“Tell us about your team,” is a typical request heard by startups. Luckily, the 45 companies pitching in 9 categories during the 16th Annual SXSW Pitch event had no problem showing they have clearly built strong and efficient teams to grow their businesses.
And we all benefit from these inventive and ingenious minds powering innovation in both emerging and traditional industries like artificial intelligence, health, and environment.
The trends at this year’s event point to the positive impacts of advancements in AI-assisted technologies, sustainability, and healthcare delivery and outcomes, making our lives safer, healthier, and more productive.
Congratulations to this year's 9 category winners, who were announced at the SXSW Pitch® Award Ceremony after the two-day competition.
For example, Generative AI is instrumental in Gan.ai’s hyper-personalized videos that help marketers and salespeople cut through the noise and increase engagement and conversion with personalized videos for each customer. OpusClip uses AI to turn raw video footage into viral content with just one click. And Swif.ai uses AI to integrate compliance automation with critical facets of device management.
Applix has created a “spell checker” to detect manufacturing defects in the automotive, industrial and medical tech industries by using an AR-based automated visual quality inspection app.
Managing vaccines is getting a shot in the arm with STMPatch’s microneedle platform that delivers doses of vaccines/therapeutics in one patch immediately, over-time, or separately in one application.
Cephable empowers people of all abilities to control technology through voice controls, head and face controls, and AI automation. Lotus’s wearable ring controls objects at home by pointing — no rewiring, apps, or internet required.
Folio.works trains students as freelancers for venture-backed startups. And student startup Paradigm Robotics has created an unmanned ground vehicle, the FireBot, that searches for human life in burning buildings to mitigate firefighters’ risks and increase victims’ chances for survival.
2024 Winners By Category
Artificial Intelligence, Robotics & Voice
Gan.ai (San Francisco, CA)
Enterprise & Smart Data
Swif.ai (Santa Clara, CA)
Entertainment, Media & Content
OpusClip (Redwood City, CA)
Extended Reality & Web 3
Applix (Austin, TX)
Food, Nutrition, & Health
STMPatch (Storrs, CT)
Future of Work
Folio.works (Oakland, CA)
Innovative World Technologies
Sponsored by Collins Aerospace
Cephable (Boston, MA)
Smart Cities, Transportation & Sustainability
Sponsored by Collins Aerospace
Lotus (San Jose, CA)
Student Startup
Sponsored by The University of Texas at Austin
Paradigm Robotics (Austin, TX)
Special Awards
The winner of the Best Bootstrap Company (the company who has done the most with least): Coordle Inc (Baltimore, MD)
The winner of the Best Speed Pitch: Peadbo (Washington, DC)
The winner of Best Inclusivity: PHIOGEN (Houston, TX)
And the Best in Show winner: OpusClip (Redwood City, CA)
This year’s participating companies represent the most cutting-edge technologies from around the world, with the highest caliber of applicants since SXSW Pitch’s beginning. To date, 647 companies have participated in SXSW Pitch, with over 93% receiving funding and acquisitions in excess of almost $23.2 billion.
If you missed any of the pitches this weekend you can still meet each of the 45 startups at the SXSW Pitch Showcase on Monday, March 11, from 10:30am to 12:30pm in Salon D/E on the fourth floor at the Hilton Austin Downtown.
Congratulations to all the winners, participants, and judges from this year’s SXSW Pitch. And we hope to see you tomorrow at SXSW Pitch Showcase!
Visit SXSW Pitch to learn more about winners, alternates, and more.
SXSW Pitch is sponsored by KPMG, which helps organizations drive innovation and optimize the potential of emerging technologies such as generative AI, blockchain, immersive internet, and more. Its diverse teams of industry professionals ask the right questions, see different perspectives, and uncover insights to bridge the gap between idea and execution. The result? Inspired innovation that works. KPMG firms operate in 143 countries and territories with more than 265,000 partners and employees working in member firms around the world.
