Xebec, a company that launched during the pandemic, has made the list of Innovation finalists at South by Southwest.
The Austin-based company’s product, Xebec Tri-Screen 2, is a finalist in the Speculative Design category. Other finalists include Biometric Ignited mobile self-defense, Flash Freeze Premium Ice Cream on Demand, Katalyst Training System and The First Ever Waste-Based 3D Filament.
Altogether SXSW selected 60 finalists for the 2022 Innovation Awards in 13 categories. The winners will be announced on the evening of Monday, March 14.
“The Innovation Awards are such a huge part of what we do at SXSW – the title of this competition reflects one of the pillar tenants of the event. And for this year, the quality of entries we received was absolutely off-the-charts,” Hugh Forrest, Chief Programming Officer of SXSW said in a news release. “Each 2022 finalist is pushing the envelope with the new ideas, new technologies, and new processes that they are bringing to the table. I can’t wait until the Innovation Awards Ceremony on March 14 to see which of these finalists emerge as the best of the best of the best!”
“We are honored,” said Alex Levine, CEO and founder of Xebec. “We think it’s a really cool opportunity for us.”
Founded in 2018, Xebec’s flagship product is the Xebec Tri-Screen, a laptop attachment that adds two additional screens to any laptop to create an instant office set up anywhere.
Xebec has faced many challenges since it launched. It was planning on debuting its product at SXSW in 2020 but the festival was canceled that year. And Xebec’s plant in Shenzhen, China was shut down. The plant eventually did ship Xebec’s products which were in big demand because so many people were working remotely because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Levine said.
Xebec now has 14 employees, and it has moved into an office at Fifth and San Marcos on Austin’s East Side. It’s even hosting the Xebec House SXSW Kickoff Party on Friday, March 11th.