There has been a lot of hype around The Lean Startup in Australia. Startup accelerators not just in Australia but around the world treat this methodology as gospel. For startup accelerators using this in their current programs, I question whether they are doing enough for entrepreneurs. Anyone can just pick up the book, read it, and start implementing these strategies, so why do startup founders need accelerators? Have accelerators lost their way?
HealthTech startup CohortIQ has taken out the top prize in the DataStart program, an initiative launched by the Prime Minister’s Office in conjunction with Pollenizer last November. Over 200 startups applied to take part in the program, with the seven finalists given access to government data, customer discovery, and technical support across five days before pitching to the judges last night.
“We’re not a major fraud!”
This was the last sentence to leave Brandon Reynolds’ lips as he admitted defeat and the falsification of his new app Sociabl to David Campbell on The Today Show this morning.
The first local funding announcement of the year is here, with Sydney fintech startup CapitalPitch announcing that it has closed a $600,000 seed round led by Aaron Bertinetti and Trevor Folsom, director of Elevation Capital.
In their top ten trendiest suburbs listicles, real estate news websites never talk about the mountains of paperwork that come both before and after the auction is won, and for good reason – it’s painful. Buyers and sellers have to liaise with half a dozen different service providers to get a deal done, with each chasing the other up for document after document and signature after signature. Melbourne startup Rundl has created an online platform that aims to streamline the process.
Though the founders of theright.fit insist it isn’t looking to push modelling agencies out of the picture, the core service the platform provides is helping both talent and brands bypass agencies and facilitate relationships themselves. It allows models, actors, photographers, make up artists, stylists, and other industry professionals to display their portfolios and market themselves to brands, and in turn lets brands search for, book, and pay models and other talent themselves.
Ecommerce has come in leaps and bounds over the last two decades; according to eMarketer, global ecommerce sales will hit $1.5 trillion this year, and continue to grow as new technology makes it even easier for us to keep buying wherever and whenever. One such piece of technology is Pixmoto, an online video platform that connects viewers to the products that appear inside branded video; it allows consumers to easily click on the products that they like when they come up, taking them directly to the product landing page in the brand’s online store.
The world’s leading fintech innovators were announced in this year’s Fintech 100 report, unveiled by KPMG and H2 Ventures at Sydney fintech hub Stone and Chalk yesterday. This year’s list was split into two categories, celebrating 50 established startups and 50 emerging stars, with Australian startups including Avoka, Equitise, and Moula making the list of emerging stars, while SocietyOne and Prospa named as established innovators.
Telstra-backed startup accelerator program muru-D announced its latest intake of startups last night after an intense three-day bootcamp. This particular intake represents the first time that 50% of the companies have female founders or cofounders.
Biteable, a Hobart-based startup that has developed an online tool allowing users to create professional promo videos in minutes, has raised $1.1 million in seed funding from Australian investors including Tank Stream Ventures and BridgeLane Capital.
When apps were still fairly new and marketers sought to educate the market about what exactly apps could help us do, they came up with the memorable ‘there’s an app for that’ tagline. Fast forward a couple of years and there truly is an app for almost anything you could possibly think of, and countless companies out there creating them. Melbourne’s Appscore has become one of the leaders in the Australian app development space.
As Australia’s tech startup scene has matured over the last five years, so have the tastes and standards of the entrepreneurs building those businesses. Pizza and beer at a coworking space are all good and well for the initial years but as the bank account begins to grow and the little black book of connections starts to fatten, these individuals start to seek new places to interact and network as their life becomes a little less ‘local pub’ and more ‘penthouse private bar’.
In September we announced that radio and tv personality Jules Lund was set to launch TRIBE, a micro-endorsement platform that connects brands with ‘everyday influencers’. The platform has now officially launched, and at a time where the conversation around brands and their relationships with social-influencers in Australia has never been stronger.
The thing about working in an office is that you can spend all morning daydreaming about what you’re going to eat for lunch, only to then get swept up in work and forget to eat until 3pm and then just eat a small, sad snack at your desk, or forget about eating altogether. The team behind HowAboutEat, the latest startup to join the ranks of Sydney’s FoodTech army, know they can’t stop people eating at their desk, so they want to make sure people are at least eating well.
In news that is sure to make the old Melbourne vs Sydney rivalry flare up once more, Freelancer has announced this afternoon that its SydStart conference is rebranding to StartCon and moving to Melbourne next year following an investment from the Victorian Government.
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