Five Austin startups are among the 10 new tech-enabled companies entering the first 2020 session of the Techstars Austin accelerator program.
The three-month series of mentoring sessions and insider networking opportunities will be capped by a March 4 Demo Day that leads right into Techstars' Investor Week and, then, the start of South By Southwest, which kicks off March 14.
Here's a look at the startups accepted into the accelerator, with descriptions provided by Techstars:
Aquifer Motion (Austin) Chen Zhang, CEO Aquifer Motion is SaaS platform that combines augmented reality and machine learning to make professional 3D animation accessible for all creators.
Boutiq (Austin) Rena Pacheco-Theard, CEO Boutiq uses data science to buy and manage luxury vacation rentals.
Crave Retail (Austin) Matthew Cyr, CEO Crave is a SaaS platform purpose-built to enhance the fitting rooms of premium enterprise retailers with modern digital experiences and analytics to optimize conversion opportunities.
EarBuds (Austin) Jason Fox, CEO EarBuds allows people to listen along LIVE with their favorite music curators in key moments.
Jolly (Austin) Shelby Stephens, CEO Jolly is a professional social network for the gig economy, where freelancers and businesses connect to grow their networks, work together freely and build their reputations.
SURVIVR (Dallas) Brian Hoang, CEO SURVIVR is a VR training platform to help first responders improve decision-making and response times.
Binaize (Bangalore, India) Nikhil Jois, CEO Binaize is a network intelligence software product for Industrial IoT that helps minimize machine downtime and increase the operational efficiency of industrial control systems.
8base (Coral Gables) Albert Santalo, CEO 8base is a Backend-as-a-Service that combines computing, application services and integrations for building SaaS and market-facing applications.
Homebuyer (Cincinnati) Dan Green, CEO Homebuyer is a lead nurture system for mortgage lenders that reduces customer acquisition costs and increases per-loan profits.
Propertymate (Brooklyn) Dan Hnatkovskyy, CEO Propertymate is SaaS platform that allows real estate agents to predict which property is most likely to be purchased by a client and helps to make deals within a brokerage or our network.
"I'm especially excited that we have five companies represented from Austin this year," Techstars Austin Managing Director Amos Schwartzfarb said in a news release. "This was the most competitive year to date and we're excited to get to work with these 10 incredible companies."
Techstars launched in Austin in 2013. And, for 2020, it is adding a couple new features. One is an AI-powered coaching companion. The other involves Techstars portfolio company WriterDuet's products. The startups will also work with Flexdocs, a business collaboration tool.
