The 15th annual SXSW Pitch presented by ZenBusiness and supported by Collins Aerospace and Invest Puerto Rico will take place at the Hilton Austin Downtown on Saturday, March 11 and Sunday, March 12. A live audience, as well as a panel of expert judges, will discover advancements in various sectors of emerging technology. The best part – product demonstrations by the most ambitious talents in the world with the creative new ideas to change it. Catch a glimpse of the industry’s future, with a guided tour by our emcees and judges.

2023 SXSW Pitch will feature 40 Interactive technology companies from eight different categories: Artificial Intelligence, Voice, & Robotics; Enterprise & Smart Data; Entertainment, Media & Content; Food, Nutrition, & Health; Future of Work; Innovative World Technologies; Metaverse & Web3; and Smart Cities, Transportation & Sustainability.

These companies will dazzle a live audience with their company pitch and Q&A with our panel of Judges. We will feature 20 companies on Saturday, March 11 and 20 companies on Sunday, March 12. On Sunday, March 12 at 6:30pm we will host the SXSW Pitch Award Ceremony and announce a winner from each category.

SXSW Pitch presented by ZenBusiness

ZenBusiness is the one-stop digital platform to help anybody launch, run, and grow a business. As a Public Benefit Corporation, we’re committed to unleashing the entrepreneur in everybody so they can create meaningful work. Our tools make it easy to form your business, build your website, manage your money, and attract customers. From paperwork and finances to marketing and taxes, we guide you to success. It’s why Forbes calls us the “best” in the business.

For SXSW Pitch inquiries, please contact michelle@sxsw.com and send press inquiries to conferencepress@sxsw.com.

Sunday, March 12 - 6PM

Hilton Hotel (6th Floor - Salon H)

Meet the world’s top startups that have emerged as the best of the best at 2023 SXSW Pitch.

On Sunday after all the pitches have been completed and scores are tallied, we host the SXSW Pitch Awards Ceremony.

The evening begins at 6pm and is open to all 2023 Platinum and Interactive Badges. The agenda will include a One-Minute Speed Pitch from our SXSW Pitch category Alternates that won their category during the two-day event. You will follow up with a review of the two-day competition before we present our awards to the category winners as well as "Best Bootstrap Company," "Best One-Minute Speed Pitch,", “Best DEI”, and "Best in Show."

Co-Emcee

Maria Tranquilli
Maria is the Director of the Defense Ventures portfolio at Shift, on a mission to supercharge the defense-industrial partnership that underpins America’s national security and economic vitality. Prior to her appointment to this role, Maria spent six years as NASDAQ's Head of Global Programs and Founder Community.

Zach Brandon
Zach is the President of the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce. He is a mechanic of anything that rolls forward (or risks rolling back) as well as a 3x startup founder, elected official, Angel Capital policy leader, and ecosystem builder.

Artificial Intelligence, Voice, & Robotics

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, Media & Content

Technologies and applications that are re-inventing the experience of leisure, information and entertainment. Industries these technologies address may include gaming, music, film, television, video, arts, news and publishing, streaming, and digital storytelling.

Food, Nutrition, & Health

Technologies focused on human-centric applications that advance nutrition 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 food and CPG, aging and geriatrics, general wellness, diagnosis, treatment, fertility, genetics, exercise, home fitness, nutrition, sleep, sports, cannabis, and medical wearable 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.

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) societal good, social networking, payment and fintech, space and Aerospace, biotechnology and nanotechnology, agriculture and natural resources, pet tech, drones, home refinancing, quantum computing and computer chip technology, energy, and others.

Metaverse & Web3

Technologies that enhance the way people connect, communicate, and share unique life experiences with those around them in a digital ecosystem, including but not limited to the Metaverse and Web3 integration. Startups within this category aim to better immerse consumers within their digital experiences through augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), multi-sensory incorporation, wearables, Web 3.0 applications, and blockchain technology. These startups may have applications in dating and friendship, professional networking, content creation, NFT/blockchain, social media, instant messaging, extended reality, mass media, and more.

Smart Cities, Transportation & Sustainability

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 sustainability, climate change, real estate development, transportation, logistics, product delivery, autonomous vehicles, ridesharing, infrastructure, utilities, public works, security, population data, government and civic services, and more.

2023 Winners By Category

Artificial Intelligence, Robotics & Voice: Reality Defender (New York, NY)

Enterprise & Smart Data: Climatiq (Berlin, Germany)

Entertainment, Media & Content: PentoPix (London, UK)

Food, Nutrition & Health: General Prognostics GPx (Boston, MA)

Future of Work: Reach Pathways (Chicago, IL)

Innovative World Technologies: SXD Ai (New York, NY)

Metaverse & Web3: Numbers Protocol (Taipei, Taiwan)

Smart Cities, Transportation & Logistics: Urban Machine (Oakland, CA)

2023 Finalists & Alternates

Artificial Intelligence, Robotics & Voice

Finalists

Aiba Safety Platform
Gjøvik, Norway

Aiba is a gamechanger in chatroom moderation, with the mission to deliver safe digital lives for kids and teenagers by detecting cyber grooming and unwanted behavior like toxicity and harassment. We deliver an AI powered moderation platform for online communities where children come to play.

Helios Life Enterprises
Saratoga Springs, NY

Helios Life Enterprises (HLE) is a pioneer in voice-based tonal analysis. HLE is the first and currently only company to conceive and devise a widely available data platform that delivers systematic analytics of an executive’s voice during critical corporate events.

nSight Surgical
San Francisco, CA

nSight Surgical is a Stanford BioDesign spinout building a computer vision AI system to decode the fundamental language of surgery. nSight Surgical’s data helps reduce infection rates, increases efficiency, makes surgery safer, and reduces costs. We are building operative intelligence!

Reality Defender
New York, NY

Reality Defender’s deepfake detection platform empowers enterprises to flag fraudulent users and content (audio, visual, documents). Our API and app provides real-time risk scoring, reporting, alerts, and forensics review. Our team spent 20+ years at Google, Goldman Sachs, and the Intelligence Community at the intersection of data science and cybersecurity.

Wearable Technologies
Hartland, WI

A personal emergency safety response system in the form of a wearable that provides a Safety-As-A-Service solution to the vulnerable population. It can detect and potentially predict hazards and protect the wearer by alerting guardians and 911/SOS automatically using assisted AI.

Alternates

AiKYNETIX
Houston, TX

AiKYNETIX is the first Video Analytics application for human motion analysis on treadmills. It captures full-body motion analysis from a single smartphone camera. As a result, the app users - runners and their coaches can measure running form and running performance metrics to improve training.

Metabob
Santa Clara, CA

AI powered dev tool that help software engineers cut debugging time in half by detecting and resolving hidden errors before merging code.

Rapta
Portland, OR

Rapta is an AI software company that helps more than 600K manufacturers solve the $100B year in lost productivity due to critical shortage of skilled workers. Our AI software empowers companies to improve their people, performance, and productivity.

Enterprise and Smart Data

Finalists

Allosense Inc
San Antonio, TX

Allosense is an industrial internet-of-things company that makes advanced sensors and measurement solutions for electric vehicle manufacturing and equipment monitoring. Allosense automates decision-making capabilities by streamlining software and sensor connectivity. Allosense improves operational efficiency and reduces waste by supporting the digital transformation of American industries, one sensor at a time.

Climatiq
Berlin, Germany

Climatiq is providing the building blocks to deliver carbon intelligence at scale. Our headless API solution is used by product managers and developers at SaaS providers and large enterprises. The carbon calculation engine can be integrated into any software or used to accelerate the development of new sustainability solutions.

CreditRich
Washington, DC

CreditRich rounds up users spare change to pay their bills intelligently and optimize credit scores in partnership with Experian and Visa

FastForward, Inc
Kearney, NE

FastForward automates the inspection and patrol documentation for electric utilities with vehicle-mounted camera systems and computer vision technology.

Optery
Walnut Creek, CA

Optery is automated opt-out software that automatically removes you from hundreds of data brokers posting and selling your personal information online.

Alternates

Verosint
Austin, TX

Verosint is an identity security company focused on helping our customers prevent user account fraud like account sharing and fake signups through an account fraud platform to help them make better identity decisions. Designed to work in real-time, we fit seamlessly into existing user flows across web and mobile apps.

Bakstage
Livingston, NJ

Bakstage is a powerful platform for brands to personalize and humanize customer experience using our proprietary Humanized Intelligent Customer Experience (HiCX). Bakstage no-code solution enables two-way live audio and video streaming capabilities to build amazing data driven experiences for customer engagement boosting customer lifetime value.

Rownd
Raleigh, NC

Rownd is an adaptive authentication company that helps businesses increase their user conversation rate by allowing them to decide how and where sign-in happens.

Entertainment, Media and Content

Finalists

Alice Camera
London, UK

Alice Camera is an AI camera that has the experience of a smartphone with the quality of a DSLR and allows creators to share content seamlessly. The Alice Camera is being built in Britain for the 500 million creators and business worldwide who make an income from sharing content.

AudioShake
San Francisco, CA

AudioShake makes audio interactive and accessible by using AI to separate recordings into their building blocks. From major and indie labels, to music publishers, artists, producers, and third parties, customers use AudioShake for sync licensing, spatial audio, and remixes, and to power the next wave of new experiences.

ICONOME
London, UK

ICONOME, creates digital destinations for the world’s biggest icons. We give these icons an official home for all their content, commercial activity, partnerships, NFTs, Music, aggregated social, news, e-commerce and everything else in their world. Delivering significant new revenue streams that traditional platforms don’t offer & unparalleled engagement for fans.

Imvizar
Dublin, Ireland

Imvizar is revolutionising storytelling through immersive, interactive and life-sized experiences, using augmented reality. Launched in late 2021, they have experiences in Ireland, UK, Portugal, US and Australia. Imvizar's new tool will make it easier than ever to create truly immersive digital storytelling experiences, without any prior coding knowledge.

PentoPix
London, UK

PentoPix is revolutionizing the world of storytelling with its AI-assisted technology that transforms text into stunning 3D animations. Our team of Ivy researchers, serial entrepreneurs are dedicated to democratizing 3D animation for all levels of creators.

Alternates

Extratime Limited
Lisbon, Portugal

Changing the world of football advertisement by creating a highly scalable real-time engagement market.

Podopolo
Santa Monica, CA

Podopolo is revolutionizing podcasting as interactive, personalized and profitable for creators. With AI-powered discovery, shared interest communities, and multiple ways for podcast hosts to boost reach and revenue, Podopolo also takes "content as conversation and connection" to a whole new level.and advertisers. As Forbes Magazine wrote about Podopolo, everyone wins.

Zoog
Even Yehuda, Israel

Zoog is leveraging Augmented Reality to bring families closer together through storytelling and other fun, educational, and engaging content that children absolutely love and enjoy. With Zoog, you can easily create unique interactive videos with the push of a button. We automatically apply filters, effects, and music that match the story, so all that is left for you to do is read! Kids can view the video you share anytime, from any device and then send you responses both within and outside of the app.

Food, Nutrition, & Health

Finalists

General Prognostics (GPx)
Boston, MA

GPx is revolutionizing remote chronic disease management with the world's first Bloodless Blood Tests. We allow physicians to remotely and non-invasively monitor blood biomarkers that are vital for managing chronic disease, similar to continuous glucose monitoring but without needles.

The PherDal Kit
Dixon, IL

PherDal is developing the first FDA-cleared, sterile, patented, over-the-counter assisted reproduction kit. After a diagnosis of unexplained infertility, our founder used her Ph.D. in Biology to invent a medical device that, in two months, conceived her daughter. 200 proof-of-concept kits sold out in 90 days, resulting in 27 pregnancies.

The ReBokeh App
Baltimore, MD

ReBokeh is developing an app-based, assistive technology system for people with moderate vision impairments that allows them to personalize how they see the world to their specific needs in any situation.

Reskued
Minneapolis, MN

Reskued's mission is to eliminate food going to landfill. We do this by working with food distributors to proactively identify inventory destined to become waste and surface it to alternative buyers via the reskued marketplace.

Vistim Labs
Salt Lake City, UT

At Vistim Labs, we help pharma and clinicians identify and treat neurological disorders with our software product for high precision tracking of neurodegenerative disease progression, including amyloid burden in the brain, tau burden in spinal fluid, and performance across a variety of cognitive assessments.

Alternates

TapRoot’s Ella
Phoenix, AZ

TapRoot, creators of Ella, a digital solution reducing dementia-related behavioral expression for seniors and their caregivers. Ella provides personalized behavior planning that mitigates dementia-related conditions while providing support, training, and best practices for caregivers.

Endless Health
Austin, TX

Endless Health makes cardiovascular health data deeper, interpretable, and actionable. Currently, health data is hidden with doctors or in our bodies. We have invented disposable sensors to regularly quantify molecular targets at home. Simultaneously, we have AI-augmented data interpretation and coaching to change behaviors, spot early warnings, and track progress.

Vironix Health
Austin, TX

Vironix builds AI-enabled software for early identification, triage, and continuous monitoring of health degeneration due to Congestive Heart Failure, Asthma, COPD, and infectious lung disease. Our products are clinically validated, outperform standard-of-care, and generate more revenue for care providers than any competitive alternative.

Future of Work

Finalists

Beams
Berlin, Germany

SaaS meta layer for mindful productivity.

gigaroo
Austin, TX

gigaroo is a future-of-work app that matches service industry employers with relevant Gen-Z job-seekers for long, short or seasonal positions. gigaroo was built to help businesses in the service industry find and retain staff on an ongoing basis by offering the employee the flexibility to choose how and when they work based on their lifestyle and needs. gigaroo’s mission is to transform the employment market in the service industry.

lyga
Sao Paulo, Brazil

We are developing the next generation of young leaders to drive change and disruption in the world's largest companies.

Reach Pathways
Chicago, IL

REACH is the college and career pathway and the nexus of companies and communities. REACH connects top talent with top opportunities within a “metaversity” ecosystem. Less like homework and more like a video game, REACH rewards students for finding jobs and completing real-life and in-game tasks. Recruiters access prepared, top-performing, and diverse talent.

Yourco
Indianapolis, IN

Trusted by small businesses and Fortune 500 enterprises, Yourco is a B2B SaaS solution that establishes an internal communication infrastructure for businesses in blue-collar industries. After launching in 2021, Yourco quickly began generating revenue, experiencing 668% revenue growth in 2022.

Alternates

Happied
Arlington, VA

With clients such as Google and Gusto, Happied creates happier and more productive workplaces by saving companies significant time, money, and administrative burden on their team, client, and community engagement events. Happied creates curated, data and feedback-driven team retreats, virtual engagements, and more - without the stress.

LeadrPro
Los Angeles, CA

LeadrPro is the 1st software marketplace directly connecting sellers with buyers of software.

Wenn
Dallas, TX

Wenn is a Recruitment Marketing Platform that leverages the power of video to help people discover jobs they love.

Innovative World Technologies

Finalists

Eascra Biotech
Boston, MA

Janus base nanomaterials (JBNs) mimic DNA and provide a highly effective, super biocompatible, temperature stable solution for drug delivery with low toxicity. JBNs are a cost-effective alternative to existing nano market options. We can customize our platform to support a variety of treatment applications including vaccines, mRNA and gene editing.

EverCase
Austin, TX

Global food waste is obscene. Freezing helps but it’s nearly 160 years old and damages food irreversibly. EverCase is the systemic approach to food preservation. It keeps food as fresh, well below freezing without any ice forming. So let’s leave the ice age behind. Let’s EverCase.

Laminar Scientific
Iowa City, IA

Change Comes in Waves: Laminar Scientific is tapping into the ocean to capture the steadiest renewable energy source. Our revolutionary wave energy device brings ocean energy to even the smallest of operators, with simple surface level installation, low-cost design and replaceable components. Laminar sells tech/patent licenses and blueprints.

Reverion Power Plant
Munich, Germany

Our new generation micro power plants maximise the potential of biogas and utilise excess solar and wind power that would otherwise go to waste. Reverion units allo maximum efficient, reversible and CO2-negative power generation.

SXD Ai
New York, NY

SXD is a tech-powered design platform turning creative visions into zero fabric waste clothing with beautiful design, lower cost, and lower carbon footprint. We eliminate waste of the past by turning leftover fabric into valuable new products and eliminate waste of the future through automated zero waste clothing designs.

Alternates

Fortius Metals
Lafayette, CO

Lasers, robots, and spaceships! Fortius Metals manufactures next-generation alloys for large format metal 3D printing. We enable stronger, lighter fabrication for customers’ products ranging from rockets to electric vehicles with our patented welding alloys.

Raven Space Systems
Kansas City, MO

Raven Space Systems is building next-generation reentry capsules to enable affordable and accessible payload return from space. Raven’s patent-pending technology is the first capable of 3D printing large-scale composite structural and heat shield materials, allowing for rapid production of entire reentry capsules.

skidattl
Milpitas, CA

Skidattl is about getting out there and finding the fun that's happening around you right here, right now. By utilizing AR to place geo anchored beacons at events, restaurants, locations etc. We act as the bat signal for your fun, so grab your utility belt and let's Skidattl

Metaverse & Web3

Finalists

Boto.io
Lewes, DE

Boto is a no-code automation platform that allows anyone to build and share bots to automate their Web3 activities.

FLock
London, UK

FLock = Federated Learning + Blockchain; We are building the world's first on-chain private neural processor.

hOS
Los Angeles, CA

hOS is an operational system created to power productivity in the Metaverse. Founded in Los Angeles, California by award winning game developers and XR engineers, hOS is quickly becoming the Metaverse OS of choice of Fortune 500 companies, global brands and Moonvalley, the world's most advanced Metaverse city.

OnChainMonkey NFT
Redmond, WA

Metagood is a Web3 company empowering communities to become catalysts for positive collective action. Through its first NFT project, OnChainMonkey (“OCM”), a historic non-fungible token collection that was created all on-chain in a single transaction, Metagood has simultaneously created value for its community members and contributed to several important causes.

Numbers Protocol
Taipei, Taiwan

Numbers Protocol is the first asset-centric cross-network protocol, building the most comprehensive solution to make digital media traceable and verifiable.

Alternates

iiNDYVERSE
London, UK

iiNDYVERSE is the Customer Activation Platform for the Web3 era. We enable Web3 marketing automations that empower creatives to leverage behavioural data to drive spend and loyalty within XR experiences. Our no-code tools and API’s quickly automate “engage to own” NFT airdrops and seamless paths to purchase within virtual-to-physical experiences.

Joyverse
Santa Clara, CA

Joyverse aims to be the largest marketplace of metaverse-ready immersive 3D experiences (hotels, shopping, yoga studio, restaurants & cafes, social engagements, live events, etc.). A no-code platform that will make it easy for creators to build immersive 3D experiences for brands and the metaverse. Think Shopify for the Metaverse.

Tirios
Austin, TX

Tirios is a vertically integrated platform that offers real estate investment opportunities for everyone. Our mission is to provide wealth-building opportunities to over 130 million people by decoupling real estate investing from homeownership. You can think of us as "Zillow + Robinhood" for Real Estate.

Smart Cities, Transportation & Sustainability

Finalists

AMA - Environmental Agents
Curitiba, Brazil

Smart Citizen is an innovation company specialized in developing “phygital” tools to improve people’s lives and their urban environments. We focus on popular participation and sustainable development for smart governance of public and private services, promoting environmental action and social inclusion, while fostering net-zero carbon communities.

Carbon Reform
Philadelphia, PA

Carbon Reform is creating a modular carbon capture technology that, once retrofitted into a commercial building’s ventilation system, is able to create energy savings for building owners, improve indoor air quality for occupants, and directly capture and permanently sequester tons of carbon dioxide annually.

LAND
Cleveland, OH

Software defined electric vehicles, powered by connected, swappable batteries.

Urban Machine
Oakland, CA

Urban Machine, is on a mission to build a sustainable future by salvaging millions of tons of wood waste from construction and demolition. With AI capable robots, UM reclaims old wood for reuse into locally sourced, premium lumber products.

Zofeur
Dubai, UAE

Zofeur is the world's first on-demand mobility platform for all your car-related needs on pay per minute basis. Our on-demand platform offers a wide range of services, including hiring an on-demand chauffeur, driving kids to school, garage pickup/dropoff, annual vehicle inspection, and more within 20 mins. Don't waste your valuable time on car-related tasks. Zofeur is a lifestyle platform serving anyone who does not want to compromise time, money, and comfort.

Alternates

Bold Reuse
Portland, OR

We're on a mission to end single use waste by making reusable packaging easy for all.

Manifest.eco
Austin, TX

Manifest provides sustainable ecommerce fulfillment. Oversized 3PL models produce too much waste and resort to cutbacks on the client experience. Manifest illustrates the future of fulfillment by providing sustainable packaging and clear data to teach brands more about their carbon footprint.

Swyft Cities
Mountain View, CA

The private sector can lead the autonomous transportation revolution. Swyft Cities brings hardware and software that private developers and property owners use to increase revenue, decrease costs and provide an incredible visitor experience. Our autonomous “smart gondola” is the most cost effective solution for transportation problems of large properties.

The individuals listed below were instrumental to the success of the 2023 SXSW Pitch. Their hard work, diligence, and support in bringing together the technology industry’s future to our event is greatly appreciated.

SXSW Pitch relies on hand-picked judges qualified to determine the viability of a startup based on their demonstrated business and investment experience. The judging process will determine which finalists have the most innovative product or service. The following individuals have agreed to contribute their expertise toward the success of the SXSW Pitch event.

SXSW Pitch Qualifying and Coaches Committee contribute significantly to the success of SXSW Pitch. The Qualifying Committee focuses on the intake of all plans submitted and is responsible for validating the applications for accuracy, completeness, veracity and proper categorization. With their vast experience, SXSW Pitch Coaches work closely with the finalists in the months leading up to the event to assist them in their onstage presentations.

Facilitators

Qualifiers & Coaches

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 2023 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.

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 613 companies that participated in SXSW Pitch between 2009 and 2022, over 93% received funding, with combined funding over almost $21.5 billion (does not include undisclosed grants, angel and seed funding). Of these 613 companies, 16% have been acquired by Google, British Telecom, Huffington Post, Apple, Live Nation, OpenTable, Meta, Michelin, Constant Contact, and Harmon. Some of our prestigious alums you may know include Klout, ICON, Hipmunk, Wildfire, Tubemogul, Siri, Foodspotting, and Tango.

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