North Texas innovators will take the global stage at a conference in Barcelona this November—and challenge the world to bring its best “smart cities” solutions back home to the U.S.

The North Texas Innovation Alliance (NTXIA)—a nonprofit regional consortium of over 40 municipalities, agencies, corporations and academic institutions across North Texas—will be presenting an international pitch event, the “Smart Cities Global Startup Challenge,” at this year’s Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC) in Barcelona along with partners from the cities of Frisco, McKinney, and Fort Worth and the Georgia-based Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners. 

The pitch competition will select five startups to compete for piloting and funding opportunities in the United States.

“Our goal in creating this pitch competition is to foster international innovation across smart cities,” NTXIA Executive Director Jennifer Sanders said in a statement. “We’re very fortunate to have strong cross-sector and cross-regional collaborations with organizations across the U.S. This pitch competition represents the opportunity for these companies to interact with some of the U.S.’ leading minds in this space, and the opportunity to pilot their technology and receive funding to help achieve their goals of developing their technology and potentially entering the U.S. market.”

“We’re very excited to see the innovations these international companies bring,” Sanders added.

Innovating for the future of transportation, sustainability, and pedestrian safety

The 2024 Smart Cities Global Startup Challenge is seeking innovative startup solutions for the future of transportation, sustainability, and vulnerable road users, or VRUs—a catch-all term embracing pedestrian safety. Startups who want to take part will need to ensure their solutions address these key challenge areas, with a solution focus on:

• Traffic congestion mitigation
• Curbside management
• Autonomous delivery systems
• Pedestrian safety
• Heat island mitigation
• Energy and water efficiency and resiliency
• Crowd management at large events from a public safety and visitor experience lens

The NTXIA said companies seeking to participate will need to ensure their technology is “ready to be deployed for testing and development in real-world smart city environments.”

Aiming to help North Texas prepare for 2026 World Cup

North Texas has a huge item looming on its 2026 calendar—the 2026 FIFA World Cup World Cup. The region will be hosting more 2026 World Cup games than any other city, with nine matches to take place in AT&T Stadium.

“With the World Cup coming to the U.S. and Frisco serving as a host city, with the 2028 Olympics returning to the U.S. soon after that, we’re looking to the international startup and smart city communities to bring forward their innovations to help us prepare for what is to come,” Gloria Salinas, VP of the Frisco Economic Development Corporation, said in a statement.

“The winners of this pitch competition will have the unique opportunity to help various parts of the U.S. prepare for these global events and aid various municipalities and organizations to ensure the best technologies will benefit all residents and visitors of our cities,” she added. “Frisco and North Texas are looking forward to seeing how we can integrate these solutions into our city and the region.”

Prizes for game-changing ideas

NTXIA said competition finalists will be given passes to the SCEWC in Barcelona, where the final pitch will take place. Winners of the competition will be snag a range of rewards including, per the NTXIA:

• Curiosity Lab will commit $15,000.00 towards a pilot, one year of office space at its Innovation Center, and access to a global partner network for additional market support.
• Frisco and McKinney will provide travel and accommodations to the U.S. in Texas and Georgia for senior leadership, up to $10,000.00. This includes airfare, hotel, ground transportation, food and office/co-working space in McKinney and Curiosity Lab for the initial visit.
• NTXIA, Frisco, McKinney, and Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners will create a curated itinerary of high-level meetings with decision makers in city departments to explore pilot implementation.
• Winners will also be introduced to high-level individuals at Plug and Play, University of North Texas, the Dallas College system, major healthcare institutions in Texas like Baylor Scott & White Health, Fortune 500 corporations, the North Central Texas Council of Governments, Chambers of Commerce, and major sporting and entertainment venues in Texas.
• Winners will receive global exposure through various media channels.

Oh, and the winners will get something else, the NTXIA says: “One-of-a-kind Texas swag and bragging rights.”

Fostering North Texas’ ‘smart city ecosystem’

“North Texas is growing at an incredible rate and having innovation to continue to foster growth in our technology sectors is a huge economic driver for us,” said Michael Kowski, President & CEO of the McKinney Economic Development Corporation. “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. 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.”

Curiosity Lab Executive Director Brandon Branham said his lab’s 5G-enabled living laboratory for startups and established companies offers a “unique real-world environment for companies of all sizes to test their technologies.”

“Our smart city ecosystem allows international companies to have a soft-landing pad in the U.S. to continue to develop their technologies and to, when ready, enter the U.S. market,” Branham added in a statement. “We’re thrilled to be a part of this incredible pitch competition and to be helping support these international startups in their mission to improve our everyday lives with their various technologies.”

Submissions for the pitch competition opened today. Five finalists will be selected by the Smart Cities Global Startup Challenge committee to pitch in person at SCEWC on Wednesday, November 6, in the USA Pavilion. Each company will have 10 minutes for their pitch, followed by a five-minute Q&A session with the judges. Once all presentations and Q&A sessions are final, the judges will deliberate for 10 minutes and will then announce the winner.

The competition is also supported by Marketplace.city and its Clearbox Source market intelligence product, which will promote the opportunity, accept applications and compile vendor submissions, the NTXIA said.

For more info on the Smart Cities Global Pitching Challenge and to submit an application, you can go here.

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