SXSW Sydney announces shortlist for inaugural Sydney Pitch

Drawing from more than 100 applicants across six categories, SXSW Sydney has announced the 20 finalists for its inaugural live pitch event.

The SXSW Sydney Pitch rounds will run throughout the day on Wednesday 18 October, with esteemed judging panels selecting a winner in each category.

These category winners will then go through to a Grand Final on Thursday 19 October, pitching to an illustrious panel for the overall prize in front of up to 250 people.

Dominated by Sydney-based startups (12 out of the 20 shortlisted companies) category finalists include Camille Goldstone-Henry’s biodiversity data startup Xylo, which wants to become “the Canva of biodiversity”, Dr Shawn Goussous and Lisa Milani’s nanorobotic cancer diagnostic startup Nanocube, and recent SmartCompany the Pitch finalists Geniepay, a B2B commerce startup co-founded by Sajid Bokhari and Eric Ding.

Other shortlisted companies come from Victoria, Queensland, New Zealand and Canada.

We’re particularly excited to hear how space-tech Metakosmos is creating accessible spacesuits, and how Cairns-based Rainstick is combining Indigenous wisdom and modern tech to grow fungi bigger and faster by recreating thunderstorms.

The heavyweight grand final judging panel consists of Cal Henderson (co-founder and CTO, Slack) Melanie Silva (MD, Google ANZ), Jackie Vullinghs (partner, Airtree), Samantha Wong (partner, Blackbird) and Steve Maarbani (CEO, VentureCrowd). 

Startup Network CEO Vicki Stirling and head of partnerships Dickie Currer will MC the pitch rounds, with the showcase final being hosted by Rae Johnston and Jules Lund. 

The winner of the SXSW Sydney Pitch for 2023 will get to present their pitch during the Winner Ceremony at SXSW in Austin 2024, as well as two platinum badges for the Texas event, and two economy return airfares to the USA, plus a tailored mentorship package from SXSW Sydney Pitch partner, Venture Crowd.

“We’re really happy that our major prize will provide startups with a unique opportunity,” said SXSW Sydney Head of Tech & Innovation Caroline Pegram. 

“The winner of SXSW Sydney Pitch 2023 will get two minutes on the stage in Austin next year during the Winner’s Ceremony at SXSW, pitching to a room packed with global media and investors. You can’t buy that.”

Each of the finalists gets access to 25eight’s Pitch Training Program, created specifically for startups to ensure that they can define their strategic intent and articulate their unique value proposition.

“Our program includes support from industry mentors that helps them validate their approach and practice their pitch”, said Phil Ore 25eight’s co-CEO and chief mentor.

Since March 1987, South by Southwest (SXSW) has drawn thousands of attendees to a rolling ten day ‘festival of festivals’ event in Austin, Texas that has grown to combine parallel film and music festivals, a gaming expo, and a technology conference stream featuring stellar speakers.

Described by organisers as a “byword for cool, and a launchpad for what’s next”, SXSW is now a famed annual hotbed of creativity and innovation – Uber was launched there, Billie Eilish first performed there, and this year’s Academy Award Best Picture winner Everything Everywhere All At Once premiered there.

This year the annual becomes biannual, with the first SXSW Sydney running October 15-22, bringing the creative platform to the Asia-Pacific.

The inaugural SXSW Sydney comprises 1000+ events, speakers and music acts, including 700 speakers, 300 panels and 400 artistic performance. There’s a lot going on.

Festival headliners include Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker, hip hop icon Chance The Rapper, Queer Eye star Tan France, and Future Today Institue founder Amy Webb.

The 2023 SXSW Sydney Pitch Finalists

Sustainability, Circular Economy and Urban Innovation

Green Gravity – Wollongong-based electric power startup developing a new energy storage technology dubbed gravitational energy storage, which utilises legacy mine shafts to move heavy weights vertically, consuming energy to lift weights, and regenerating it when lowering the weights.

Xylo Systems – Sydney-based environmental services startup creating an easier way for companies to measure and manage their biodiversity footprint. Xylo aim to empower businesses to identify biodiversity risks, opportunities, and take actions to transform their operations for the environment.

Rainstick – Cairns-based startup combining Indigenous knowledge systems and modern electrokinetics to encourage fungi and plants’ natural systems to grow faster and increase yield by creating a similar electrical influence to thunderstorms.

Bandicoot Imaging Sciences – Sydney-based 3D fabric digitisation solution providing a fast and cost-efficient way to digitise physical fabrics at scale by taking a few photos with a digital camera, thus minimising landfill.

Judges: Megan Fisher, Mick Liubinskas, Eytan Lenko

Healthcare, Biotech, Future of Medicine, Augmenting Humans

Zymedyne Therapeutics – Calgary, Canada-based biotech developing treatments for chronic, neuropathic pain by targeting a non-opioid based mechanism known to be crucial in pain signalling. Aims to achieve pain relief without the detrimental addiction and respiratory depression that plague current users of opioid-based medications.

In-Confidence Smart Patch – Sydney-based medical manufacturer founded by Harvard Medical School health tech fellows that has developed a Smart Patch that automates a daily therapeutic stimulation to minimise the chronic symptoms of overactive bladder, empowering individuals to take control of their condition with discretion and ease.

Foodini – Sydney-based food listings startup that connects the one in three people with food allergies and dietary needs to the venues and menus suitable for them. Foodini lets users create a personalised dietary profile and shows them where they can eat, and exactly what they can eat when they get there.

Pending AI – Sydney-based biotech research company developing a suite of AI and quantum mechanics-based solutions to empower scientists to design, make, test and analyse novel and valuable pharmaceuticals. Claim AI-based solutions can augment the cognitive abilities of scientists to help them make more informed decisions in drug design.

Judges: Emily Casey, Taryn Williams, Maxine Minter

Generative AI and Robotics Innovation

Ideally – Auckland-based on-demand insights and innovation platform that helps people grow ideas. Innovation is a big focus of consumer product enterprises but customer insights are expensive, exclusive and often limits ideas and ideas people. As an alternative, Ideally offers fast, affordable, accessible customer insights.

Octopusbot – Sydney-based data AI-powered SaaS platform, Octopusbot provides accurate forecasts and market insights to tackle price volatility and high weather dependency.

Nanocube – Melbourne-based NanoCube Health is at the forefront of cancer diagnostics and treatment innovation, leveraging cutting-edge AI and nano-technology. Its advanced nanorobots technology is designed to enable accurate, non-invasive diagnostics, early detection, and targeted treatment of cancer.

Judges: Annie Liao, Alisha Outridge, Dan Krasnostein, David Siroky

Space Habitation, Travel and Transport

Metakosmos – Sydney-based space-tech startup working on reducing barriers to human spaceflight with a next generation multi environment spacesuit platform. This would reduce the barriers to human spaceflight by making commercial spacesuits accessible to the wider population.

Space Machines Company – Sydney-based space-tech building a network of satellites to provide servicing and protection for critical space infrastructure in a “road side assistance model for satellites”, claiming high customer ROI and high margin recurring revenue.

Spiral Blue – Sydney-based space-tech building a digital replica of Earth’s continents, using high precision data from a constellation of commercial LiDAR (light detection and ranging) satellites. This virtual twin allows researchers, governments and businesses to model and simulate various scenarios with extreme precision.

Judges: Aude Vignelles, Bill Bartee, Jason Held

Law and Order in Cyberspace, Security and Fintech

Equotee – New Zealand-based early-stage equity management platform aiming to solve climate equity problems in the face of rising extreme weather events and escalating building costs. Its mission is to empower co-owners, papakāinga, equity-partners, and guarantors to manage shared ownership of homes efficiently, while leveraging its equity for sustainable home improvements.

KidsOClock – Coburg-based 4G-enabled smart watch phone company allowing kids to use common technology while keeping hem safe from its negative effects. KidsOClock has no social media access and only the parents can connect with kids.

Geniepay – Sydney-based fintech building a digital checkout platform purpose built for enterprise sales teams. They are on a mission to empower sales teams to outperform and overachieve.

Judges: Toby Norton-Smith, Marisa Warren, Les Delaforce

Game On, Let’s Play

Arcadify.io – Toowoomba, Queensland-based startup that helps sales, marketing and finance teams gamify their work processes “in alignment to their life’s goals”. Arcadify is in in the business of propelling process and perfecting performance through gamification.

Stori – Sydney-based collaborative game design and world-building startup. Developing a vector database that can encode lore relationships and narrative branches.

acta – Sydney-based events marketplace that aims to bring transparency and simplicity to the events industry through a streamlined talent booking platform lets events organisers direct access to celebrity and general talent.

Judges: Lisy Kane, Johan Toresson, Liza Boston

The SXSW Sydney Pitch rounds will run from 10:30 – 5:15pm on October 18, with a grand final at 3:30pm on October 19. More details and tickets available here.