Demo Day: 500 Startups Catapults 33 New Startups

Kira M. Newman Feb 6, 2013 Tweet

Today is demo day in Mountain View, California, at 500 Startups, the #10 US tech accelerator. Thirty-three startups have spent the last three months crafting their product, business, and pitch, and today they emerge into the world, hoping to wow investors and build up buzz.

“There are no words to describe our newest batch of accelerator companies,” 500 Startups wrote. “Ok, there are a few: International. Diverse. Awesome.”

In fact, 20 out of the 33 companies – that’s over 60 percent – are from outside the United States. This global focus is one thing that sets 500 Startups apart. The accelerator has actually launched 500: Mexico City, a program for Latin America, that had ten companies pitch to investors in Silicon Valley yesterday.

Here are the newest of the 500 crop:

BabyList (San Francisco): A baby shower registry. Founded by Natalie Gordon, the cofounder of Lenguajero, who was inspired by her own baby shower.
Chewse (Los Angeles): A marketplace for groups ordering meals, like office catering. Used by TEDx, USC, and Wells Fargo.
Cinemacraft (Tokyo): Software that displays a video as a comic, rather than just a thumbnail. It makes browsing for videos easier, similar to how you browse for images, and you can start watching midway through a video.
Club W (Denver): A subscription service with bottles of wine sent to your home every month. You can also learn about the wine and its makers.
CompStak (New York City): A marketplace for owners to exchange commercial lease comps. Cofounded by CEO and real estate broker Michael Mandel and CTO Vadim Belobrovka.
Cubie (Taipei): A messenger for iPhone and Android for chat, drawings, photos, videos, and voice.
Cuponomia (Sao Paulo): A site for sharing deals and coupons in Brazil.
Curious Hat (San Mateo): A company that builds mobile applications to help children explore the world and use their imagination. Cofounded by Luca Prasso and Erwan Maigret, who lead a team spread across Europe, Asia, and North America.
Dealflicks (San Francisco): Priceline for movie theaters, with tickets up to 60 percent off.
everbill (Vienna): A tool for issuing invoices and creating estimates.
femeninas (Argentina): A Spanish-language fashion and beauty site for women.
gazeMetrix (Delhi): Tracks how often people take photos with your brand logo in them, and how you compare to other brands. Cofounded by Deobrat Singh and Saurab Paruthi (who used to work at Microsoft) and Debayan Banerjee.
Hunie (Mountain View): A community for designers to find work and get feedback. Founded by Damian Madray, founder of DesignersCouch.
Iconfinder (Copenhagen): A search engine for icons.
IDreamBooks (Canada/India): Rotten Tomatoes for books.
Instamojo (Mumbai): A marketplace for selling your digital creations, targeted at India. The idea came to Sampad Swain when he realized how hard it was to sell video interviews he had done.
Kickfolio (Melbourne): Helps developers promote their app with an interactive demo (instead of screenshots or a video). Cofounded by CEO Ed Dowling, CTO Chris Nolet, and head of UX Diesel Laws.
LaunchGram (Columbus): A site to keep track of products that haven’t launched yet, like music, movies, or software. The team includes CEO Andy Sparks, CTO Zach Boerger, and designer Carrie Phillips.
Markerly (Washington, DC): A tool that makes your website tweetable and shareable: when readers highlight some text, they’ll be prompted to share on social networks automatically (rather than having to copy and paste). Led by CEO Sarah Ware, who used to work at LivingSocial.
Pick1 (Italy): A marketing tool that lets your company do market research, engage customers, and ideally build loyalty. Cofounded by serial entrepreneurs Paolo Privitera and Armando Biondi.
Privy (Boston): An advertising tool for small businesses. Founded by Ben Jabbawy, who comes from a family of small business owners.
Qual Canal (Brazil): A Portuguese-language site that provides insights to broadcasters and advertisers about the conversations people have around TV shows.
Repairy (Estonia and Latvia): Organizational software for car repair shops, including a spare parts marketplace and customer management. Led by CTO Arvis Zeile, CEO Maxim Fjodorov, and CFO Mareks Veinbergs, who have a combined 35 years of experience.
SupplyHog (Chattanooga): A marketplace for building materials, like windows, roofing, and concrete. Led by “head hog” Nathan Derrick.
Tealet (Honolulu): A marketplace for buying tea straight from the growers.
TouristEye (Madrid): A trip planner designed to hold all your notes, keep track of places you want to see, and be accessible offline. Cofounded by Javier Fernandez Escribano and Ariel Camus, both travel lovers.
TradeBriefs (Mumbai): A community where Indian professionals can learn about industries and jobs. Founded by Sree Vijaykumar, who has experience advising companies like Best Buy and 7-Eleven.
Traity (Madrid): A tool to measure people’s reputation and facilitate transactions between strangers.
Translate Abroad (Providence): Makers of Waygo, an app that can translate text just by scanning it.
UniPay (Sao Paulo): A mobile payment platform for Brazil.
WalletKit (Chennai): Software that helps your company create beautiful loyalty cards, coupons, and tickets to send to your customers. Cofounded by CEO Kevin William David and CTO Ramakanth Dorai.
Wideo (Buenos Aires): Animation software that lets anyone easily create videos. Cofounded by serial entrepreneur Agu De Marco and designer Augustin Esperon.
WhoAPI (Croatia): Provides domain data. Cofounded by Goran Duskic and Edi Budimilic, who have worked in development for over ten years.