SXSW Eco Announces Finalists for Startup Showcase and Place by Design Competitions

AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 26, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- South by Southwest Eco (SXSW Eco), a conference connecting the urgency of global sustainability challenges with the opportunity for breakthrough solutions, today announced the finalists for its third annual entrepreneurial pitch and and second annual public space design competitions, the Startup Showcase and Place by Design. Winners of both competitions will be announced at the SXSW Eco Awards, presented by PBS, on October 7, 2014. SXSW Eco will take place October 6-8, 2014 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas.

The Startup Showcase, now in its third year, is a rapid-fire pitch competition spotlighting innovative early stage companies in the areas of greentech, cleanweb and social impact. Finalists in these categories were selected out of a pool of hundreds of applicants from around the world and will compete in front of a live audience and panel of judges from companies the likes of Target, Shell Technology Ventures, the Whole Planet Foundation, New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Sprint. In the past two years, participating companies have gone on to raise over $27M in funding and acquire global brands as clients.

The Startup Showcase is part of a larger track of startup-related programming at the conference featuring an array of panels, a startup and investor "speed-dating" style event, an intensive boot camp and an array of formal and informal networking events. SXSW Eco serves as a launching pad for these companies and a place of discovery for investors and corporations from across the country. http://sxsweco.com/startup-showcase/finalists

Following an exciting first year, Place by Design is SXSW Eco's public space competition, celebrating cutting-edge ideas in the reinvention of public space in various stages of development. Finalists in the categories of Transformative Design, Community Impact and Global Potential were selected by a panel of judges ranging from leading architectural firms to commercial designers. http://sxsweco.com/placebydesign/finalists

"Each year, we receive a number of applications from startups, individuals and organizations bringing forth tangible solutions to resource, energy and design challenges through the Startup Showcase and Place by Design competitions," said Scott Wilcox, director of SXSW Eco. "All of the finalists this year have demonstrated the potential to change the world in breakthrough ways and we look forward to the excitement they will bring to the event this October."

This year's Startup Showcase finalists include:

Greentech, presented by Hewlett Packard:
HEVO Power (New York, NY)
PAX Pure, Inc. (San Rafael, CA)
Watershed Materials, LLC (Napa Valley, CA)
Skyven Technologies (Dallas, TX)
PicaSolar (Fayetteville, AR)
Wetzel Blade (Austin, TX)
SiNode (Chicago, IL)
Photon8, Inc. (Brownsville, TX)

Cleanweb:
Curb (Austin, TX)
Gridmates (Austin, TX)
Lagoon (Cincinnati, OH)
Measurabi (San Diego, CA)
Valor Water Analytics (San Francisco, CA)
Wanderu (Boston, MA)
Comm-N-Sense Corp (Gainesville, FL)
CrowdComfort (Somerville, MA)

Social Impact - For-profit, presented by United Nations Foundation:
Harbor Biometrics (Boston, MA)
Elequa (San Antonio, TX)
Spend Consciously (Washington, DC)
Drinkwell (Boston, MA)
Emergence BioEnergy Inc. (Cambridge, MA)
Wilding and Co (New Zealand)
Underground Network, LLC (Glendale, CA)
Do Amore (Houston, TX)

Social Impact - Not-for-profit, presented by United Nations Foundation:
Accountability Lab (Washington, DC)
ORGANIZE (New York, NY)
pAge Drinking Paper (Pittsburgh, PA)
Pollinate Energy (Australia)
Open Water Foundation (Fort Collins, CO)
Kula (Marietta, GA)
Ecosia (Germany)
Urban Death Project (Seattle, WA)

This year's Place by Design finalists include:
+Pool (New York, NY)
Bagby Street Infographics (Austin, TX)
Brooklyn (Williamsburg) Pop-up Bike Park (East Stroudsburg, PA)
HOPE Outdoor Gallery (Austin, TX)
Granby Park (Dublin, Ireland)
Libros Libres (Dallas, TX)
North Austin Community Garden (Austin, TX)
Pavegen (London, UK)
Poppy Seed (Shanghai, China)
Rabalder Parken (Roskilde, Denmark)
Resilient Modular Systems [RMS] (Cambridge, MA)
The 'T' House: Experiments in Microbial Architecture (Albuquerque, NM)
The Lowline by Raad Studio (New York, New York)
The Transformation of Waller Creek (Austin, TX)
Urban Skyfarm (Los Angeles, CA)

The SXSW Eco Exhibition occurs October 6-7, 2014 and will feature compelling exhibitors, demonstrations, startup events, and other opportunities to interact, learn and make meaningful connections. For more information, please go to http://sxsweco.com/exhibitions.

SXSW Eco is sponsored by Austin Energy, Austin Technology Incubator, Lagunitas, the Austin Chronicle and Sun Radio. Registration is now open for SXSW Eco 2014. To register go to http://sxsweco.com/attend and save before the next deadline of September 12, 2014.

About SXSW Eco:

Now in its fourth year, SXSW Eco attracts a global community to explore, engage and co-create solutions for a sustainable world. A uniquely inclusive platform for professionals, SXSW Eco examines the critical challenges of our times through a kaleidoscopic lens of design innovation, policy tipping points, technological breakthroughs, conservation practice, entrepreneurial spirit and a culture of creativity to transform inspiration into action.                   

Press Credentials: If you are a member of the press interested in attending SXSW Eco, media registration is now open at http://sxsweco.com/about/press.

Media Contact:
Ariel Miller
SXSW Eco Publicist
Tel. 512-467-7979 x296
Email: [email protected]

SOURCE SXSW Eco