Gold Coast startup Heatseeker has raised $1.3 million in an ongoing pre-Seed round, topped up by $200,000 from the state government’s investment fund, Advance Queensland.
The Gold Coast startup was cofounded in 2023 by former Silicon Valley entrepreneur Kate O’Keeffe and former Naked Ambition CEO Fiona Triaca. Their AI platform help companies conduct quick, easy, and low-cost market experiments to speed up the time to product launch.
The $200,000 Female Founders Co-Investment grant from Advance Queensland works on a 3:1 matching basis for early-stage investment.
O’Keeffe, the CEO, Heatseeker is now looking to close its pre-Seed raise in the coming weeks.
“The way the grant was structured, where Advance Queensland matched investor contributions, was a real force multiplier for us. Some investors were really excited to see that their investment was going further,” she said.
O’Keefe said the platform helps businesses accelerate growth, validate their product roadmap, refine value propositions, and prioritise buying drivers through strategic A/B testing on social media.
“In this capital-constrained environment, everyone needs to make sure they move faster and get it right the first time. We’re replacing surveys and other methodologies that are notoriously unreliable,” she said.
The result delivers substantial benefits to product managers, marketing managers, and the wider ecosystem by offering a platform that ensures more accurate and timely market insights.
Fiona Triaca, Heatseeker’s chief customer officer, said the grant is a validation of their work over the past 12 months, with the startup also recently accepted into the Techstars Sydney accelerator program.
“We can’t wait to pay it forward by using the grant capital to invest in the emerging Gold Coast tech scene, which is buzzing at the moment.”
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