The Dallas Innovation Alliance, the Dallas Entrepreneur Center, Tech Wildcatters and Comerica Bank have recently entered into respective strategic partnerships that will help spur innovation within Dallas. The two announcements were made Monday morning.
The Dallas Entrepreneur Center has linked up with Tech Wildcatters and Comerica Bank to give entrepreneurs easier access to resources. The partnership will connect Comerica to startups directly, offering in-person services to members of the DEC and Tech Wildcatters companies. It also will include a pitch competition awarding the winner entry into the Tech Wildcatters accelerator as well as free office space at the DEC. Tech Wildcatters’ new Gauntlet model offers startups the chance to earn $130,000 in investment.
͞We are thrilled to continue our partnership with Comerica Bank again this year,” Trey Bowles, CEO and co-founder of the DEC, said in a released statement. “By adding Tech Wildcatters, we’re able to help even more established and worldwide startups take their development to the next level, right here in North Texas.”
Meanwhile, the Dallas Innovation Alliance has announced that 900lbs of Creative, a Dallas-based marketing studio that leverages technology in its concepts, will be joining the effort to build a smart city living lab in the West End. The goal of the DIA is to eventually roll out concepts from the West End to other parts of the city.
900lbs, which has developed everything from a Tony Hawk on the halfpipe virtual reality experience to creating the ability for users to race a T-Rex, will use virtual reality technology to create a proof-of-concept that will help Dallas residents explore the living lab planned for the West End. The company’s client list includes Activision, Bank of America, Boy Scouts of America, Dallas Cowboys, Dallas Museum of Art, Frito Lay, Pepsico, the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, Shell Oil Company and ZTE.
“Innovation is at the core of what 900lbs does, so partnering with the Dallas Innovation Alliance makes a lot of sense,” Steve Deitz, CEO, 900lbs of Creative, said in a released statement. “We really care about Dallas and our surrounding community in Bishop Arts.”
