2016 and once again, the tech world just descended on Austin to participate in one of the largest tech events on the planet – SXSW Interactive. The buzz this year at the festival was focused on anything VR. All over Austin, we’d hear about VR this and VR that with an occasional “machine learning” thrown in here and there on the streets lined with sleek, shiny brand activations . While this year’s talk of the town may have been VR, one of the most consistent events is the annual SXSW Accelerator, which sees 48 startups finalists from hundreds of globaly entries compete for prizes including cash, gifts, tickets to next year’s event – and most importantly, a chance to capture the heralded SXSW spotlight.
Since 2009, the Accelerator has been a fertile ground for some of the most creative new ideas in technology which have gone on to raise a total of $2.6B in funding. This year, expert judges including David Aronoff, David S. Rose, Paige Craig, Hamet Watt, and Kay Koplovitz qualified the field of applicants from six categories including Enterprise and Smart Data, Entertainment and Content, Health and Wearables, Innovative World Technologies, Payment and Fintech, and of course Virtual Reality.
The last company featured was the belle of the ball at this year’s interactive.
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE WINNERS OF THE SXSW ACCELERATOR