A North Texas–backed smart city pitch competition is heading back to the global stage.

The Smart Cities Global Startup Challenge will return for its second year at the 2025 Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona. The international pitch event is designed to help startups enter the U.S. market through funding, pilot projects, and direct access to city leaders, corporate R&D teams, and other key stakeholders.

Led by the North Texas Innovation Alliance, the effort is backed by partners including the cities of Frisco and McKinney, Frisco-based Plug and Play, and Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners in Georgia, a 5G-powered smart city innovation hub where technologies are tested in real-world conditions. This year, the 2025 delegation heading to Spain will also include AMSYS Innovative Solutions, Utsun Law Group, and the Toyota Mobility Foundation.

A network of smart city cross-collaborators

The announcement was made by NTXIA, a regional consortium of more than 50 municipalities, corporations, universities, and agencies working to make North Texas one of the most connected, resilient, and innovation-forward regions in the country.

Jennifer Sanders, executive director of NTXIA, said the team knew it had to bring the competition back after the momentum it created last year.

“It was truly incredible to see the international response and excitement during last year’s Smart Cities Global Startup Challenge,” Sanders said in a statement.

The 2024 winner, VisionCraft.ai, went on to tour the U.S. while seeking deployment opportunities with cities and partners. That traction, Sanders said, reinforced the value of the platform—not just for individual companies, but for regions looking to drive smart city innovation and economic development.

“This annual competition is a reminder and a strong example of the importance of supporting international innovation,” Sanders said. “We’re honored to have an incredible community of smart city cross-collaborators in the U.S. to support these companies, and we are looking forward to awarding another winner and supporting another international startup with their goal of entering the U.S. market.”

How the Challenge Works

Just like in 2024, this year’s Smart Cities Global Startup Challenge will select five startups to pitch live on stage at the 2025 Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona.

Applications are open now on Marketplace.city and will close on September 10. The winning company will receive pilot and funding opportunities in the U.S.—along with curated introductions to top municipal and corporate innovation leaders across North Texas and beyond.

For 2025, the challenge is focusing on four problem areas that are shaping the future of cities: transportation, public safety, connectivity, and infrastructure. Companies must align their proposed solution with one of these challenge areas and be prepared to test it in a real-world smart city environment:

1. Transportation: Example solutions include autonomous delivery, people movers, vulnerable road user (VRU) safety, and AI-powered smart parking systems.
2. Public Safety: Topics span crowd management, facility safety and security, emergency response coordination, and predictive analytics for risk reduction.
3. Connectivity: This category includes 5G/6G deployment, IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things), supply chain infrastructure, and systems like noise and vibration monitoring or resilient network frameworks.
4. Smart Infrastructure: Solutions may address predictive infrastructure maintenance, sustainable building technologies, tools to manage AI and data center growth, and smart campuses, ports, venues, or airports

Companies will also need to ensure their technology is ready to be deployed for testing and development in real-world smart city environments.

Competitive edge

“The conference and pitch competition provide a platform for individuals and organizations to showcase technology that has the potential to shape the future of urban living …for people around the world,” Gloria Salinas, SVP and chief growth officer of the Frisco Economic Development Corporation, said in a statement.

Salinas knows all about innovation pipelines. She noted that Frisco is home to 15 corporate innovation and R&D centers—including five Fortune 500 companies—and over 500 tech firms and startups. The city has also been home to high-profile smart city pilots, from Drive.AI to Google Wing drone delivery. One of its recent deployments involved using computer vision and AI to make traffic signals more responsive to real-time traffic flow.

“With a tech talent pool that is twice the national average, Frisco is a driving force for innovation,” she said.

The prize package

Finalists selected for the Smart Cities Global Startup Challenge will receive passes to attend and pitch at the 2025 SCEWC in Barcelona on November 5. The winner will receive a package of travel, pilot, workspace, and business development support designed to give them a strong landing in the U.S. market.

Among the prizes:
• Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners is contributing $5,000 toward a pilot project, one year of office space at its Georgia innovation campus, full access to on-campus infrastructure and the Innovation Center, and support from its global partner network.
• The cities of Frisco and McKinney will fund up to $10,000 in travel and accommodations to the U.S. for company leadership, including airfare, hotel, ground transportation, food, and co-working or office space in McKinney and Curiosity Lab during the initial site visit.
• Plug and Play will provide four hot desk memberships—valid for one year—in Frisco or McKinney.

In addition, NTXIA, Frisco, McKinney, and Curiosity Lab will work together to create a custom itinerary of meetings with U.S. city officials and innovation leads to explore pilot opportunities and potential partnerships.

Winners will also be introduced to executives and thought leaders across the North Texas innovation ecosystem. That includes Plug and Play leadership, researchers at the University of North Texas and Dallas College, healthcare executives from Baylor Scott & White Health and other major systems, regional planners from the North Central Texas Council of Governments, and executives from Fortune 500 companies and major entertainment venues across Texas.

Winners will receive global media exposure—and in true Texas fashion, will also walk away with the official NTXIA Champion Texas Belt Buckle and Cowboy Hat.

A real-world testbed for global tech

Seth Yurman, executive director of Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners, said the program gives international startups more than visibility—it gives them access.

“Our ecosystem offers a unique real-world environment where companies of all sizes can test, deploy, and validate their technologies,” Yurman said.

He pointed to the journey of VisionCraft.ai, the 2024 winner, as proof that the pitch challenge can open serious doors.

“We’ve become an innovative smart city hub that allows international companies to have a soft-landing pad in the U.S. to continue to develop their technologies,” Yurman said. “Our work with VisionCraft.ai is a testament to this competition and the doors we can open for companies for their success and growth. We’re proud to, once again, uplift and support international startups as they work to improve our everyday lives with their trailblazing technologies.”

Who’s judging?

Judges for this year’s challenge include:
• Jennifer Sanders, executive director, North Texas Innovation Alliance
• Jeremiah Anderson, director of innovation, Frisco Economic Development Corporation
• Michael Talley, senior vice president, McKinney Economic Development Corporation
• David Steele, director, Plug and Play
• Valerie Chang, managing director, Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners
• John Rohrer, vice president of enterprise AI, AMSYS Innovative Solutions
• Trey Ingram, program manager, Toyota Mobility Foundation

Finalists will each deliver a 10-minute pitch, followed by a five-minute Q&A session with the judges. After all presentations, the panel will deliberate for 10 minutes before announcing the winner.

The competition is supported by Marketplace.city, which is managing the application process using its Clearbox Source market intelligence platform.

A global platform for connected cities—in North Texas

Michael Kowski, president and CEO of the McKinney Economic Development Corporation, said the pitch competition reflects the region’s growing focus on innovation-driven development.

“North Texas is growing at an incredible rate,” Kowski said. “Our hope in supporting this pitch competition and these innovators is to help companies flourish in a new market and to provide the connections and testing requirements needed to see them succeed.”

He said the initiative helps grow McKinney’s—and North Texas’—reputation as a hub for smart city solutions. “This will help foster North Texas’ smart city ecosystem and showcase how we can harness the power of innovation to create diverse and resilient communities.”

John Rohrer, vice president of enterprise AI at AMSYS Innovative Solutions, said the firm is looking forward to this year’s competition and proud to be a sponsor.

“AMSYS is honored to join North Texas Innovation Alliance, alongside Lenovo and NVIDIA, in a sponsorship collaboration at Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona,” Rohrer said.

He also pointed to the company’s local investment as a key reason for joining.

“With the opening of our new Frisco Innovation Hub, we are strengthening our commitment to Sovereign AI, education, and healthcare innovation while expanding our leadership in advancing smart community solutions globally,” he said. “We are looking forward to seeing this year’s finalists compete in Barcelona and can’t wait to welcome the winners to Frisco.”

For more information and to apply, go here.

Quincy Preston contributed to this report. 

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