South by Southwest Interactive attracts geeks from all over the world every March to find out about the latest technology.
But another SXSW conference, held every October, attracts companies worldwide to focus on innovative solutions for saving the planet from environmental destruction.
That conference is SXSW Eco and this week, its organizers announced the finalists for its third annual Startup Showcase and second annual Place by Design Competitions, which include three Austin-based startups. The conference takes place at the Austin Convention Center from Oct. 6 to 8th.
The Startup Showcase shines a spotlight on early-stage companies in the areas of greentech, cleanweb and social impact. The finalists, selected from a global pool of hundreds of applicants, “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,” according to a news release. “In the past two years, participating companies have gone on to raise over $27 million in funding and acquire global brands as clients.”
The Place by Design competition focuses on the reinvention of public space and features finalists in Transformative Design, Community Impact, Global Potential and Sustainable Innovation.
“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,” Scott Wilcox, director of SXSW Eco, said in a news release.
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)
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