SXSW Announces 2013 Accelerator Finalists

AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 30, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The South by Southwest Interactive Festival today announced the finalists for the fifth annual SXSW Accelerator competition, taking place March 11 - 13, 2013. The marquee event of the SXSW Interactive Festival's Startup Village, SXSW Accelerator provides a venue for startups to showcase some of the most impressive new technology innovations to a panel of hand-picked judges, made up of industry experts, early adopters, journalists and representatives from the venture capital/angel community. Since its inception, SXSW Accelerator finalists have received more than $427 million in total venture funding.

Of the over five hundred applications received, this year's 56 finalists were chosen across seven categories, including: Innovative Web Technologies; Social Technologies; Entertainment and Gaming Technologies; Mobile Technologies; Health Technologies; News Technologies, and Music Technologies. SXSW Category Sponsors include IBM, Social Technology Category Sponsor; Turner Entertainment, Entertainment & Gaming Technology Category Sponsor; and Rackspace, Innovative Web Category Sponsor.

On March 11th, 48 finalists will pitch their innovations in front of a live audience for the opportunity to be one of the top 18 companies invited back to the stage on March 12th, when the winners will be announced that afternoon. The SXSW Music Accelerator follows on March 13th with a full day of programming in which eight music technology finalists will present their products or services.   

"Some truly ground-breaking and disruptive companies once stood where this year's 56 SXSW Accelerator finalists will pitch to venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and press," said SXSW Accelerator Event Producer, Chris Valentine. "The bar has been set quite high - 47 percent of previous finalists have received funding, and 10 percent have been acquired. I am confident that this year's SXSW Accelerator finalists will bring equally exceptional and unique products and services to the table, with high potential to impact their respective industries."

The winners will receive premium prize packages including two Interactive badges for the 2014 SXSW Interactive event, various SXSW Accelerator sponsor gifts and, most importantly, the opportunity to receive exposure from the SXSW audience seeking out the latest in cutting-edge technology.

This year's SXSW Accelerator finalists include:

Innovative Web Technologies
Collections
Expect Labs
Memoto
Mr. Arlo
Synaptop
TrueAbility
Wanderu
Zumper

Social Technologies
Click With Me Now
Koozoo
Likebright
Plotter
Present.me
ReelGenie
Togather
Yabbly

Entertainment and Gaming Technologies
Grinbath
MakieLab
Maluuba
Plympton
Poptip
Syndio Social
Tista Games
ZoomTilt

Mobile Technologies
Charlie
Desti
OneTok
Precision Augmented Reality Works
Sprezzat
Syntellia
younity
Zoomdata

Health Technologies
100Plus
Care at Hand
Careport Health
Docphin
Home Team Therapy
INRFOOD
Neurotrack
TedCas

News Technologies
AudioTag
Contextly
Gui.de
InfoActive
Meograph
Phone2Action
ShoutAbout
Watchup

Music Technologies
AudioCommon
BioBeats
Crowdsync
Molecule Synth
ROLI
TastemakerX
Vela App
WholeWorldBand

SXSW Accelerator relies on the expertise of their judges to determine the viability of a startup based on their demonstrated business and investment experience, and identify which of the finalists has the most innovative product or service. The following individuals have agreed to act as judges:

David Aronoff, Flybridge Capital Partners
Tom Ball, Austin Ventures
Ray Bradford, Kleiner Perkins
John Cantarella, Time Inc. News & Sports
Robert Capps, Wired
Kevin Carter, SV Angel
Scott Case, Startup America
Patrick Chung, NEA
Paige Craig, Angel Investor
John de Souza, MedHealth International
Dez Dickerson, Pavilion Synergies
Don Dodge, Google
Stacy Feld, Physic Ventures
Sue Gardner, Wikimedia Foundation
Eric Garland, Live Nation Labs
Blair Garrou, Mercury Fund
Christine Herron, Intel Capital
Nabeel Hyatt, Spark Capital
Alberto Ibarguen, John S. & James L. Knight Foundation
Warren Lee, Canaan Partners
Freda Lewis-Hall, Pfizer Inc.
John Lilly, Greylock Partners
John Malloy, BlueRun Ventures
Joy Marcus, DFJ Gotham Ventures
Larry Marcus, Walden Venture Capital
Ryan McIntyre, Foundry Group
Erin McKeown, TVP Records Inc.
Panay Panos, Sonicbids
William Pence, WebMD
Shervin Pishevar, Menlo Ventures
Andrew Rasiej, NY Tech Meet Up
Harper Reed, Harper Rules, LLC
David Rose, Gust
Vivian Schiller, NBC News
Erick Schonfeld, DEMO
Brian Singerman, Founders Fund
Lisa Suennen, Psilos
Maria Thomas, Axios Ventures
David Tisch, BoxGroup
Scott Weiss, Andreessen Horowitz

To learn more about SXSW's Startup Village, please visit: http://sxsw.com/interactive/startupvillage/about. To request press credentials for SXSW Interactive, please visit: http://sxsw.com/press/accreditation.

About SXSW Interactive

The 20th annual SXSW Interactive Festival will take place March 8-12, 2013, in Austin, Texas. An incubator of cutting-edge technologies and digital creativity, the event features five days of compelling presentations from the brightest minds in emerging technology, scores of exciting networking events hosted by industry leaders and an unbeatable line-up of special programs showcasing the best new websites, video games and startup ideas the community has to offer. From hands-on training to big-picture analysis of the future, SXSW Interactive has become the place to experience a preview of what is unfolding in the world of technology. Join us March 2013 for the sessions, the networking, the parties, the 16th Annual SXSW Interactive Awards, SXSW Startup Village, the SXSW Gaming Expo, the SXSW Trade Show and, of course, the inspirational experience that only SXSW can deliver.

SXSW Interactive 2013 is sponsored by Miller Lite, Monster Energy, Esurance, IFC, Yahoo!, American Express, PepsiCo, Pepsi, Freecreditscore.com, Chevrolet, American Airlines and The Austin Chronicle.

Press Contact:
Kelly Krause
Press + Publicity, SXSW Interactive
512.467.7979
[email protected]

SOURCE SXSW