Vannadium to showcase LEAP in the Smart Data, Security & FinTech category
ARLINGTON, Va., January 20, 2026–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Vannadium, the company building trust infrastructure for AI, was selected as a finalist in the Smart Data, Security & FinTech category for the 18th annual SXSW Pitch.
SXSW Pitch is the marquee event of South by Southwest® (SXSW®) Conference & Festivals (March 12 – 18, 2026), where leading startups from around the world showcase some of the most impressive technology innovations to a panel of hand-picked judges and a live audience. Out of the 589 companies that applied to present at SXSW Pitch 2026, Vannadium was selected among the 45 finalists, spanning nine separate categories.
The two-day event will be held the first weekend of SXSW Conference & Festivals, Friday, March 13 and Saturday, March 14, at JW Marriott in Austin. The event will then culminate with the 2026 SXSW Pitch Awards Ceremony on Saturday evening, March 14, where winning startups from each category and a Best in Show winner will be announced and honored in rooms F-H on the third floor of the Marriott.
SXSW Pitch will feature finalists across the following nine categories: Enterprise and Future of Work; Entertainment, Media, Sports & Creator Content; Healthcare, AssistiveTech & BioTech; Innovative World Tech; Intelligent Systems, Robotics & Multisensory Technology; Smart Cities, Transportation, Manufacturing & Logistics; Smart Data, Security & FinTech; Student Startups; Sustainability, AgTech & Food.
Vannadium will present among four other companies in the Smart Data, Security & FinTech category on March 13, 2026.
According to Rick Gilchrist, Founder & CEO of Vannadium, “Being recognized as a SXSW Pitch finalist validates the urgent need for trusted data infrastructure as AI adoption accelerates across enterprises. Organizations can no longer afford data systems built for a pre-AI world. They need real-time sovereignty and verification at the foundation. We’re honored to represent this critical shift in how companies protect and leverage their most valuable asset.”
Vannadium delivers real-time, critical control of data across fragmented systems. The platform wraps around existing infrastructure to ingest, route, enforce policy, and store trusted data at the point of use. At the core is a major breakthrough: on-chain data storage. For the first time, organizations can stream and store real data, not just hashes, directly on blockchain, with full transparency, geographic access control, and no local device footprint. Combined with programmable permissions and policy-driven routing, Vannadium turns fragile data pipelines into resilient, auditable, AI-ready infrastructure.
