Sixteenth Annual Competition to showcase 45 interactive tech startups across nine categories
AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 18, 2024 — South by Southwest® (SXSW®) Conference and Festivals today announced the finalists for the 16th annual SXSW Pitch® event presented by KPMG, happening March 9 – 10 at the Hilton Austin Downtown during the Startups track of the SXSW Conference. SXSW Pitch showcases 45 interactive technology companies within nine distinct categories to a panel of industry experts, high-profile media professionals, venture capital investors and angel investors. The advisory board selected the most innovative startups from the 670 applications received this year.
“Over the last 16 years, SXSW Pitch has brought together some of the most promising and groundbreaking early stage companies from around the globe,” said SXSW Pitch Event Producer, Chris Valentine. “2024 is an exciting year for startups, and we are looking forward to showcasing these inspiring companies that are making waves in their respective industries and the world as a whole, as well as help connect them with the resources needed to continue advancing.”
To determine winners, the 45 participating companies will present their innovations in front of a live audience to a panel of expert judges, including industry moguls like Dave Rose of Gust, Arlan Hamilton of Backstage Capital, Jessica Robinson of Assembly Ventures, Daniel Kraft of NextMed Health, Tipatat Chennavasin of The VR Fund, Kwame Anku of Black Star Fund, Artur Gushiken of Softbank and many more. One winner will be awarded per category and the most promising startup will receive the Best In Show award.
SXSW Pitch is debuting a new category this year, ‘Student Startup’, which highlights the talent of today’s young entrepreneur ecosystem. These students are developing disruptive innovations and will be showcasing their novel technology within the areas of magnetic levitation, robotics, cancer detection and more.
Each year, SXSW Pitch welcomes finalists from all around the world. This year will feature entrepreneurs representing Belgium, Estonia, France, Israel, England, South Korea, Netherlands, Taiwan and Vietnam, among others.
The finalists of 2024 SXSW Pitch in each category are:
Artificial Intelligence, Robotics & Voice: Autonomize (Austin, TX); Carviz (Berkeley, CA); Gan.ai (San Francisco, CA); MyPart (Tel-Aviv, Israel); Nava AI (Austin, TX)
Enterprise & Smart Data: Aiki (Austin, TX); Diagon (Alameda, CA); Revend NV (Antwerp, Belgium); Swif.ai (Santa Clara, CA); Unified API (Toronto, Canada)
Entertainment, Media & Content: A/F Labs (Singapore); Displace (San Diego, CA); Naya (Groningen, Netherlands); OpusClip (Redwood City, CA); Upvote (Des Moines, IA)
Extended Reality and Web3: Afference (Boulder, CO); Applix (Austin, TX); DLT Payments OÜ (Tallinn, Estonia); Valkyrie Industries (London, England); Visualsyn (Seoul, Korea)
Food, Nutrition & Health: PHIOGEN (Houston, TX); Sama Therapeutics, Inc (Cambridge, MA); Shin Fang Co (Taipei, Taiwan); SIMPLE Planet (Seoul, South Korea); SingleTimeMicroneedles (Storrs, CT)
Future of Work: DIVERSD (New York, NY); Escalate (Silver Spring, MD); Folio.works (Oakland, CA); Grapefruit Health (Chicago, IL); ProjectUs.ai (Boston, MA)
Innovative World Technologies, sponsored by Collins Aerospace: Cephable (Boston, MA); Coordle Inc (Baltimore, MD); Monte Caldera Technologies Inc (Miami, FL); Skyline Nav AI, Inc. (Cambridge, MA); VOTIX (Syracuse, NY)
Smart Cities, Transportation & Logistics, sponsored by Collins Aerospace: BUYO Bioplastics (Hochiminh City, Vietnam); Jist (Cremieu, France); Lotus (San Jose, CA); Pavewise, Inc. (Fargo, ND); ReMo Homes (Gardena, CA)
Student Startup, sponsored by The University of Texas at Austin: Asclepii (Cleveland, OH); MACH Transit (Austin, TX); Paradigm Robotics (Austin, TX); Rehydrate (Cambridge, MA); SkinCheck (Tulsa, OK)
Of the 647 companies that participated in SXSW Pitch between 2009 and 2023, over 93% received funding, with a combined funding of almost $23.2 billion (excluding undisclosed grants, angel, and seed funding). 17% of these companies have been acquired by industry giants such as Google, British Telecom, Huffington Post, Apple, Live Nation, OpenTable, Meta, Michelin, Constant Contact, and Harmon. SXSW Pitch startups also include Klout, ICON, Hipmunk, Wildfire, Tubemogul, Siri, Foodspotting and Tango.
The 2024 Pitch event will feature 25 companies on Saturday, March 9, and 20 companies on Sunday, March 10, at the Hilton Austin Downtown. A winner from each category will be announced during the SXSW Pitch Award Ceremony on Sunday, March 10, at 6:30 pm CT.
For a complete list of the 2024 Finalists, including alternates, visit: https://www.sxsw.com/pitch/
To learn more about the Startups Track, visit:
https://www.sxsw.com/conference/startups/
About SXSW
SXSW dedicates itself to helping creative people achieve their goals. Founded in 1987 in Austin, Texas, SXSW is best known for its conference and festivals that celebrate the convergence of tech, film and television, music, education, and culture. An essential destination for global professionals, the annual March event features sessions, music and comedy showcases, film screenings, exhibitions, professional development and a variety of networking opportunities. SXSW proves that the most unexpected discoveries happen when diverse topics and people come together. SXSW 2024 will take place March 9 – 10, 2024, in Austin. For more information, please visit sxsw.com. To register for the event, please visit sxsw.com/attend.
SXSW 2024 is sponsored by Volkswagen, The Austin Chronicle, Porsche, C4 Energy, Venmo, and Delta.
Press Contacts:
Benjamin Perez
[email protected]
512-467-7979
Nicole Lombardo
[email protected]
631-357-9593
SOURCE South by Southwest
