This article first appeared in Boston Business Journal, a sister publication of BostInno.
From computers that can read human body language to teaching moms how to do computer coding, a wide variety of ideas are being peddled by the dozens of companies invited to pitch their business plans to a panel of expert judges at this year's South by Southwest Accelerator Pitch Event.
A total of 50 finalists have been selected in 10 categories, from augmented and virtual reality to transportation. Check out the full list at the bottom of this story; it's quite stout, so click on the column headers to resort the list and slice and dice the data to your liking.
Two companies from Boston are in the mix: FutureFuel.io, a student debt-focused startup; and Nix, the maker of a hydration biosensor that informs athletes, soldiers, and laborers when to drink, what to drink, and how much to drink
Other finalists hail from as far as Nairobi, Kenya and the Netherlands.
Thirty alternates for the competition have also been selected, including Ion Motor Company from Austin. More than 600 applications were submitted.
SXSW says the 403 companies that have participated in the nine years of the Accelerator Pitch Event have raised a combined $4.63 billion in funding.
This year's SXSW Accelerator Pitch is set for March 10-11, followed by a demo day for finalists on March 12.
