Mobility—from the familiar smartphone to the more esoteric drone-based crop health analysis technology—was the common denominator at this year’s SXSW conference, and was the dominant theme among finalists of the prestigious SXSW Accelerator competition.
Unlike many other competitions, however, winning required more than just pimping a cool factor. Cameron Purdy, Oracle vice president of product development and one of this year’s SXSW Accelerator judges, said that while mobile was a big trend in this year’s competition, the key for contestants was to solve a significant or important problem with a solution aimed at a market that was able and willing to pay.
One of the winners who did just that was Jewel Burks, cofounder and CEO of Partpic, who took the award for best Enterprise and Smart Data Technologies. The company’s technology lets customers simply snap a picture of the mechanical part they need to replace, and receive within seconds the name of the part they need as well as a list of distributors that carry it.
The other winners of the 2015 SXSW Accelerator competition, sponsored by Oracle, were:
- Entertainment and Content Technologies—Zype
- Health and Life Sciences Technologies—Tinnitracks
- Innovative World Technologies—SLANTRANGE
- Social Technologies—RealSavvy
- Wearable Technologies—Tinitell
These companies, along with 42 other startups that made it to the finals, worked with SXSW Accelerator coaches to prep their onstage presentations. They then pitched their concepts, products, and strategies on Saturday; that field was then narrowed to 18, and those companies pitched again on Sunday.
The finalists who didn’t win their category can take heart: According to SXSW, finalists from 2009 through 2014 have received more than $1.7 billion in funding.
