After receiving more than 600 applications, the SXSW Pitch Advisory Board carefully reviewed and scored each submission to identify the most promising companies.
The finalists and alternates listed below represent the top emerging innovations selected through this highly competitive process. These companies will be in Austin to pitch live in front of you—the audience, showcasing bold ideas, breakthrough technologies, and the future of their industries.
Join us as they take the stage and compete at SXSW Pitch 2026.
Finalists
Enterprise and Future of Work
Buildcheck
Mountain View, CA
Buildcheck is an AI-powered design review platform that detects errors, omissions, and coordination conflicts in construction drawings, delivering 10–35x ROI by preventing costly field issues during pre-construction. Buildcheck serves more than 50 construction organizations globally, including major developers, general contractors, and architects.
GovWell
New York, NY
GovWell is the operating system for modern government and civic life. Our AI-native and human-centered platform enables agencies to deliver fast, reliable, and transparent services. Starting with permitting, licensing, planning, and code enforcement, GovWell empowers the civic sector to cut backlog, reduce staff burden, and earn public trust.
HIrundo
London, England
Hirundo is the first Machine Unlearning platform, giving organizations control over what their AI knows—and forgets. We remove unwanted data, biases, and behaviors directly from trained models, without retraining, making AI systems safer, more accurate, and ready for real-world use.
Vala
LaQuinta, CA
Vala is an AI claims management platform built for VA-accredited attorneys and agents. We automate intake, form completion, and claims workflows, cutting prep time by up to 80% so advocates can scale their impact and help more veterans secure the benefits they earned.
Yuzi Care
Seattle, WA
Yuzi Care is an AI-powered postpartum care platform that helps families access trusted doulas, newborn care specialists, and maternal health providers. We partner with hospitals, payers, and employers to extend care beyond discharge, streamline scheduling and reimbursement, and improve outcomes for mothers and babies.
Alternates
Alphana
Miami, FL
Alphana is the AI-native workflow engine for music. We automate full release kits, not one-off assets. Teams build templates once to produce on-brand Canvas loops, lyric videos, covers, and cutdowns instantly. Scale output and monetize back-catalogs without adding headcount.
OpenBabylon
San Francisco, CA
Strategic Foresight Engine for enterprise decision-making. We create digital twins of your company, competitors, regulators and forces beyond your control -- then run hundreds of scenarios grounded in live market intelligence. We reimagine how organizations interact with the future.
Pull Systems
Los Angeles, CA
The AI platform for product quality. We transform manufacturing data into a competitive advantage—automating feedback loops to de-risk launches, predict defects, and eliminate waste across the entire product lifecycle.
Entertainment, Media, Sports & Creator Content
Finalists
Moozz
Dubendorf, Switzerland
Moozz is a music localization platform using responsible AI to translate songs into new languages while preserving the original artist’s voice, emotion, and rights. We help artists, labels, and rights holders unlock global audiences and new revenue without re-recording or creative compromise.
OneCourt
Seattle, WA
OneCourt invented a tactile sports broadcast to make entertainment more accessible for fans with visual disabilities. Our patent pending haptic tablet translates live sports data into trackable vibrations and generative audio, so fans can watch the game with their fingertips!
PHONT
Frankfurt, Germany
PHONT brings subtitles to life. We turn spoken moments into expressive, emotional captions that show not just what is said, but how it feels. Designed for streaming and creators, PHONT helps content reach the billions who watch with captions, making stories clearer, louder, and inclusive.
Theo: Prayer & Meditation
Miami, FL
Theo is a family app for prayer and reflection. It helps parents and children share quiet moments together through stories and guided prayers that bring calm, meaning, and connection into daily routines.
Zoolife
Toronto, Canada
Zoolife is your front-row seat to the wild. From examining a giraffe's eyelashes, to joining keeper chats & penguin pool parties, connect with animals from the world's top ethical zoos and sanctuaries LIVE 24/7. It's the most meaningful—and sustainable—up-close animal experience from anywhere.
Alternates
Cipher Music
New York, NY
Cipher is the legal library of trending sounds for social media, helping brands safely invest in licensed music from the music industry to power their social and creator content.
Medialife.ai
New York, NY
MEDIALIFE is a turnkey augmented reality (AR) media provider for entertainment and sports enterprises. We are deploying app-free, mobile AR as a persistent format for immersive storytelling, consent-based data capture, and fandom monetization. We overlay fandom IP with an immersive AR media layer which operates as a platform for entertainment marketing and commerce.
MuseCool
London, England
We listen to kids' live music lessons, understand them, and turn them into analytics & gamified practice for home.
Healthcare, AssistiveTech & BioTech
Finalists
ATDev
Pittsburgh, PA
Assistive Technology Development (ATDev) builds robotic mobility and rehabilitation technologies that enable greater independence for people with disabilities and aging populations. Backed by ARPA-H, ATDev combines physical AI, robotics, and human-centered design to redefine mobility, care, and recovery.
Fetal Therapy Technologies
Baltimore, MA
Fetal Therapy Technologies is a microsurgical device company specializing in the development of purpose-built instruments for fetal surgery. We develop technologies to address the lack of dedicated instrumentation for fetal surgical procedures. Our tools have parallel applications across a variety of microsurgical and minimally invasive disciplines.
Orion Therapeutics
Knoxville, TN
Orion Therapeutics is pioneering safer next-generation RNA therapies by solving the delivery challenge. Its GENESYS™ modular lipid nanoparticle platform enables targeted delivery of genetic medicines with low immunogenicity and scalable manufacturing, unlocking new therapeutic possibilities across a multitude of indications.
Rea Diagnostics SA
Lausanne, Switzerland
Rea Diagnostics is a Swiss medtech company developing at-home diagnostic tests for women's health. Based in Lausanne and founded at EPFL, the company is running clinical trials for its first product: a self-test for preterm birth risk, in collaboration with Swiss university hospitals.
Surgicure Technologies
Boston, MA
Surgicure Technologies is a female-founded medical device company developing safer, more innovative airway management solutions. Grounded in clinical insight and advanced engineering, Surgicure created the HORSESHOE™, a next-generation airway securement device designed to reduce unplanned extubations and medical device-related pressure injuries, improving patient safety and quality of care across hospital and military care settings.
Alternates
BeaconDx
Atlanta, GA
BeaconDx is pioneering a breakthrough platform to diagnose infection-based illnesses. The MENSA platform creates an "immune snapshot" by detecting newly created antibodies, which identifies biomarkers that can improve outcomes for millions of patients.
Pulse Charter Connect
Chicago, Ill
Pulse Charter Connect is a healthcare logistics platform modernizing organ transportation. We help transplant centers and OPOs securely source, coordinate, and manage air and ground transport—reducing cost, delays, and risk while increasing reliability, transparency, and lives saved.
Sebastian Biopharma
Beverly, MA
Sebastian Biopharma is a preclinical oncology company developing tumor-targeted, multi-pathway therapeutics for colorectal cancer. Our lead program uses a dual payload antibody–oligonucleotide conjugate to overcome immune resistance, addressing a major unmet clinical need for colorectal cancer patients.
Innovative World Tech
Finalists
Aspect Aerospace
Mobile, AL
Aspect Aerospace is revolutionizing spacecraft design with our Single-Board Satellite. For the cost of a single conventional spacecraft, we can deploy a "constellation in-a-box", where a host can independently task and deploy up to 100 satellites, one-by-one or all at once for rapid response, on-demand missions.
Carbon Swarm
Albuquerque, NM
Emissions from oil and gas are a critical driver of climate change. As regulations evolve, operators require scalable, high-resolution tools to detect fugitive leaks and venting across complex infrastructure. Developed through NSF-funded research, our platform meets this need through an autonomous UAV swarm for detection of CO₂ and CH₄ plumes.
Gudea
Minneapolis, MN
GUDEA equips organizations with real-time narrative intelligence, revealing how information spreads and where risks emerge. Using patented AI technology, we map narratives, detect coordinated information, and provide actionable insights that help teams respond early, protect reputation, and lead with clarity in a complex digital world.
Haut.AI
Tallinn, Estonia
Haut.AI is a global technology company that merges AI and science to help beauty businesses create hyper-personalized skincare shopping experiences for customers. Haut.AI designs beauty intelligence tools, such as AI skin and hair analysis, and product recommendation systems, that support companies across the entire product lifecycle.
Mayimflow
Palo Alto, CA
Miyamflow prevents water infrastructure failures in data centers and facilities while protecting communities. Predictive AI solves a $7.5B problem. Founded by diverse team including U.S. veterans, committed to sustainable infrastructure that serves people, not just profit.
Alternates
Appetronix
Columbus, OH
Appetronix develops fully autonomous robotic restaurants that cook made-to-order meals with zero onsite employees, running 24/7 in any real estate.
Certifi AI
Seattle, WA
Certifi AI protects digital identities from malicious deepfakes, impersonations and non-consensual intimate imagery. Founded by a cyberstalking survivor who contributed to White House legislation, we're creating the safety infrastructure missing from generative AI while advocating for the 96% of deepfake victims: women and girls.
Spacelis Space Technologies
Ankara, Turkey
SPACELIS Space Technologies tackles the challenges of traditional solar cells by engineering ultra-lightweight, flexible solar cells designed for space and renewable energy applications. We leverage advanced nanofabrication techniques and cutting-edge materials to develop solar cells that are not only efficient but also foldable and rollable.
Intelligent Systems, Robotics, & Multisensory Technology
Finalists
CubeVi
Palo Alto, CA
CubeVi is building next-generation spatial displays—Holographic Gateways designed as the ultimate interface for humans to experience the digital world. By combining advanced optics, circuit-level hardware acceleration, real-time rendering, and a content platform, CubeVi creates stable, natural, and human-scale digital environments and enables across-space connections.
Endox AI
Boston, MA
Endox AI is re-industrializing America through autonomous robotics. Backed by U.S. Army modernization contracts, we deploy physical AI to automate complex labor in defense depots and manufacturing. We are pioneering 'dark factories as a service,' delivering scalable, skilled robotic workforces for critical national infrastructure.
Inductive Robotics
Austin, TX
Inductive Robotics builds autonomous mobile robots that eliminate the infrastructure cost barrier blocking EV charging deployment. Our battery-backed system charges 4X more vehicles using existing electrical connections, with minimal upfront costs and deployment in days, not months.
Pike Robotics
Austin, TX
Pike Robotics builds Wall-Eye, the first intrinsically safe wall-climbing robot for in-service inspections in explosive, confined environments. It eliminates human entry and shutdowns, cutting inspection costs up to 8×, increasing uptime by weeks, and helping industrial operators meet safety and environmental regulations.
Socialtrait
San Francisco, CA
Socialtrait is the world’s first AI-powered Audience Behavior Simulation platform. It enables brands to create precise target audiences at scale and test campaigns, products, and shopper experiences using lifelike virtual audiences, delivering fast, predictive insights. Used by leading retailers and global brands to accelerate creative, marketing, and product decisions.
Alternates
AlterEcho
Copenhagen, Denmark
Keep the human mind where the human body shouldn’t be. AlterEcho separates experts from hazardous and sterile environments using remote robotic avatars. We eliminate contamination risks and exposure today, while capturing the critical training data required to build the certified autonomous workforce of tomorrow.
Cobionix
Ontario, Canada
Cobionix develops a medical-grade robotic platform that enables clinician-robot collaboration in healthcare. With deep expertise in intelligent systems and multisensory robotics, the team, led by CTO Nima Zamani—focuses on building scalable, human-centered robotic systems designed for real clinical environments.
Inprog
Otaku, Japan
CleanK is the first commercial-grade robot that scrubs from the under-rim to the deepest recesses—even on bidet-integrated toilets.
Smart Cities, Transportation, Manufacturing & Logistics
Finalists
GigU
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
GigU is a smart co-pilot helping gig workers boost earnings and safety. The app analyzes every ride and delivery offer, recommending the most profitable choices based on individual costs. Built with drivers, GigU turns smartphones into optimization tools, growing 57% QoQ to $3M ARR, now expanding to the US market.
Ooga Technologies
Durham, NC
Ooga is disrupting the $15+ billion NDT inspection industry with remote-first, AI-enhanced technology. Our cloud platform pairs certified experts with field teams globally, accelerating infrastructure audits from months to days. We're building the digital backbone for smart city utilities, manufacturing plants, and supply chain logistics - safely, efficiently, and at scale.
RedxGrid
Linz, Austria
RedxGrid develops autonomous energy monitoring and inspection solutions, integrating robotics, data platforms, and analytics to improve energy efficiency, infrastructure reliability, and sustainability.
ShotHawk
Peoria, ILL
ShotHawk is making active threat Crisis Responders that can autonomously deploy a non-lethal onto an active assailant, after being indicated that there is in fact an emergency. These devices are wall or ceiling mountable and can be plugged into most existing security systems.
Tubender
Bedford, MA
Tubender helps commercial electrical contractors install conduit faster, safer, and with less labor. Electricians still bend conduit by hand, wasting time and energy. Tubender’s Mark 1 is the first portable, fully automatic conduit bending machine, built for both prefab shops and on-site use.
Alternates
e.e.r.s.
Los Angeles, CA
e.e.r.s. chatbot navigates a user through the govt database, recommends the optimal resource for their search, while providing this assistance in 140 languages. Integrating directly into existing communications systems (like 311) or developing a new communications system with local, state, and federal, e.e.r.s. integrates into each database to provide 24/7 support for navigating housing, healthcare, and social services. The platform is designed to close equity gaps in public service delivery by offering AI-driven, human-centered assistance, especially during emergencies and after hours.
My Fleet AI
Sioux Falls, SD
My Fleet AI helps trucking companies simplify safety and compliance through its S.A.F.E. platform and Driver Direct support. By combining automation, real human oversight, and proactive driver coaching, My Fleet AI reduces risk, improves compliance, and saves fleets time and operational costs.
SendBack
Kansas City, MO
SendBack is a reverse logistics technology company simplifying returns for everyday people and the communities they live in. By routing returns toward the smartest path forward, SendBack reduces waste, improves efficiency, and helps retailers and communities operate more sustainably.
Smart Data, Security, and FinTech
Finalists
Angel Protection
Midland, TX
Angel Protection is on a mission to stop mass shootings by replacing information silos with a unified defense system. We connect schools, hospitals, and 911 dispatch into a single, seamless platform. By providing instant, accurate, and updated intelligence during critical incidents, we empower first responders to act faster and save lives.
Smart Bricks
San Francisco, CA
Smart Bricks is an AI-native real estate investment platform that automates property discovery, valuation, underwriting, and transactions. By combining proprietary data with advanced AI, we enable investors to identify, analyze, and execute high-quality real estate opportunities globally in minutes, not months.
Tilt
Miami, FL
Tilt lets you take any opinion, trend, or theme and turn it into an investable index — like a personalized ETF — except uniquely designed to also shield your gains from taxes.
Vannadium
Arlington, VA
Vannadium delivers the infrastructure for trusted data, enabling real-time, auditable, and sovereign control over information. The platform includes on-chain storage, access enforcement, and AI guardrails to ensure data is verifiable at every step. We help organizations restore trust in their data without replacing existing systems.
Xpdeep
Grenoble, France
Xpdeep builds the world’s first Explainable Large Language Model, enabling regulated enterprises to deploy generative AI that is transparent, auditable, and certifiable. By embedding self-explainability and governance into model architecture, Xpdeep turns black-box AI into trusted, regulation-ready intelligence.
Alternate
CubeNexus
Tulsa, OK
CubeNexus unites spatial, sensor, and time-series data into a live 4D map you can talk to. Our decision intelligence platform lets teams in aviation, energy, telecom, and defense query their raw data with AI to detect anomalies, derisk operations, and act faster.
Mesh Software
San Francisco, CA
Mesh is an AI agent studio for accounting teams. We turn messy spreadsheets with operational data into continuously running workflows that monitor exceptions, automate month-end accounting tasks, and draft auditable journal entries—helping controllers close faster, reduce risk, and budget more accurately.
Paradigm Shift
Brooklyn, NY
Paradigm Shift is a fintech platform introducing fractional public equity in museums. The model enables the public to invest in cultural institutions to generate endowment capital, aligning financial participation with public access, curatorial control, and long-term cultural stewardship.
Student Startups
AISA Solutions
Cleveland, OH
At AISA Solutions, we build digital solutions for Deaf and Hard of Hearing accessibility. Our product, AISA School, is an AI-powered platform that makes learning sign language accessible and fun through computer vision, real-time feedback, and short, gamified lessons.
Arrow Analytics
College Station, TX
Arrow Analytics is reducing airline flight delays and travel stress with the first autonomous baggage tracker, counter, and sizer, resulting in faster, safer boarding and less fuel waste. Ultimately, our mission is to provide a helping hand to over-worked gate agents and make the boarding process more efficient.
Pinpoint Irrigation
Austin, TX
Pinpoint Irrigation is an IoT solution that transforms sprinklers from a mechanical grid to a digital system. Printing water exactly where needed, our computerized sprinkler head eliminates significant water waste, slashes installation costs, and reduces maintenance.
Pittsburg Coastal Energy
Pittsburgh, PA
Pittsburgh Coastal Energy is strengthening maritime autonomy by powering undersea robots using energy harvested from ocean waves. Our solution, SERPENT, is a modular wave energy converter that integrates directly with marine technologies to provide remote power at sea.
Spikey
Nashville, TN
Spikey’s discreet keychains are equipped with clinical-grade test strips that detect common date rape drugs (such as GHB, Ketamine, and other amine-based drugs) in seconds, empowering individuals to stay safe in social settings.
Alternates
Chargebay
Miami, FL
ChargeBay builds distributed energy infrastructure for commercial properties, starting with low-cost, turnkey Level 2 EV charging. Our software-first platform reduces deployment costs today and creates a foundation for energy management, storage, and grid-interactive services tomorrow.
FrontRow Notes
Austin, TX
FrontRow is an assistive technology platform that brings the classroom board to students in real time. Using intelligent cameras and digital notes, FrontRow helps students capture, see, and understand lectures more clearly, improving access, focus, and learning outcomes for everyone.
QTex AI
Boise, ID
QTex AI is developing an AI copilot that helps electronics engineers design circuit boards in minutes, not months. By replacing manual datasheet interactions with natural-language, QTex reduces engineering cycle times by over 2× and eliminates a $60 K/year productivity loss per engineer.
Sustainability, AgTech & Food
Finalists
Cambria
Austin, TX
Cambria is an AI-native molecular discovery engine advancing human and planetary capability. Inspired by nature itself, we translate evolution’s proven solutions into scalable agricultural innovation—starting with heat-resilient crops to protect our world’s food supply.
Green Steel Environmental
Boulder, CO
At Green Steel Environmental, we are redefining how an industry thinks about industrial waste and environmental stewardship. Our mission is to eliminate hazardous chemicals from wastewater treatment and replace them with clean, upcycled materials that protect our water ecosystem. Join us as we build a circular economy in wastewater nutrient recovery.
PLNTmatter
Los Angeles, CA
PLNTmatter redefines how plant-based materials are made, transforming diverse biomass into high-performance, low-impact solutions for pulp, fiber, composites and beyond. Using engineered biomimicry and closed-loop chemistry, we deliver modular, scalable technologies that enhance existing supply chains while lowering cost, reducing resource use and regenerating ecosystems.
Sonicflora
Linkoping, Sweden
Did you know plants communicate? Sonicflora decodes the ultrasonic signals they emit when under stress, revealing how crops respond to their environment. Our AI creates a new data layer for agriculture with the potential to transform crop management, strengthen food security and enable a more sustainable global food system.
Sotira
Melon Park, CA
Sotira is an award winning company in the $800 billion reverse industry that enables retailers, manufacturers and brands to discreetly monetize and donate unsold inventory. Sotira is backed by $2 million in VC funding and has been featured on CBS and Fox and profiled in TechCrunch, Forbes and Business Insider.
Alternates
Dirigo Sea Farm
Portland, ME
A Maine-based biomaterials company developing kelp-based alternatives to petroleum plastics. Our flagship DirigoDrip™ technology replaces PVA films in laundry and dishwasher pods with marine-biodegradable seaweed film, eliminating microplastic pollution at the source while supporting regenerative ocean farming.
eGrowth
Calgary, Canada
eGrowth Corp. builds Next Generation Greenhouses using geothermal heating and cooling, AI-driven climate control, and tower hydroponics to deliver carbon-negative, year-round food production. NGGs are designed as scalable clean infrastructure—cutting water and energy use while localizing resilient food supply.
Ecosphere Organics
Detroit, MI
Ecosphere Organics converts pre-consumer food waste into domestically sourced, manufacturing-ready bio-based materials. Through modular processing systems and data-driven production, the company supplies bioplastic sheets, pigments, and intermediates that help manufacturers reduce material risk, localize supply chains, and advance circular production.
