Active SLED Opportunity · VARIOUS · MARKETPLACE.CITY
AI Summary
North Texas Connected invites startups to propose smart environmental solutions for city energy, water, waste, and recycling operations in a 2026 innovation pitch competition with opportunities for pilots and partnerships in North Texas.
The 2026 North Texas Connected Innovation Pitch Competition invites high-growth startups from across North America to solve real-world challenges identified by North Texas communities, creating new pathways for pilot projects, commercial partnerships, and long-term growth in one of the nation's fastest-growing innovation regions. The 2026 competition seeks innovative proposals from North American-based startups, with categories available to both Early and Growth Stage companies. This application addresses Environmental: Smart Solutions that elevate city energy, water, waste and recycling operations.
North Texas Connected is a regional innovation and economic development initiative that connects communities with the companies shaping the future of cities. Through collaborative innovation challenges, startup engagement, pilot opportunities, and strategic partnerships, the initiative creates new pathways for emerging companies to grow while helping local governments deploy technologies that improve infrastructure, mobility, sustainability, and resident services. Founded through a partnership between the Frisco Economic Development Corporation (FEDC), McKinney Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), and the North Texas Innovation Alliance (NTXIA), North Texas Connected showcases North Texas as a destination for innovation, investment, and community impact.
Title: Smart Environmental Solutions | North Texas Connected Innovation Pitch Competition
Background: Technology Procurement
As part of North Texas Connected's mission statement to provide fiscally sound, responsive municipal services and deliver those services equitably and integrity, North Texas Connected is working with Marketplace.city for technology sourcing and procurement, For technology topics areas, Marketplace.city manages the process to provide North Texas Connected with the market landscape of companies and solutions, comparable implementations, contracts and pricing options, and various procurement options. North Texas Connected then selects the solution, vendor and procurement vehicle that best fits their needs.
This process helps us achieve our goals to use technology to best serve our citizens while providing use with speed, efficiency and transparency throughout the process. Through it we seek to shorten timelines, lower the resources used by both The City and the vendor community and achieve fair partnerships.
The following is an opportunity overview and associated vendor response form for interested vendors to read and complete to be included in the reporting and selection process. Thank you in advance for your participation in the process.
Any information shared with North Texas Connected through this process is subject to The State of Texas's Freedom of Information Act.
For any questions about the content or the process, please email hello@marketplace.city.
North Texas Connected, a new regional initiative led by the Frisco Economic Development Corporation (FEDC), McKinney Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), and the North Texas Innovation Alliance (NTXIA), invites high-growth startups from across North America to solve real-world challenges identified by North Texas communities, creating new pathways for pilot projects, commercial partnerships, and long-term growth in one of the nation's fastest-growing innovation regions. This year’s problem statements focus on public works, transportation, and advanced mobility, reflecting ongoing collaboration across North Texas to build ecosystems through smart city solutions that elevate operations, resident services and economic opportunity. Companies interested in participating in the competition will need to ensure their solutions are aligned and ready for real-world deployment.
The 2026 competition seeks innovative proposals from North American-based startups, with categories available to both Early and Growth Stage companies.
Finalists will be invited to pitch at the event in October. Details and company requirements can be found in the competition profile on Marketplace.city.
Applications will open August 3rd and close August 31st. Finalists will be notified the week of September 15th, and the final pitch events will be held in Frisco and McKinney, Texas, on Wednesday, October 21st 2026.
Winners will receive prize packages including city pilots, office space, NTXIA membership, curated introductions with executives at public agencies, Fortune 500 corporations, Universities, and investors.
North Texas Connected seeks Smart Environmental focused Solutions solutions that elevate city energy, water, waste and recycling operations. Competitive candidates will provide solutions that address at least one of the following six (6) problem statements.
1. Water-Saving Interventions based on AMI/Water Portal data
A solution for a public facing Water Portal where residents can track their usage real-time, and provide a “plug-in” to facilitate education. This would subsequently be auto-generated based on consumption behaviors would be a powerful intervention targeting water savings at the source and leading to eventual behavior change. Any knowledge, or acknowledgement, of Neptune API capabilities should be referenced if had.
2. Auto-generated Residential Recycling Education Interventions based on AI Sensing Installed on Hauling vehicles
A solution for auto-generated residential recycling education interventions using AI-powered sensors installed on hauling vehicles (retrofit) to identify common recycling mistakes in real time and trigger targeted educational outreach. As cart contents get dumped into the collection vehicle, onboard sensors analyze contamination patterns—such as non-recyclable items—and automatically generate tailored educational messages, whether through digital notifications or printed postcards or tags at the residential level or a broader behavior change campaign at a broader scale. These solutions should help with improving recycling quality, reducing contamination, and creating a more efficient and responsive public engagement system.
3. Waste and Recycling Tracking Platform
A solution that can automate ingestion of hauler invoices and weight tickets (which may come in unsearchable PDF format), cost line items with their contracted rates (which update annually), and diversion reporting that does not require rebuilding a spreadsheet manually each time. The goal of this solution is to maximize staff time but automating a historically manually process of tracking tonnages and pulling cost and diversion figures out of invoices each month.
4. Energy Submetering at City Facilities
A submeter solution that is installed at the panel measure consumption circuit by circuit to provide visibility into what each system actually uses hour by hour (HVAC, lighting, and plug loads). This solution should expose equipment running outside occupied hours, units short cycling, and loads that never drop overnight. Data from the submeter will be used to feed into an existing energy dashboard.
5. Mobile Field Assistant
A mobile field assistant solution that can use voice to text for inspection notes taken on site, use photo analysis to flag issues such as illegal dumping or stormwater deficiencies, and create automatic report population with the applicable code sections. Competitive solutions will not be standalone building inspection software, bur rather should be able to provide AI photo analysis, and an environmental specific layer on top of existing data.
6. Neighborhood Scale Air Quality Monitoring
This solution should provide a network of sensors near schools, parks, and major corridors to feed a public dashboard and provide residents with local ozone and particulate readings in near real time. Data from these sensors would support resident outreach programming and public campaigns.
North Texas Connected is a regional innovation and economic development initiative that connects communities with the companies shaping the future of cities. Through collaborative innovation challenges, startup engagement, pilot opportunities, and strategic partnerships, the initiative creates new pathways for emerging companies to grow while helping local governments deploy technologies that improve infrastructure, mobility, sustainability, and resident services. Founded through a partnership between the Frisco Economic Development Corporation (FEDC), McKinney Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), and the North Texas Innovation Alliance (NTXIA), North Texas Connected showcases North Texas as a destination for innovation, investment, and community impact.
This Call for Innovation (CFI) was released on Monday, August 3, 2026with responses accepted through Monday, August 31, 2026 at 11:59 pm.
Finalists will be invited to pitch at the event in October. Details and company requirements can be found in the competition profile on Marketplace.city.
Applications will open August 3rd and close August 31st. Finalists will be notified the week of September 15th, and the final pitch events will be held in Frisco and McKinney, Texas, on Wednesday, October 21st 2026.
Winners will receive prize packages including city pilots, office space, NTXIA membership, curated introductions with executives at public agencies, Fortune 500 corporations, Universities, and investors.
Overview of your offerings and solution
This specifically refers to those outlined in the opportunity overview in section 2.2.
This should specifically reflect and consider the specific use case referenced in question 1.2.
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SLED stands for State, Local, and Education. These are solicitations issued by state governments, counties, cities, school districts, utilities, and higher education institutions — as opposed to federal agencies.
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