Venture Atlanta, the largest venture investor conference in the Southeast, has narrowed down the group of early and growth-stage companies that will present. The list is the biggest in the conference’s 11-year history — 33 founders seeking investment will present on-stage, while 34 young “companies to watch” will showcase their products at a dedicated networking event (the full list of companies is here).
Entering the selective group of Venture Atlanta alumni is a highly positive indicator, as its 400 alumni have secured over $2.6 billion in funding to date. Those alumni include many stories of successful exits, including Acculynk (acquired by First Data), Clearleap (acquired by IBM), Cloud Sherpas (acquired by Accenture), JouleX (acquired by Cisco), and Silverpop (acquired by IBM). Additionally, many currently-scaling companies have presented at Venture Atlanta, such as unicorn companies Kabbage and Rubicon.
“After pouring over hundreds of applications from promising companies, this year’s list of participating companies was the hardest yet to select. From emerging technology startups to more established venture-stage companies, it is clear that tech innovation in our region is incredibly bright and strong,” said Venture Atlanta 2018 company selection chair Ned Hill of Square 1 Bank, in a statement.
Presenting companies include a few alumni returning to the stage, such as child-focused cybersecurity startup Bark and textile technology company brrr°. Startups were drawn from across the entire Southeast region.
These companies will pitch to a crowd of up to 900, including representatives from about 150 funds from across the country.
The additional 34 startups will join the second annual Venture Atlanta Startup Showcase, which allows up-and-coming entrepreneurs to preview their products to the influential crowd. Several of last year’s Startup Showcase companies are presenting on stage this year.
Venture Atlanta will take place from October 16-17 at the Southern Exchange at 200 Peachtree in downtown Atlanta.. The conference is expected to sell out. Find out more about the speaker lineup here.