SXSW Pitch returns for its thirteenth year to showcase some of the global startup ecosystem’s most exciting, innovative, and cutting-edge technology!

2021 Event Information

SXSW is launching SXSW Online as part of our 2021 offerings. The digital experience will feature conference keynotes and sessions, screenings, showcases, networking, and exhibitions from March 16 – March 20, 2021. Learn more about SXSW Online here.

This year’s SXSW Pitch will be part of the SXSW Online digital experience. 2021 SXSW Pitch will feature 40 interactive technology companies from 8 different categories. These companies will virtually pitch and participate in a 5-minute Q&A with three judges.

Applications are being accepted October 20, 2020 to January 8, 2021.

Application Information

2021 SXSW Pitch Schedule

Day One: Wednesday, March 17
10:00am-10:55am | Smart Cities, Transportation & Logistics
11:00am-11:55am | Social & Culture
12:00pm-12:55pm | Artificial Intelligence, Robotics & Voice
1:00pm- 1:55pm | Innovative World

Day Two: Thursday, March 18
10:00am-10:55am | Future of Work
11:00am-11:55am | Enterprise and Smart Data
12:00pm-12:55pm | Entertainment, Gaming and Content
1:00pm- 1:55pm | Health, Wearables & Wellbeing

SXSW Pitch Alums: $7.6 Billion in Funding

SXSW Pitch proudly applauds our alumni and the millions of funding along the way. Over the years, we launched our startup platform for finalists with great ideas with the goal of matching them with top investors both nationally and internationally.

Of the 553 companies who participated in SXSW Pitch between 2009 and 2019, over 80% received funding, with combined funding in excess of almost $7.6 billion (does not include undisclosed grants, angel and seed funding). Of these 553 companies, 18% have been acquired by the likes of Google, British Telecom, Huffington Post, Apple, Live Nation, OpenTable, Constant Contact, and Harmon. Some of our prestigious alums you may know to include Klout, ICON, Hipmunk, Wildfire, Tubemogul, Siri, Foodspotting, and Tango.

Explore the SXSW Pitch Archive to browse winners, finalists, and other participants from previous seasons.

Contact Us

For questions about SXSW Pitch, please contact Chris Valentine at chris@sxsw.com.

Press

For press inquiries about the SXSW Pitch event, please contact interpress@sxsw.com.

SXSW Pitch Presented by Target Accelerator

Target Accelerators offers programs focused on networking and business guidance for startups of any stage.

Applications are being accepted October 20, 2020 to January 8, 2021.

2021 Application Dates & Deadlines

• Early Bird Application Fee: $29 | October 20, 2020 – November 24, 2020
• Regular Application Fee: $59 | November 25, 2020 – January 8, 2021

To be eligible:

• A company’s product or service must have launched no earlier than March 17, 2019.
• A company’s product or service must not have launched after June 17, 2021.
• Each company may only enter one product or service to SXSW Pitch.
• A company that enters more than one product or service will not be eligible to participate in SXSW Pitch.
• Founders of the company applying must retain some portion of ownership in the company.
• Each applicant is only eligible to present in one of the SXSW family of startup events (SXSW Pitch or SXSW EDU Launch). In contrast, if you have applied for SXSW EDU event and were not accepted to participate, then please feel free to apply to SXSW Pitch.
• The Company must not have raised over ten (10) million dollars in funding from combined funding sources.
• The product or service must fall into one of the SXSW Pitch categories.

Apply

Artificial Intelligence, Robotics & Voice

Technologies related to machine-simulated intelligence, consciousness, empathy, or speech. These technologies may also cover Internet of Things and smart devices, or a machine’s ability to perform, anticipate, and streamline tasks without human assistance. These startups seek to address a wide variety of issues.

Enterprise & Smart Data

Technologies that increase productivity for businesses and/or individuals by simplifying informational data through new workflows and analytics. These startups may have applications in data collection, management, analysis, presentation, interpretation, security, and augmentation across industries such as business, finance, advertising, and more.  

Entertainment, Gaming & Content

Technologies and applications that are reinventing the ways humans find enjoyment through areas such as leisure, education, and entertainment. Industries these technologies address may include gaming, music, film, television, video, arts, news and publishing, streaming, and digital storytelling. These startups may also deploy new and hybrid entertainment delivery models such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), mixed reality (MR), and other novel visualization technologies.

Future of Work

Technologies that enable, empower, change, and expand capabilities in the future of work and the working experience. These technologies may find applications in the gig economy, remote working and connectivity, business communications, project management, workforce incentives and benefits, payments, manufacturing, human resources, education and skills training, recruiting, and others.


Health, Wearables & Wellbeing

Technologies focused on human-centric applications that advance health and connect individuals with health systems and facilities, care teams, providers, insurance, corporate and personal wellness services, and public health & social services. These startups may also include applications in aging and geriatrics, general wellness, diagnosis, treatment, fertility, genetics, exercise, home fitness, nutrition, sleep, sports, and wearable technologies.

Innovative World Technologies

This category is for any creative and innovative application, product, or service that does not fit in another SXSW Pitch category, as well as technologies that act as the infrastructure that new technologies are built on. Examples that might fit into this category include (but are not limited to) payments and financial technologies, blockchain, space and aerospace, biotechnology and nanotechnology, agriculture and natural resources, pet tech, cannabusiness, sustainability, drones, home refinancing, quantum computing and computer chip technology, energy, and others.

Smart Cities, Transportation & Logistics

Technologies that create and advance smart cities by providing services and products for local environments, which includes buildings, neighborhoods, communities, and public spaces. These innovations may find applications in real estate development, transportation, logistics, delivery, autonomous vehicles, ridesharing, infrastructure, utilities, public works, security, population data, government and civic services, and more.

Social & Culture

Technologies that explore and expand the boundaries of how humans experience life as individuals, as communities, and as global citizens. Examples of such sectors include but are not limited to social media and networking, family-tech, dating and friendship, travel and hospitality, environment and climate change, home, fashion, and consumer tech. This category also covers social enterprise technologies that aim to solve social or societal problems, impact positive change, and improve lives.

Apply

Rob Aalders
Startup Spirit
Heerlen, Limburg

Rafat Abushaban
Riable
Gaza, Palestine

Karen Allen
Twitch for Musicians
Los Angeles, CA

Hussam Ayyad
Toronto, Canada

Kathleen Baireuther
Ford Autonomous Vehicles
Austin, TX

Lina Bartuseviciute
LITAO Consultancy Group
Shanghai, China

Alexander Bastien
Think Accelerate
Helsingborg, Sweden

Ellen Bateman
Global Entrepreneurship Network
Arlington, VA

Marjan Blumberg
Marjan B. Consultancy
Amsterdam, Netherlands

Jan Bormans
European Startup Network
Brussels, Belgium

Navjot Brar
NavBot
Santa Barbara, CA

Leigh Buchanan
Venture Café Miami
Miami, FL

Suzy Bureau
CoverMyMeds/ Give Back Hack
Columbus, OH

Sarah Burgaud
StartOut
San Francisco, CA

Shawna Butler
Singularity University
Austin, TX

Bobbie Carlton
Innovation Women
Lexington, MA

Rosario B. Casas
VR Americas
Bogota, Columbia

Rendi M Clark
Boulder Startup Week
Boulder, CO

Ben Clayton
Alkimia Conscious Capital
Montreal, Canada

Bart Collet
Hyperadvancer
Antwerp, Belgium

Steven Cook
ADoH SCIENTIFIC
Charleston, SC

Simone Driessen
Startup Foundation
Rotterdam, Netherlands

Tarek El Saad
Toronto, Canada

Craig Elias
Bow Valley College Interpublic Group Medibrands
Calgary, Canada

Alvin Foo
Magic Rainbow
Shanghai, China

Jessica Ford
Techstars
Anaheim, CA

Kathleen Fritzsche
Kathleen Fritzsche
Berlin, Germany

Brett Greene
New Tech Northwest
Seattle, WA

Lorin Hamlin
Under Armour
Baltimore, MD

Seth Hillinger
Nymusictech Meetup
Brooklyn, NY

Nina Ho
The University of Texas
Austin, TX

Harvey Hudes
Caliber Corporate Advisers
New York, NY

Clyde Hutchinson
Journey Partners
Dublin, Ireland

Ricardo Irias
Sube Lantinamerica
Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Dmitry Kabanov
Techstars • ITMO University
Moscow, Russia

Dalia Kamar
Foundersmedia
Cairo, Egypt

Umesh Kumar
K&K Ventures
London, England

James Kwan
Jumpstart Media Limited
Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Brian Lang
Energizing Health
Houston, TX

Jennifer Lee
Plympton
San Francisco, CA

Maren Lesche
Vision Health Pioneer Incubator
Berlin, Germany

Lisa Mallner
Copenhagen Capacity
Copenhagen, Denmark

Ikram Mansori
Curah
San Francisco, CA

Martin Martinez
Founder Institute Texas
Austin, TX

Eric Mathews
Start Co.
Memphis, TN

Jean Paul Mau-Asam
New Dutch Wave
Amsterdam, Netherlands

Caitlin McAllister
Workbox Company
Chicago, IL

Katie Milligan
Heartland Forward
Bentonville, AR

Jessica Moose
Santa Fe Business Incubator
Santa Fe, NM

Violeta Moran
Fundacion Emprender
Manta, Ecuador

Richard Munassi
Tampa Bay WaVE
Tampa, FL

Joe Novello
Portland, OR

Roshawnna Novellus
EnrichHER
Atlanta, GA

Nadyli Nunez
Ascender
Pittsburg, PA

Emmanuel Nyame
Accra, Ghana

Douglas Ogeto
LidiqueWorks
Nairobi, Kenya

Cagdas Onen
Oppsense
Toronto, Canada

Leon Pals
Startup Foundation
Rotterdam, Holland

Amy Peck
EndeavorVR
San Francisco, CA

Alessandro Ravanetti
Barcelona, Spain

Miki Reynolds
Grid110
Los Angeles, CA

Steven Rodriguez
Techstars
Washington, DC

Emily Ross
Inkvine Communication
Ballinam, Ireland

Mark Sanders
Austin Technology Incubator
Austin, TX

Matthew Cohen Santorelli
Boomy
New York, NY

Joy Schoffler
Distinctive Edge Advisors
Austin, TX

Steve Schwartz
ProInfluence
Redmond, WA

Elisa Sepulveda
Founder Institute
Austin, TX

Leah Simoncelli
AlphaLab Gear
Pittsburg, PA

Sanja Stankovic
german.innovation
Hamburg, Germany

Thomas K.R. Stovall
ImBlackInTech
Chicago, IL


Jennifer Tacheff
Manifest Advisors
San Francisco, CA

Todd Tate
Viva Data
San Francisco, CA

Laura Teicher
FORGE
Somerville, MA

Anna Thomlinson
Start It @Kbc
Brussels, Belgium

Frederik Tibau
Agoria
Brussels, Belgium

Rick Turoczy
PIE
Portland, OR

Lode Uytterschaut
Start it @KBC
Antwerpen, Belgium

Heidy Vaquerano
Fox Rothschild
Los Angeles, CA

Pedro Vasconcellos
BeerOrCoffee
Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Nicolas Vega
Start-Up Chile
Santiago, Chile

Saleema Vellani
Ripple Impact
Washington, DC

Sebastien Vidal
Puerto Rico Science Technology and Research Trust
San Juan, Puerto Rico

Marian Villa
Pioneras
Medellin, Colombia

Lauren Washington
Black Women Talk Tech
Austin, TX

Daniel Wiegand
Draper Startup House
Austin, TX

Samson Williams
Space Channel
Sunrise, FL

Samantha Wolfe
PitchFWD
New York, NY

Kat Yalung
Bixel Exchange Startup Launch
Los Angeles, CA

Hubert Zajicek
Health Wildcatters
Dallas, TX

Explore the the SXSW Pitch Archive for 2020 Finalists, Judges, Coaches, and more as well as finalists and winners from past seasons.

Past judges have included Tim Draper of DFJ, John Sculley of Apple/Pepsi, Robert F. Smith of Vista Equity Partners, Constantijn van Oranje of Startup Delta, Tim O’Reilly of O’Reilly Media, Paul Graham of Y Combinator, Kay Koplovitz of Springboard Growth Capital/USA Network Co-Founder, Naval Ravikant of AngelList, Guy Kawasaki of Alltop, Cyan Banister of Long Journey Ventures, Werner Vogels of Amazon, Christine Herron of Intel Capital, Whurley,  Mark Suster of Upfront Ventures, Albert Wenger of Union Square Venture, Bob Metcalfe of 3Com/Ethernet Co-Founder, and Laurie Segall with CNN to name a few.

Browse Archive

Each year, PitchBook, a financial data and software company, complies over a decade’s worth of data into a report for the SXSW Pitch event.

Download the 2020 Report from PitchBook below to explore industry categories and data on standout past participants from the most VC capital raised to most active investors in SXSW companies and more.