Smart Solutions for Transportation & Logistics | North Texas Connected Innovation Pitch Competition

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 specifically addresses Problem Statement 2: Smart Solutions for Transportation & Logistics.

Background

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.

Project Details

• Department: Marketplace.city General
• Department Head: Andrew Watkins (President and COO)

Evaluation Criteria

• Introduction —

  Title: Smart Solutions for Transportation & Logistics | 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.

• Background —

  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 21^st 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. More details will be announced. 

   

• Opportunity Overview —

  North Texas Connected seeks a Smart Solution for transportation & logistics. Competitive solutions will address one of two primary use cases:

  1. Large Event Transportation Planning

  Solutions for this use case should be able to provide integrated event transportation planning tools that help cities coordinate traffic operations, parking, rideshare, pedestrian movement, public safety, and emergency access for major events and high-attendance destinations. Solutions should help empower cities to handle large-scale events with minimal disruption by reducing traffic congestion and response times, enabling rapid emergency coordination across agencies, and maintaining safe pedestrian flow, with the ultimate goal of protecting surrounding communities.

  2. Universal Fleet and Asset Management

  Solutions in this space should adequately provide a universal fleet and asset management system and dashboard. These solutions are intended to use computer vision or agentic AI to address city service route efficiencies and predictive response. This should ultimately allow cities to respond quickly to critical needs and redirect resources toward high-priority work in order to efficiently deliver essential services.

   

• Partner Overview —

  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.
  

• Approach & Timeline —

  This Call for Innovation (CFI) was released on Tuesday, August 4, 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 21^st 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.

Submission Requirements

• Solution —

  Overview of your offerings and solution

• Please provide an elevator pitch for your solution. (required)
• Please upload a 1-paged summary about your solution. (required)
• If there is a webpage for your solution, please include that here.
• What readiness stage is this solution? (required)
• Are there any specific instructions, requirements, or timelines, necessary for your solutions' deployment? (required)
• Please explain.
• Functional Questions —

  Specific Functional Questions

• Indicate which use case your solution most closely aligns with. (required) —

  These are listed in the opportunity overview from section 2.2. Respond to the technical questions that best align with your solution.

• Please briefly describe how your solution incorporates agentic AI or computer vision. (required)
• Please upload a sample of your internal dashboard user interface. (required)
• Which transportation modes does your solution integrate with?
• If "Other", please explain.
• What can your solution track?
• If "Other", please explain.
• How does your solution use predictive response to optimize route efficiency? —

  Route optimization in this context is specific to city service route efficiencies.

  Ex: A solution uses AI to adjust snow plow routes in real time by analyzing pavement temperature sensors and rerouting plows to treat high-risk roads before accidents happen.

• In addition to routes, please indicate the type of data your solution can report on.
• If "Other", please explain.
• Are there any prerequisites a city needs to have to implement you solution solution? (required)
• Please explain.
• Please list all out-of-the-box integrations supported by your platform, and describe the scope of your open APIs for custom integrations (required)
• Is your solution hardware agnostic? (required)
• Please explain.
• Company Information
• Where is your company located? (required)
• Please provide a brief description of your company. (required)
• What stage is your company? (required)
• How is your company financed? (required) —

  This is to help the judges place you into different categories.

• Implementation Experience
• How many total local governments, agencies, or utilities, use this solution? (required)
• If applicable, please indicate where your solution has been implemented.
• Please share any results, benefits, or value from your solution pilots or implementations.
• If you have any case study, please upload it here.
• Other
• Any additional information you'd like to share? —

  Is there anything else important we should know about your solution, company or proposal.

• Name of Municipality (required) —

  Please enter the City Name below

• Name of State (required) —

  List the State the government is in