It’s always nice to see local companies popping up in international competitions. And while no one from the area managed to make the main stage as of this writing, two local startups have been selected as alternates for the 2023 SXSW Pitch competition: Bold Reuse and Rapta.
If the names are new to you, that’s okay. This is an early-stage pitch competition, after all.
- Bold Reuse (Portland, OR) is an alternate in the “Smart Cities, Transportation & Sustainability” category for their mission to end single-use plastics
- Rapta (Portland, OR) is an alternate in the “Artificial Intelligence, Voice, & Robotics” category thanks to their AI products for manufacturing environments
Forty companies were selected to participate in SXSW Pitch, which will be held at the Hilton Austin Downtown on March 11 and March 12, 2023, in front of a live audience. Categories include: Artificial Intelligence, Voice, & Robotics; Enterprise & Smart Data; Entertainment, Media & Content; Food, Nutrition, & Health; Future of Work; Innovative World Technologies; Metaverse & Web3; and Smart Cities, Transportation & Sustainability.
This is the 15th year of the competition which takes place as part of the annual Interactive portion of SXSW in Austin, Texas.
For more on the finalists and alternates who were selected this time around, visit SXSW Pitch 2023.
[Full disclosure: I serve as a judge and advisor for SXSW Pitch.]