South by Southwest Conference and Festivals announced the winners of the 17th annual SXSW Pitch event presented by KPMG, which took place March 8-9 at the Hilton Austin Downtown during the Startups Track of the SXSW Conference. In addition to a winner chosen from each of the nine categories, winners were selected for the “Best Bootstrap Company”, “Best Speed Pitch”, “Best in Inclusivity” and “Best In Show” awards.
The category winners of the 2025 SXSW Pitch event are:
AgTech & Food: Knead Technologies (Calgary, Canada)
Enterprise, Smart Data, FinTech & Future of Work: Polygraf AI (Austin, TX)
Entertainment, Media, Sports & Content: NeuralGarage (Bangalore, India)
HealthTech, MedTech, BioTech & Accessibility: Glidance (Seattle, WA)
Innovative World Tech: Xatoms (Toronto, Canada)
Robotics, Web3, Voice & Extended Reality: Contoro (Austin, TX)
Security, GovTech & Space: Little Place Labs Inc. (Houston, TX)
Smart Cities, Transportation & Sustainability: Helix Earth (Houston, TX)
Student Startups: MabLab (Boston, MA)
SXSW Pitch 2025 also honored its “Best In Show” winner, Polygraf AI (Austin, TX). Special awards were also presented to Azul Biotechnologies, Inc. (Brooklyn, NY) for “Best Bootstrap Company,” Tempest Droneworx (Houston, Texas) for “Best Speed Pitch,” and Launch Ahead (Tulsa, OK) for “Best In Inclusivity.”
Each of the Pitch winners received a cash prize, two badges for next year’s SXSW conference, the SXSW Arrow Trophy, and most importantly, exceptional exposure to SXSW attendees and potential investors who are looking for the latest in cutting-edge technology and innovation.
“SXSW Pitch is proud to give a platform to today’s leading global startups for its 17th year,” said SXSW Pitch Event Producer, Chris Valentine. “As we watch industries change with the advent of AI and the leaps forward facilitated by new technologies, we are excited to showcase the companies and entrepreneurs that are leading innovation within their fields and give them a stage to highlight their work, which has the power to transform our world as we know it.”
This year’s participating companies represent the most innovative global startups. Since the program kicked off in 2009, SXSW Pitch finalists have raised more than $23.2 billion in funding, with 17% of SXSW Pitch finalists have been acquired by industry giants such as Google, British Telecom, Huffington Post, Apple, Live Nation, OpenTable, Meta, Michelin, Constant Contact, and Harmon.
Prominent trends showcased at this year’s Pitch event included artificial intelligence and GenAI, autonomous robotics and virtual environments, disease detection, and environmental and sustainability initiatives.
SXSW attendees and media will have the opportunity to meet the Pitch finalists on Monday, March 10, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. CT at the Griffin Hall at the JW Marriott.
For a complete list of the 2025 Finalists, including alternates and the Pitch event judges, visit: https://www.sxsw.com/pitch/
To learn more about the Startups Track, visit: https://www.sxsw.com/conference/startups/
