https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/screens/2014-01-22/sxsw-accelerator-finalists-pick-up-speed/

SXSW Accelerator Finalists Pick Up Speed

By Monica Riese, January 22, 2014, 12:30pm, Picture in Picture

South by Southwest Interactive announced this morning that it had an official list of finalists for the 2014 Accelerator.

SXSW Accelerator is a pitch competition for Web-based startups; the finalists get to make formal pitches at the Hilton in a two-day tournament of sorts during the first weekend of the Conference, and the winners will be announced Sunday, March 9 at the inaugural SXSW Accelerator Ceremony.

“Over the past five years of companies competing in SXSW Accelerator, 56% have gone on to receive funding in excess of $587M and 9% of the companies have been acquired, so the judges are looking for truly innovative companies to raise the stakes,” said SXSW Accelerator Event Producer Chris Valentine in a press release.

The 500 original applicants have been narrowed down to 48 total in six different categories: big data, entertainment, health, innovative world technologies, social, and wearable. Of those finalists, a handful are Austin-based companies – EvoSure, Shelfbucks, sonarDesign, OP3Nvoice, Plum – with Tsugi, Ferris, and Filament Labs acting as alternates.

Check out the full slate of finalists on the SXSW blog, and stay tuned to all our ongoing SXSW coverage at austinchronicle.com/sxsw. The 2014 Interactive Conference takes place March 7-11.