Every startup loves a shot at the big stage, especially when the crowd is full with serious investors and successful serial founders.
And South By Southwest offers one of the most attractive stages around -- not only for local startups, but for entrepreneurs from around the world. Overall, there were more than 800 applications -- a 42 percent increase from last year's event.
On Tuesday, SXSW announced 50 finalists for its SXSW Pitch competition held March 9-10 during this year's festival and conference. Among them are five Austin startups.
Those include:
- Tankee, which makes a mobile platform for kids to watch gaming content and find new games.
- LinkVR Robot, which is making a patent-pending actuator that helps robots respond to humans in a more human-like and interactive way that could improve next generation wearable assistive devices.
- Eggschain, which uses blockchain tech to help consumers to track their frozen eggs, embryos, sperm and genetic materials.
- Molecula, which produces a computational analysis engine that helps scientists solve complex problems without expensive data management. It is based on Pilosa, which is an Austin startup founded in 2017 by Umbel founder Higinio (H.O) Maycotte.
- Osano, a stealth mode startup founded by Arlo Gilbert, who founded and sold Meta SaaS last year. The startup has said little so far about its mission so far, but SXSW noted that it uses machine learning to provide insights about data sharing. Its website notes that it is a B-Corp.
Several Austin startups are also listed as alternates. Those include: myHouseby, Kilroy Blockchain, Ibble and Rocket Dollar.
"In addition to the creation of the new AI and blockchain categories, we’ve also expanded our advisory board to highlight geographic, gender and racial inclusion –- accelerating our desire to represent the world's most innovative and successful leaders in all areas of technology," SXSW Pitch Event Producer Chris Valentine said in a news release.
Here's a list of the 50 startups and the category they will compete in.
Artificial Intelligence: Derq; RoadBotics; Sherpa Management Services; Testfire Labs; Vence
Augmented and Virtual Reality: BehaviorMe; DigitalTwin Technology GmbH; LinkDyn Robotics Inc., Obsess; StoryUP
Blockchain: Bext360; Eggschain, Inc.; Knowbella Tech; Nebula Genomics; SteamChain.io
Enterprise and Smart Data: Geospiza, Inc; Molecula; Novo; Osano; TransferFi
Entertainment and Content: Acciyo, Inc.; Fantag; Horizon Blockchain Games; Stroly Inc.; Tankee
Health and Wearables: Boost Biomes; Lady Technologies, INC.; Pathware; X-Biomedical Inc.; Zibrio
Hyper-Connected Communities: Fluidity Technologies; NALA; NODE ECO, Inc; ObjectBox; UbiQD, Inc.
Social and Culture: EnrichHER; Every Two Minutes, INC.; New Age Meats; Supportiv; VOLO Group
Sports and Performance: Bisecu; CricFlex; Fan Controlled Football League; L2P; Miro
Transportation & Delivery: CargoX; Einride; Electristructure Nordic AB; ENSO; Migo
Last year, Austin's ICON 3D, which makes 3D-printed homes, and GrubTubs, which finds new life for food waste, were among SXSW Pitch award winners.
See all the 2019 finalists and 2018 winners here.
