Holt Ventures, the investment arm of dealer Holt Caterpillar, along with Caterpillar Ventures, Brick & Mortar Ventures and Cottonwood Technology Fund, selected three winners in the Industrial Technology Pitch Competition held at the South by Southwest Startup Village March 14 in Austin, Texas.
The group of investment firms held the competition to find award startups with “disruptive potential in the industrial space” in three categories:
Seed Stage: For startups seeking seed funding, with additional criteria including: determining problem/solution fit, establishing product/market fit with early or line of sight customer/partnership traction.
Advanced Seed Stage: Including startups seeking additional seed or bridge funding, with other criteria including: seed stage plus established customer/partnership traction and positive revenue trends.
Series A/B Stage: Meant for startups seeking series A/B funding and scale and partnership opportunities.
Out of 100 submissions, the groups selected 15 total startups – five in each category. In addition to cash prizes, the winners will receive tours of Holt Cat headquarters and Caterpillar’s R&D and machine testing facilities as well as feedback and fundraising strategy coaching from Brick & Mortar and Cottonwood.
“This was a brainchild a number of months ago and has culminated with this event,” says Edward Craner, senior vice president, strategy and marketing at Holt Companies, who kicked off the event. “Over the course of the last six months we’ve been working on this pitch competition.”
