crypto organizations to contribute to solutions that will be implemented by the protocol for a better city life. Urban Change Protocol operates with a unique two-coin model: Local Coins and Impact Coins. Local Coins are stable, function as a daily-use currency at local businesses, and can be earned through diverse initiatives promoted by the community (e.g. recycling). Impact Coins, on the other hand, are demand-driven. They reflect the level of local prosperity and civic engagement and encourage residents to become active community stakeholders by offering various incentives. These include higher rates of Local Coins, voting rights on new initiatives, and direct city benefits like discounts for parking or access to cultural events. “We are excited to support the vision of the Urban Change Foundation on digitalizing the city’s economies. We believe that Blockchain and Web3 technologies are the next frontiers in local economies, and the Urban Change Foundation is building the technology stack to make it happen without friction,” said David Garcia, CEO and Managing Partner of Borderless Capital. One of the core contributors to Urban Change is Colu – an innovative centralized city coin platform that has been developed to make cities more vibrant, connected, and inclusive. The platform is proven to drive behavioral change: 86% of respondents in the mobile app’s survey reported increased motivation to shop at local businesses, due to a higher level of social awareness and community engagement. “After years of experience working with cities and local currencies, the Colu Team learned that a sense of genuine ownership is vital when it comes to engaging people who live in urban areas. As core contributors to the Urban Change Protocol, we are channeling our knowledge and expertise towards developing long-term incentives that encourage people to participate in community initiatives and support local businesses,” said Ortal Tevel, CEO & Co-Founder of Colu who entered the blockchain industry after 20 years’ experience in fintech product development. Colu’s City Coins platform has already been adopted in 9 US cities in just one year. Akron, OH generated 9x ROI on their rewards budget in local economic activity and 2x growth in the volume of residents who shopped at local businesses. Moreover, in Boston, MA, residents transferred 77% of local coins (or $300K+) to minority-, women-, and Black-owned businesses to promote inclusivity, with $1.8M in local economic activity generated by the app in just 8 months. The first contributors to the Urban Change protocol have already joined the consortium. Among them are Algorand Foundation, Jerusalem Green Fund (Israel), Micah Runner – Deputy City Manager from Rancho Cordova (US), Jason Cooley – Chief Innovation Officer from Frisco (US), and Michael Pegues – CIO from Aurora (US). Michael Pegues commented, “I am excited to contribute to the Urban Change Protocol and to shape the future of cities. This is an opportunity to educate citizens about blockchain and crypto, as well as support community engagement, equity, and local businesses”.

Urban Change, the First-of-Its-kind Blockchain Protocol for Urban Coins, Announces Its Dual-coin Model To Drive Economic and Social Prosperity

For Christine Rose, entrepreneurship is in her blood. “Our grandparents harvested cranberries, they were farmers,” the Boston business owner told The Plug. “We’ve always been exposed to it.”
But the owner of Imani Massage and cofounder of 4 Corners Yoga + Wellness was hit hard by the pandemic. Revenues were down over 60 percent, and though they’ve slowly recovered, Rose said they are still down around 25 percent compared to before the pandemic. Rose is not alone. Across the US, Black business owners have been heavily impacted by Covid. A report released earlier this year by the House Small Business Committee found that 41 percent of Black-owned businesses closed between February and April 2020, the largest closure rate of any racial group. The federal Paycheck Protection Program pumped nearly $800 billion into businesses, but an analysis from The Center for Investigative Reporting published last month found that the rate of lending for majority-white areas was higher than for majority-Black, Latino or Asian areas. But loans are just one part of economic recovery, according to Michael Mazur, vice president of business development at Colu , a customizable platform cities can use to reward customers for shopping locally. “The loans are more of a lifeline to the businesses, they help the businesses survive and stay afloat,” Mazur told The Plug. “But what the loans don’t do or the grants, is that they don’t drive traffic to the business. So really, what good is a business surviving and having enough capital, maybe just to pay rent, if people aren’t shopping there?” he said. To tackle this, the city of Boston turned to Colu to try to help stimulate the recovery of their local economy and support Black business owners. Incentivizing shopping Black-owned
In April, Boston Mayor Kim Janey announced the B-Local app, an initiative that was no-cost, all-reward for Boston business owners and consumers and was created using Colu’s platform. By linking a card to the app, users earn rewards, called “Boston Points,” for getting coffee, doing yoga or buying plants at local stores. B-local users earn a minimum of 20 percent back in rewards at participating businesses, while shopping at a Black-owned business earns an extra 10 percent back. Depending on the business type, users can get up to 60 percent back on a single transaction and accrued Boston Points are redeemable as cash discounts at stores. Businesses get all the discounts reimbursed by the city, which is leveraging federal CARES Act funding to cover the cost. Since its launch, B-local has garnered 5,567 registered users and over 2,700 participating businesses. Homepage of B-Local app promoting Black-owned businesses
4 Corners Yoga + Wellness is one of 60 Black-owned businesses currently featured on the front page of the app offering users extra rewards if they shop there. Rose said so far she has not seen much of an impact from being part of B-Local, though she’s hopeful that through more marketing on her end she’ll see an uptick in foot traffic from the app. The city said since they are still in the pilot stage, they do not yet have data on how much more revenue Black-owned businesses may have received since being part of the program. But B-Local is not the only platform attempting to gamify buying from Black business owners. Danielle McGee, a HBCU professor, is trying to create a platform that supports Black-owned businesses, Black-led organizations and Black-owned banks. McGee is an entrepreneurship professor at Tennessee State University and the founder of Black Business Boom , a digital marketing hub for small Black-owned businesses. She is also the creator of The BLOC, a cashback platform set to launch its beta app this winter. Users will be able to earn rewards when they use a linked card at a participating Black-owned business and once they’ve accrued enough rewards, they’ll be able to donate them to a Black-led nonprofit. Users who bank with Black-owned banks will be incentivized with additional cashback offers, invitations to exclusive events, matching of their donations, merchandise and more. “My hope is that our program helps to create ongoing behaviors in consumers that help support the growth of Black communities,” McGee told The Plug. American Express also launched a short-term cashback rewards promotion in December that highlighted 10 Black-owned small businesses. A spokesperson for the company did not share how many cardholders took advantage of the program. This summer, American Express will also be launching ByBlack , a platform of certified Black-owned businesses in partnership with the US Black Chambers, which will verify that businesses are majority-owned by Black and African-American individuals and is intended to provide them exposure to consumers and  contract opportunities with large corporations. But for Christine Rose, being able to keep owning her businesses isn’t just about the profit. “I’m in it to win it and I’m just gonna keep living my best life. This is what I thought that I would like to do and I’m grateful,” she said.

How Tech Is Incentivizing Shopping at Local Black-Owned Businesses

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First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times? Amos Meiri: Overall, we are doing great. I have two small kids, so it becomes challenging to work from home. It creates an illusion for the kids that I am at home while actually my mind is fully at work and can’t give them the attention they wish. Nonetheless, we learned to create the right balance to work from home and be with the kids. Tell us about you, your career, how you founded Colu. Amos Meiri: Originally a musician who turned into trading and managing trading departments in companies such as eToro.com. I found out about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in 2011, where I co-founded in 2012 the first digital assets protocol Coloredcoins.org. Then I started Colu with the goal of allowing people to issue digital assets in 2015. One of the leading applications were community currencies. Through community currencies, we got into different behavioral and economic incentive models from communities, which got us into working with cities. How does Colu innovate? Amos Meiri: We are a smart city technology company that helps municipalities stimulate their local economies by gamifying everyday interactions. We enable cities to have the most advanced technology to communicate with their residents and drive them into action. By using our city-branded mobile app, shoppers seamlessly earn rewards at participating local businesses across the City when they make purchases with registered credit, debit, or prepaid debit cards linked to their account on the app. These rewards may then be redeemed at an expanding list of redeeming businesses. All rewards are funded by the City, and there is no cost to users or businesses. How the coronavirus pandemic affects your business, and how are you coping? Amos Meiri: We see a demand for the platform among cities that are currently seeking out ways to stimulate economic recovery in the wake of the pandemic. The City of Akron, for example, was especially eager to develop a civic and community engagement platform to spur economic recovery in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. It partnered with us  to create customised app incentivising Akronites to shop locally by  rewarding them with points that can be exchanged for discounts at locally owned  small businesses . Citizens also have the opportunity to like and share city stories via the platform that reveals narratives happening every day around their City. The app has been a huge success; for each $1 the City of Akron has invested, it has experienced $9 of economic impact. It’s expected that the $70,000 of CARES Act funds used to fund the initiative will generate an economic impact of $630,000. With the American Rescue Plan Act recently approved, we are currently working on helping cities decide how to maximize the economic impact of their fund allocation – which in most cases is significantly more than they received from the CARES Act. Did you have to make difficult choices, and what are the lessons learned? Amos Meiri: At the beginning of the pandemic, we operated our product in certain cities where the business model was charging fees directly from businesses. We started seeing that local businesses were going through unprecedented challenging times and therefore decided to stop the service where we fully operate the platform in the City. Today, we are focused on giving cities the tools to operate the platform and take the lead with our economic stimulus platform. What specific tools, software, and management skills are you using to navigate this crisis? Amos Meiri: As an entrepreneur, and a CEO of a startup, you should be flexible and always need to look around and adapt to the situation. The pandemic brought high uncertainty with it and many changes in the way we work on a daily basis. Today, for example, we mainly work remotely, so we established the necessary company rituals needed for the remote work to succeed and be productive. Also, today we can sign a contract with a city fully remotely – without even meeting the City in person. Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game? Amos Meiri: There are other companies that suggest rewards for local businesses, but they don’t enable the City to stimulate the local economy, and they don’t necessarily have the economic multiplier as we have. According to a U.S. Chamber ‘MetLife’ Poll, 74 per cent of business owners said they need further government assistance to weather the pandemic. Our product enables cities to support their local businesses and to connect their residents to the same cause. We plan to stay in the game by listening to our customers, understanding what cities need, technology, and services wise to get a full solution in hand. Your final thoughts? Amos Meiri: Colu’s strategic vision is centered on a future in which cities leverage technology to transform local shopping and civic engagement into sources of pride for residents. Colu will provide city leaders with tech solutions for encouraging residents to participate in essential civic activities such as recycling, voting and taking public transportation; embrace and attend city initiatives events, and support historically underrepresented segments of the population. Your website?

Turn $1 Into $9 of Economic Impact

Tipalti Forges: New Partnerships with Colu, Fusion Partners, and Queue Associates
Tipalti Forges Partnerships with Colu, Fusion Partners, and Queue Associates to Help Modern Finance Organizations Transform Their Payables Processes
Global payables automation provider grows strategic partner portfolio to help organizations achieve best-in-class finance operations
The partners focused on providing consulting to the Microsoft Dynamics community including
Coluâ€™s mission is to make cities more vibrant, connected, and inclusive
Fusion Partners helps Israeli startups with their financial needs with a focus on Institutional Investments, investment development
Queue Associates provides a full range of consulting services to the Microsoft Dynamics community including pre-implementation consulting
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Tipalti Forges: New Partnerships with Colu, Fusion Partners, and Queue Associates

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Tipalti, which makes accounts payable automation software, has entered into three strategic partnerships with Colu, Fusion Partners and Queue Associates to provide broader services to growing companies. As businesses struggle with the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, technology providers are responding with more comprehensive offerings to simplify their operations. Colu is a civic engagement platform designed to help foster real-life communities online. Colu partners with municipalities to create custom apps that encourage residents to shop locally. Municipalities can reward residents via the app for taking actions that promote strategic goals for the good of the community. UZI PORAT
Tipalti’s payments engine is now embedded into Colu’s platform so users can pay local shops directly through the app. Fusion Partners helps Israeli startups with their financial needs with a focus on institutional investments, investment development and operational innovation. The Fusion Partners team specializes in pairing emerging and early growth businesses and startups that have proprietary products, such as Tipalti, with clients that are looking to build additional revenue streams or improve existing practices. The idea is for Fusion Partner’s expansive network of Israeli and Cypriote entrepreneurs and investors to help foster a new community of businesses that use Tipalti to manage their global payables challenges. Queue Associates provides a full range of consulting services to the Microsoft Dynamics community including pre-implementation consulting, installation, customization, and ongoing technical support to their clients. The partnership between Queue and Tipalti is hoped to help Microsoft clients better streamline their financial operations and improve overall payables productivity. “We’re delighted to be partnering with innovative organizations like Colu, Fusion Partners, and Queue Associates to tackle payables challenges, and we are eager to work together to further modernize financial operations through the implementation of seamless, automated payables processes to eliminate payables workload, reduce risk, and enhance productivity” said Chen Amit, CEO and co-founder of Tipalti, in a statement.

Tipalti embeds AP automation in three business platforms

Tipalti provides a cloud based technology platform aimed at mid-market companies, who have traditionally been underserved by banks, to streamline all phases of the global accounts payable workflow. The solution streamlines and optimizes businesses' end-to-end global payables workflow, while giving companies access to cross border payments, currency conversion, and payments across a wide range of methods.

Tipalti

According to Tipalti , the new partners are Colu , a civic engagement platform , Fusion Partners , investment development and innovation firm , and Queue Associates , a global full-service consulting ... Read More

B2B Fintech Tipalti Announces New Partnerships with Colu, Fusion Partners, & Queue Associates

IDB Development Corporation holds corporations in various business sectors.

IDB Development Corporation

Deloitte is the brand under which tens of thousands of dedicated professionals in independent firms throughout the world collaborate to provide audit, consulting, financial advisory, risk management, tax, and related services to select clients.

Deloitte

Colu

eToro

Zeek

AirPatrol Corporation

Property Bureau

Cyhawk Ventures

DeepNen

Marvell

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Pre-Money Valuation

Post-Money Valuation

Amount Raised

Shares Authorized

Issuance Price

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Liquidation Preferences

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Conversion Price

Anti Dilution

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Companies and startups in this collection enable consumers, businesses, and governments to pay each other - online and at the physical point-of-sale.

Payments

Series C

Colu allows fast access to Colored Coins and Bitcoin 2.0 infrastructure through an easy-to-use fast and secure API. Colu has created a wallet app for digital, localized currencies.

Name	Firm	Work History	Other Seats
Ami Barlev		Experienced CEO and member of the boards of leading Israeli companies.	Colu
Eden Shochat			Colu

Name	Ami Barlev	Eden Shochat
Firm
Work History	Experienced CEO and member of the boards of leading Israeli companies.
Other Seats	Colu	Colu

Name	Work History	Title	Status
Amos Meiri	eToro	Founder, Chief Executive Officer	Current
Danny Razinsky	Zeek, AirPatrol Corporation, Property Bureau, AOL, ICQ, and PwC	Chief Financial Officer	Current
Rotem Lev	eToro, and Cyhawk Ventures	Chief Technology Officer	Current
David Ring	DeepNen, eToro, and Marvell	Founder	Former

Name	Amos Meiri	Danny Razinsky	Rotem Lev	David Ring
Work History	eToro	Zeek, AirPatrol Corporation, Property Bureau, AOL, ICQ, and PwC	eToro, and Cyhawk Ventures	DeepNen, eToro, and Marvell
Title	Founder, Chief Executive Officer	Chief Financial Officer	Chief Technology Officer	Founder
Status	Current	Current	Current	Former

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Colu

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