SXSW Accelerator Pitch competition in 2016, photo by Amanda Brooks Piela.

South by Southwest just announced four Austin startups made the finalists and two companies made the alternates list in the highly competitive SXSW Accelerator Pitch Event.

The finalists from Austin include Litmus Health in the Health and Wearables category, FishViews and Makerarm in the Innovative World Category and SPLT in the transportation category.

The alternates include Maidbot in the Innovative World category and Claimbot in the Payment & FinTech category.

Overall, 50 finalists in ten categories made the cut for the ninth annual SXSW Accelerator Pitch Event which takes place March 11-12 during SXSW Startup Village track at the Hilton Downtown Austin.

This year, the SXSW Accelerator Pitch Event received more than 500 applications from startups based in cities around the world. The event added three new categories: transportation, sports and security and privacy.

“This year’s class of finalists are the best we’ve ever seen in the nine years we have been organizing this competition. I’m particularly excited about the diverse innovation we are seeing from all over the world – it’s the globalization of the startup ecosystem, and Accelerator is right at the heart of it. A couple of the most prevalent trends reflected across SXSW as a whole involve artificial intelligence and health and wearable technologies, and we are seeing an anticipated rise of innovation in non-traditional sectors, highlighted by our new categories,” SXSW Accelerator Event Producer Chris Valentine said in a news statement.

This year’s finalists hail from global cities like Moscow; Istanbul; Cork, Ireland; Liverpool, UK; Brussels; Ahmedabad; Calgary, Canada; Frankfurt, Germany; London; Auckland, New Zealand; and more.

“SXSW Accelerator alums have raised over $3.1 billion in funding, and we are so excited to give these 50 companies the opportunity to add to these accomplishments,” Valentine said.

For a complete list of the 2017 Finalists, including alternates, and the Accelerator Pitch Event judges, visit the SXSW Accelerator Pitch Event website.