Founder-led. Mission-driven. Built for partnership.
UrbanMacro is a founder-led nonprofit urban intelligence and investment advisory platform focused on emerging-market cities and underserved communities.
Our Story
For more than 30 years, we have worked in and studied cities across emerging markets — from Bangkok to Dakar, Karachi to Nairobi.
We have seen how rapid growth can create opportunity, but also how infrastructure gaps, climate pressure and migration can leave communities behind. We believe inclusive urban development is becoming one of the defining challenges of the coming decades.
UrbanMacro brings together spatial and economic insight to help cities make better investment choices. Our mission is simple: make development finance work harder for the communities and cities that need it most.
Our Leadership
Founder & CEO
Ben Simpfendorfer
UrbanMacro was founded by Ben Simpfendorfer, an urban and economic strategy adviser with 30 years of experience across Asia, the Middle East and Africa, spanning spatial economics, infrastructure and emerging-market strategy.
He is a Partner at a leading global consultancy, where he leads the firm’s initiative on future cities. He is also the former CEO of Silk Road Associates, where he led urban development, infrastructure viability and macroeconomic advisory work, as well as developing proprietary geospatial analytics solutions.
His work focuses on how cities grow, how infrastructure shapes economic opportunity, and how spatial and economic evidence can support stronger investment decisions. He features regularly on Bloomberg and CNBC.
Expertise from the places we work.
Our Team
We work with a network of talented geospatial, economic and investment analysts from across the markets where we operate. From China and Indonesia to Pakistan and Kenya — alongside our home base in Hong Kong — this gives our work strong local knowledge as well as broader international perspective. It helps ensure our analysis is grounded in how places actually work, not just what the data says.
We welcome conversations with partners working on inclusive and resilient urban development.