Techstars Austin Announces Startups Selected for 2020 Accelerator Program

Techstars recently named 10 startups selected for its 2020 Austin accelerator program. Half of the candidates selected are based in Austin, while the others hail from Ohio, New York, Florida, Dallas and India and represent a wide range of industries. 

All 10 companies will spend three months in Austin, undergoing intensive, hands-on mentorship, networking and coaching. The curriculum concludes with a demo day on March 4, where the class will present to the public. Finally, an investor week starting March 9 will give the entrepreneurs a chance to meet with potential investors from all over the U.S.

Amos Schwartzfarb, Techstars Austin managing director, called 2020 "the most competitive year to date" for the program in a statement.

“I am very excited about this year’s incoming class,” Schwartzfarb continued. "This is a very strong group of founders building some of the world's next amazing companies."

The 2020 class is listed below. Descriptions were provided by Techstars but have been edited for length and clarity: 

1. 8base (Alberto Santalo - Coral Gables, Fla.): A Backend-as-a-Service that combines computing, application services and integrations for building SaaS and market-facing applications. 

2. Aquifer Motion (Chen Zhang - Austin, Texas): A SaaS platform that combines augmented reality and machine learning in an effort to make professional 3D animation accessible for all creators. 

3. Binaize (Nikhil Jois - Bangalore, India): A network intelligence software product for Industrial IoT that helps minimize machine downtime and increase the operational efficiency of industrial control systems. 

4. Boutiq (Rena Pacheco-Theard - Austin, Texas): A platform that uses data science to buy and manage luxury vacation rentals. 

5. Crave Retail (Matthew Cyr - Austin, Texas): A SaaS platform built to enhance the fitting rooms of premium enterprise retailers with modern digital experiences and analytics to optimize conversion opportunities.

6. EarBuds (Jason Fox - Austin, Texas): A platform that allows people to listen along live with their favorite music curators.

7. Homebuyer.ai (Dan Green - Cincinnati, Ohio): A lead nurture system for mortgage lenders that reduces customer acquisition costs and increases per-loan profits.

8. Jolly (Shelby Stephens - Austin, Texas): A professional social network for the gig economy, where freelancers and businesses connect to grow their networks, work together freely and build their reputations.

9. Propertymate.ai (Dan Hnatkovskyy - Brooklyn, N.Y.): A SaaS platform that allows real estate agents to predict which property is most likely to be purchased by a client and helps to make deals within a brokerage or the platform's network.

10. SURVIVR (Brian Hoang - Dallas, Texas): A VR training platform to help first responders improve decision-making and response times.