MEDICINE & HEALTHCARE

Lydia O’Donnell, co-founder — Femmi

Lydia O’Donnell has competed for New Zealand on the global stage but her athletic career wasn’t easy. Under pressure in a competitive environment she developed a severe eating disorder and body image issues and was later diagnosed with relative energy deficiency syndrome (REDS), which leads to menstrual cycle dysfunction. The experience and her long recovery led to the founding, with her best friend, Esther Keown, of Femmi, the world’s first running app for women that tracks their menstrual cycles and provides training advice.

Kavita Nadan, co-founder — Locumate

Kavita Nadan was simply trying to find a locum for her own pharmacy when she decided to create Locumate at her kitchen table four years ago. The frustrating task prompted her to ask her friend and Locumate co-founder Surge Singh how she could automate the process. The result is a platform that bypasses costly agency fees by allowing pharmacies and other professions that rely on locums and casual replacements to create their own hiring pool. Singh says Melbourne-based Locumate has saved pharmacies $1.3m in agency fees since January 2022, and has filled more than 4500 locum shifts. In April it partnered with the Californian and American Pharmacist Associations to expand to the US.

Farzaneh Ahmadi, founder — Laronix

Laronix founder Dr Farzaneh Ahmadi first encountered the field of voice cloning while completing her PhD, but felt frustrated at having to turn away patients who came to her group seeking practical solutions rather than research. The result is Laronix, a bionic voice box that Ahmadi says presents a solution for patients who have exhausted all other options to regain their voice after their larynx has been removed due to laryngeal cancer, the second-most common form of head and neck cancer, with almost 185,000 people globally diagnosed in 2020. The Laronix Bionic Voice is a wearable, non-invasive system integrating hardware and software to generate true voice using AI-based voice-cloning technology, similar to how “deep fakes” are created. Brisbane-based Laronix now has offices in New York and has so far raised $4 million from government grants and investors.

John Fraser, Kristy Short and Arutha Kulasinghe, project leads — University of Queensland

A Brisbane research project that began during the Covid-19 pandemic based on century-old human tissue has expanded into world-leading research on how to manage the treatment of cancers. The “back to the future” project, led by Professor John Fraser, Dr Arutha Kulasinghe and Associate Professor Kirsty Short, works on extracting data from tissue samples collected during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. The goal of better understanding future pandemics is still a key part of the research at the University of Queensland’s school of chemistry and molecular bioscience, but the cancer work is now an important development. The goal is for advanced mapping technology to help doctors understand how each patient’s disease is progressing and responding to treatments.

Mark Waller and Jingjing Guo, co-founders — Pending AI

Founded in 2018 and with offices in Sydney and the US city of Massachusetts, Pending AI uses artificial intelligence technology to augment the cognitive abilities of scientists and research teams, helping them to more efficiently design, produce and test drugs to treat diseases. Co-founders Mark Waller and Jingjing Guo say the technology helps researchers discover novel and efficient drug synthesis routes, based on computational chemistry models enhanced with artificial intelligence. The platform offers evidence-based solutions by drawing on datasets including information from one billion compounds, 146,000 proteins and 21 million reactions, helping researchers make better-informed decisions.

Daniel Timms, inventor — BiVACOR

The Australian-designed BiVACOR Total Artificial Heart could become the world’s first permanent artificial heart replacement after being developed by Brisbane biomedical engineer Dr Daniel Timms and his father Gary, who was dying of heart failure. In a successful trial conducted in Texas in early July, the 650g titanium pump was implanted for eight days in a patient. The BiVACOR promises to last longer than other artificial hearts because it uses a single spinning disc to push blood around the body. The disc is magnetically levitated within its chamber, minimising wear and tear. The project aims to produce an off-the-shelf alternative to organ donation. It received $50m in funding from the Australian government this year, while the Medical Research Future Fund has backed a trial in Australian patients.

Alison Todd and Elisa Mokany, co-founders — SpeeDx

In 2009, after Johnson & Johnson (J&J) closed down in Australia, Dr Alison Todd and Dr Elisa Mokany found themselves out of jobs, but with a great invention on their hands: a radical diagnostic tool for pathologists. Today their company SpeeDx employs more than 50 people at its headquarters in Everleigh, Sydney, where it undertakes R&D and manufacturing and coordinates commercial activities globally. It has shipped more than 10 million of the tests to about 20 countries and helped countless medicos prescribe more accurate treatment to patients. The company holds another 200 patents for related medical methods and processes.

Doug Ward, CEO — Lumos Diagnostics

Acute respiratory infections producing symptoms such as a cough, sore throat, runny nose and congestion are the most common reason patients seek healthcare worldwide. The majority of acute respiratory infections are caused by viruses and do not require antibiotics, yet these are prescribed in up to 65 per cent of cases. ASX-listed Lumos Diagnostics has developed FebriDx, a rapid point-of-care test that uses a fingerstick blood sample to aid in the differentiation between acute bacterial and viral respiratory infections. Inappropriate prescription of antibiotics can have dire consequences, causing adverse health events and contributing to the pressing global issue of antimicrobial resistance, which some health and science experts believe could be the basis for the next probable pandemic. Lumos has an intellectual property estate that covers use of the key markers for this test, and has recently secured significant institutional investment.

Hugh Paterson, Michael Vallely, Paul Bannon and Ashish Mitra, co-founders — Sydney Heart Valve

Sydney-based senior cardiothoracic surgeons, Professors Michael Vallely and Paul Bannon, and Dr Hugh Paterson, along with medical device engineer Ashish Mitra, invented a heart valve with the potential to revolutionise cardiac surgery. Existing artificial mitral valves require part of the native valve to be removed by surgeons during insertion, which can damage heart pump function. The Sydney Heart Valve is shaped to augment the native valve, allowing its full retention and preserving ventricular function. “It is particularly important in heart failure patients who cannot afford further damage to their heart,” Paterson says. The team has canvassed key opinion leaders in cardiac surgery around the world, says Bannon: “They agree that this is a major step forward in valve design.”

Grace Brown, founder — Andromeda

In a bid to combat the isolation and loneliness some elderly and child patients experience in hospitals and care centres, University of Melbourne mechatronics engineering graduate Grace Brown developed an AI-powered robot. Called Abi, this robot can recognise faces, has a memory, can respond to and ask meaningful questions, and expresses emotions in a manner designed to make people feel at ease. Brown began thinking about a robot companion during Covid-19 lockdowns. “I was basically trying to build a robot that could give me a hug during a time like the pandemic, where I was completely isolated from the rest of the world,” she says. “Abi is a solution and a tool specifically designed to provide that social interaction for people who don’t have that opportunity any more.” Trials of the product began in aged care facilities last year, and Andromeda closed a $3m seed funding round in June.

Hon Weng Chong, co-founder — Cortical Labs

Melbourne AI start-up Cortical Labs marries synthetic biology and human neurons to develop a class of AI known as organoid intelligence, or OI, which it says will revolutionise computing. “The possibilities that a hybridised-AI-meets-synthetic-biology model can unlock are limitless, accelerating the possibilities of digital AI in a more powerful and more sustainable way,” CEO Hon Wen Chong says. The team was awarded a $600,000 national defence grant to grow human brain cells in a dish and embed them on silicone chips. The project rose to prominence when its biological computer, dubbed DishBrain, was able to learn to play the tennis-style computer game, Pong. “The idea is, can we use the technology that we’re developing here to create systems that learn much faster, use much less data and use far less energy,” Chong says. “Because if you think about it, there is a cost associated with all AI right now that no one’s really talking about, which is the environmental impact and also the amount of data required.”

Paul Ekert and Chelsea Mayoh — Children’s Cancer Institute

The use of immunotherapy has transformed the treatment of many adult cancers, notably melanoma. Harnessing the body’s own immune response to fight tumours, it carries fewer side effects than other treatments. Associate Professor Paul Ekert, the group leader of translational tumour biology at the Children’s Cancer Institute in Sydney, and Chelsea Mayoh, the principal bioinformatic scientist, are researching the use of immunotherapy for children with cancer as part of the institute’s Zero Childhood Cancer initiative, hoping to increase survival rates and avoid the devastating long-term side effects of chemotherapy. Alongside a team of scientists from the institute and Melbourne’s Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, they have mapped the “tumour immune microenvironment” of children with cancer for the first time, identifying the existence of specialised T cells that mean a child’s immune environment could be harnessed through therapy to fight the disease. The study, led by Mayoh, proved that up to 31 per cent of children with solid tumours could be candidates for immunotherapy.

Tom Oxley and Prof Nicholas Opie, co-founders — Synchronon

Synchron is an engineered neural interface inserted into the brain to provide direct communication between that organ’s electrical activity and an external device, such as a computer or a robotic limb. For people with neural diseases, such as motor neurone disease (MND), that result in paralysis, it may offer a transformative means of communicating. “What this device does is an incredibly powerful restoration of autonomy,” says Professor Tom Oxley, a vascular and interventional neurologist at the University of Melbourne. “This technology changes the conversation we’re having with people who have no hope.” Co-founder Professor Nicholas Opie (pictured) is a biomedical engineer and world expert in neural interfaces. The company has raised $US145m ($217m) from investors, including $US75m ($110m) at the end of 2022, with contributions from the private foundations of Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.

Alex and Chris Naoumidis, co-founders — Mindset Health

Mindset Health has more than 30,000 paid monthly subscribers using its hypnosis-based apps to manage conditions including irritable bowel syndrome, menopausal hot flushes, and quitting smoking. The apps are designed to help users manage these chronic conditions using pre-recorded audio similar to meditation apps. The start-up was founded in 2018 by Melbourne-based brothers and Monash University alumni Alex and Chris Naoumidis. In 2023, Mindset Health raised $17.8m in funding, with backing from King River Capital and Linktree founders Nick Humphreys and Alex and Anthony Zaccaria, among others. Alex Naoumidis says hypnotherapy is being more widely adopted. “The global demand for our hypnotherapy programs – driven by healthcare practitioners who recognise their effectiveness in supporting patients and recommend their use – has proven our thesis and demonstrated the deep market appetite for easy-to-use solutions that can help people manage and live well with underserved health conditions,” he says.

Kai Van Lieshout and Linus Talacko, co-founders — Lyrebird Health

Lyrebird Health is an AI transcription tool specifically designed for healthcare settings. Created at a hackathon by university friends Kai Van Lieshout and Linus Talacko, it listens to a conversation between a medical practitioner and their patient during a consultation and automatically generates relevant medical documentation. Its genesis came after Talacko was diagnosed with a chronic medical condition and faced a years-long wait for treatment. Speaking to his doctors, he discovered they spend between 30 and 40 per cent of their time on paperwork. Lyrebird listens to consultations and generates a voice-to-text transcript, which is refined to remove personal information and superfluous detail, and formatted to meet industry-standard guidelines for patient notes. In August, Queensland-based Gold Coast Health announced it would carry out a 16-week clinical trial on the technology, involving more than 70 medical specialists.

Aiden Roberts and Will Pamment, co-founders — SimConverse

Ineffective communication among healthcare professionals is a key contributor to medical errors and patient harm, says Aiden Roberts, the co-founder and chief executive of SimConverse, with research indicating some 70 per cent of medical errors are due to communication breakdowns. It is a problem Roberts and co-founder Will Pamment (pictured) are seeking to overcome by training healthcare providers in communication skills, utilising a simulation platform driven by generative AI to play the role of a patient or colleague. “Communication is the number one determinant of the quality of care a patient will receive,” Roberts says. “Without good communication you cannot treat, you cannot diagnose, and you cannot provide care.” The Sydney-based start-up raised $1.5m in seed funding in early 2023 from Folklore Ventures and Artesian. It will be used to expand SimConverse’s customer base at home and in the US and UK. The platform has already been adopted by Queensland Health and the UK’s NHS Lothian.

David Hoey, president and CEO — Vaxxas

There is an abundance of immune cells directly below the skin’s surface. Vaxxas has used this knowledge to commercialise novel technology that will dramatically enhance the performance of existing and next-generation vaccines. The company, spun out of the University of Queensland in 2011, plans to manufacture computer-printed patches at its production hub in Brisbane. These one-square-centimetre patches are equipped with many thousands of tiny projections that are invisible to the naked eye. The projections are coated in a dry version of the vaccine, rather than a liquid, and prick the skin when the sticker is applied. The company uses its own dry-coating technology that can eliminate or significantly reduce the need for vaccine refrigeration during storage and transportation, thereby easing the logistics burden of maintaining the “cold chain” required by conventional vaccines. Chief executive David Hoey says this technology will allow vaccines to be distributed in low- and middle-income countries, and is collaborating with leading global organisations, including the World Health Organisation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Peter Vranes and Hitesh Mehta, co-founders — Nutromics

Founded in 2017 by chemical engineer Peter Vranes and corporate consultant Hitesh Mehta, the team at Nutromics has a vision to create a world with zero preventable deaths attributable to a lack of continuous diagnostic monitoring. Melbourne-based entrepreneurs Vranes and Mehta developed a medical patch that can monitor the effects of antibiotics on a patient in real time. Using a combination of multiple DNA-based sensors with microneedles, the patch, which is about the size of a watch face, connects to a portable hub via Bluetooth to monitor how a patient is responding to the medicines they’re given. “This device has the potential to save millions of lives,” Vranes says. “Our wearable can measure any diagnostic target, continuously and in real time. The problem we’re addressing is that current lab diagnostics require a blood draw that provides doctors with only a single data point for a diagnosis. This is inadequate for hundreds of fast-moving diagnostic targets, and ultimately costs lives and billions of dollars in hospital inefficiency.”

Santosh Verghese and Rhys Parker — SA Health

Hospitals and health industries have struggled to leverage real-world data that would improve their practice and the industry without compromising the privacy of patients. SA Health chief medical information officer Dr Santosh Verghese and chief clinical information officer Rhys Parker began looking at concepts used abroad, and discovered the use of synthetic data in Israel at the Sheba Medical Center. SA Health is now able to generate synthetic data from real patients that can aid research and studies. Patient files are fed through a synthetic data generator that can remove outlier patients or edge cases that may be recognisable. This renders the files untraceable, but the data remains. Verghese, an intensive-care specialist in the intensive care unit at Flinders Medical Centre, says synthetic data will be commonly used in medical research in future. “I think within about seven to eight years it will become routine, because it’s already become routine in other industries like banking,” he says.

Scott Kirkland and Stuart Crozier, CEO and Chief Scientific Officer — EMVision

Australian medical device company EMVision has developed a backpack-sized brain scanner with the ability to detect a stroke in about five minutes, prompting accelerated diagnosis and treatment. The ASX-listed company intends to sell the product to state ambulance services and the Royal Flying Doctor Service as part of those organisations’ standard equipment. Chief executive Scott Kirkland says the company aims to make it “economically viable” for ambulance services to carry the scanner, which would help to ease the annual $6bn burden of stroke, particularly in regional areas. “In rural and regional settings, if you have a stroke, 3 per cent of patients are treated in the stroke unit, versus 77 per cent in a city,” Kirkland says. “So there is a huge amount of inequality when it comes to stroke outcomes.” The technology originated from the University of Queensland where it was co-invented by Stuart Crozier (pictured) now EMVision’s chief scientific officer.

ART & DESIGN

Jeremiah Siemianow, Brandon Crimmins and Alan Jin, co-founders — Surreal

The three co-founders of an online platform that is disrupting the legacy music business happily admit they are good on vision and sales but not so great on tech. That didn’t stop Jeremiah Siemianow (pictured) Brandon Crimmins and Alan Jin, when they launched Surreal (then called Muso) in 2019. They hired some of the best and brightest tech heads to set up programs they argue are reimagining the legacy music and entertainment sectors. With investment of $6.5m so far, Surreal has just seven employees and is on the verge of being profitable. The platform began as a marketplace for entertainers looking for gigs, but has morphed into a business providing infrastructure and back-office services for venues, entertainers and agencies. It services about 1000 venues, 15,000 entertainers and 150 agents, mostly in Australia, New Zealand and the UK, but with increased penetration in Europe, Asia and North America.

Ward Williams and Thananjeyan Shanmuganathan, co-founders — Seminal

Ward Williams’ company Seminal is setting out to capture the value of art beyond the canvas. While music artists and authors are paid royalties when their work is reproduced, up until now visual artists have only been paid once – when their art is sold for the first time. Seminal has developed a monetisation engine – using AI detection – to help artists and estates get paid each time their work is reproduced digitally or physically. The global copyright register protects, licenses and sells creative intellectual property. Williams, who is the son of wealthy Melbourne investment banker David Williams, founded the company with software engineer Thananjeyan Shanmuganathan, now the company’s chief technology officer, in 2022.

James Cuda, founder — Procreate

Even though Procreate has been on the market since 2011, it’s still rated as one of the best digital art apps on iPad today. It has continued to innovate over that time, offering users a complete art studio on their tablets and constantly adding new features and tools. The Tasmanian-based business has been rewarded for its innovation, receiving two Apple Design Awards since launch. Founder and CEO James Cuda surprised the industry recently, making a public statement against generative AI, saying Procreate would never use the technology. “Our products are always designed and developed with the idea that a human will be creating something,” he said. “We don’t know exactly where this story is going to go or how it ends. But we believe that we’re on the right path supporting human creativity.”

ENERGY

William Jeremijenko and Ruby Jones, co-founder and COO — Aquila

William Jeremijenko has a pretty novel idea. Along with co-founder Nelson Smith and chief operating officer Ruby Jones, the 23-year-old entrepreneur is building an optical energy network that can deliver power from transmitters to aircraft in the sky. It does so using an infra-red energy beam that’s invisible to the human eye but about a hundred times brighter than the sun. Venture capitalist Blackbird put $3m behind Aquila last year to help grow its team and scale its energy network. Aquila is currently flying drones made by Bask Aerospace, a manufacturer and retailer of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) based in Melbourne’s southeast. “We integrate their drones with our wireless power charging so they can fly. It’s all kind of Australian technology that we’re currently working with, which is kind of cool,” says Jeremijenko, who graduated from the University of Queensland with a degree in mathematics in 2021.

Daniel Danilatos, founder — Neara

Neara, founded by Daniel Danilatos in 2016, is on a mission to future-proof energy networks around the world. The Australian start-up uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyse energy infrastructure to determine its lifespan and how it will fare in extreme weather events or natural disasters. The software can remotely design or redesign parts of the network to deliver on safety, efficiency and environmental responsibility recommendations. “The utility industry is spending billions physically assessing and maintaining their ageing assets, and simultaneously trying to resolve how to integrate renewable assets,” says Neara chief commercial officer Jack Curtis. “Our platform enables a holistic approach to addressing these key challenges.” The company, which services Australian clients such as Ausgrid and Essential Energy, as well as global clients in countries including the US and Ireland, secured $20m in Series B funding in 2022 and was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential Companies in 2024.

Dean Spaccavento, co-founder — Reposit Power

In a time when electricity costs are constantly rising, Reposit, which calls itself “a complete residential electricity solution”, is bucking the trend, offering consumers no bills for at least seven years. Each Reposit system fitted to a home has a smart controller that manages solar capture and usage, and connects with other units on homes around Australia to create a grid. Homes are effectively “abstracted from the electricity system”, says Dean Spaccavento, co-founder and CEO of Reposit. All power decisions, including usage, storage and power-sharing through the network, are managed by Reposit. Spaccavento and co-founder Dr Lachlan Blackhall launched the company in 2012 and Reposit now has more than 6000 homes on the system.

Christiaan Jordaan and Drew Minett, co-founders — Sicona

Christiaan Jordaan and materials scientist Dr Drew Minett co-founded of Sicona Battery Technologies, a Wollongong-based start-up with a goal to redefine the chemistry in batteries to allow the use of silicon rather than graphite, which makes up about 95 per cent of anode materials used in lithium-ion batteries. “Today, between 95 to 99 per cent of graphite is produced in China,” he says. “They completely control that part of the supply chain and it’s an indispensable part of a lithium-ion battery. But you can sort of move away from that by using silicon-based materials, and that’s where Sicona comes in.”

Lewis Dunnigan, co-founder — Bygen

Lewis Dunnigan co-founded Bygen – believed to be the world’s first producer of sustainable activated carbon – in 2018 with other researchers from the University of Adelaide. Bygen uses low-temperature activated carbon technology to make sustainable and cost-efficient carbon products that play a crucial role in water purification, wastewater treatment and air filtration. The company uses agricultural waste both as a source of carbon and heat for the activation process. Bygen’s technology replaces a greenhouse gas-intensive coal-based activation process, reducing CO2 emissions and the cost of producing activated carbon. In 2024, Bygen raised $2.6m in its Series A funding round from investors such as Startmate and Breakthrough Victoria.

Chris King, founder — Splend

Rideshare car rental firm Splend is tackling emissions head-on with an ambitious target to transition at least 25 per cent of all rideshare vehicles to EV by 2028. Currently the largest rent-to-own hirer of vehicles to Uber in Australia, Splend estimates rideshare vehicles can travel more than 60,000km each year, producing more than seven tonnes of tailpipe CO2 emissions. The Australian start-up got a big shot in the arm this year when the federal government-backed Clean Energy Finance Corporation invested $20m in the venture, matching its previous $20m investment in June 2023. “This isn’t just about business; it’s about driving real change for our planet,” CEO Chris King says. “This investment supercharges our mission to revolutionise the way people own and operate EVs, starting with rideshare.”

Raj Bagri, founder — Kapture

Entrepreneur Raj Bagri has made a name for herself in multiple industries – first she tackled the vitamin world with a post-natal supplement, then turned her attention to baby formula, creating a more environmentally friendly formulation. Her current project is capturing CO2 emissions from the millions of diesel generators around the world with a carbon capture and storage filter that discards its by-product into the soil. If diesel generators use biofuel (made from plants), Kapture’s technology means they become carbon negative. Independent testing this year has shown the efficacy of Kapture’s technology has increased from 45 per cent carbon capture to 99.5 per cent.

Lisa Marsh, CEO — Elumina

A year is a long time in the start-up world, especially for a company such as eLumina, an Australian-owned provider of innovative energy solutions. It builds EV chargers and community lithium batteries and, until September, undertook manufacturing in China. Now, it has opened a $20m factory on the Gold Coast, set to produce 300 batteries a year. “Global demand for batteries is soaring,” Lisa Marsh said in July. “We have record solar uptake and energy generation in Australia, but we need battery storage at scale to harness its full potential.” The factory will provide 300 high-skilled jobs along with a world-class research and development training centre.

Andrew Birch and Adam Pryor, co-founders — OpenSolar

“Could we do that?” Andrew Birch and Adam Pryor asked themselves, when they first hit upon the idea of providing their OpenSolar software free of charge to solar-panel-installation contractors. The short answer: yes. Since launching in 2017, the Telstra Ventures-backed company has gone on to service professional installers in more than 130 countries, offering an end-to-end solution to installation design, sales and marketing, and business management. “The world’s transition to solar energy represents one of the greatest wealth creation opportunities in history and our commitment to help local solar installers participate in that change is stronger than ever,” Birch says.

Dan Adams and Chris Thompson, co-founders — Amber Electric

Amber Electric’s stated mission is to help shift Australia to 100 per cent renewable energy. But to do so, Dan Adams (pictured) and Chris Thompson are systematically rethinking every part of the energy model, from how electricity is sourced to how it is priced and sold. Through its app, the energy retailer gives customers access to dynamic wholesale pricing, allowing them to tailor usage to more cost-efficient times of the day. Now Amber is focused on putting renewable energy back into the grid, funnelling $3.2m in funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency into a three-year trial across five states and territories to develop and install EV smart chargers and vehicle-to-grid optimisation at customers’ homes. The Melbourne-based company is also eyeing international markets, having completed a $29m Series C funding round this year.

Paul Sernia and Sarbjit Giddey, founder and chief scientist — Endua

Each year, $1.5bn is spent converting diesel to electricity in Australia’s remote and rural areas. After raising $7.87m in funding last year – and backed by financial and technical expertise from CSIRO – clean energy company Endua unveiled the first of its purpose-built, stand-alone power banks that stores energy as hydrogen and converts it to electricity on demand. Says founder and CEO Paul Sernia: “Our power banks plug a critical gap in achieving the clean energy transition and stabilising power when the grid cannot be relied on – especially in our regional and remote power communities – generating enough stored hydrogen to replace diesel for off-grid power generation at any site.” In June this year, global data platform HolonIQ named Endua in the Indo-Pacific Climate Tech 100, and the Queensland company continues to be a leader in renewable hydrogen.

Bex Rempel and Neil Mans, co-founders — ZeroJet

Bex Rempel and Neil Mans have a shared goal to replace combustion engines on boats with an EV alternative. Their New Zealand-based team has built a high-performance, low-weight electric outboard, which it says is the first of its kind in the world. ZeroJet has been refining its offering since 2019 and this year introduced a new 15kW electric jet system. “Up until now, there simply weren’t enough options for climate-conscious boat enthusiasts who wanted a boat that was not only environmentally friendly but also fun to drive,” Mans says. Research predicts the market for electric boats will reach nearly $25bn by 2030.

Pete Tickler, Fabian Le Gay Brereton, co-founders - GreatCog

Pete Tickler, Fabian Le Gay Brereton and a self-described team of “energy nerds” build simulation software for modelling, tracking and optimising renewables projects across multiple markets. By putting this data in the hands of large energy suppliers, users and developers, they aim to fast-track investment in decentralised and decarbonised energy. “[Our clients] want to play a role in building a more sustainable energy future, yet are facing hurdles at almost every turn,” Tickler says. The pair previously co-founded energy analytics start-up GreenSense, which was acquired by ERM Power (now Shell Energy) in 2019.

FINTECH AND FINANCE

Ada Guan, co-founder — Rich Data Co

Ada Guan is proof of the adage that it’s better late than never. She completed a $37m Series B raise for Sydney-based Rich Data Co earlier this year. It was a torturous process that took 12 months to complete, but she said it was necessary to accelerate the company’s global expansion. “It has been a very long-running race,” CEO Guan says. “It’s a difficult race. I wouldn’t sugar-coat it. For any start-up, it is not an easy journey. But we went through it relatively well. We attracted strategic investors and the one we have announced now, Acorn Capital, we have huge respect for.” Rich Data Co, which is also backed by Westpac, uses artificial intelligence to give bankers “rapid access to more detailed data” to help them decide whether to lend to businesses. Guan started Rich Data Co in 2016 after finding the gap in understanding between borrowers and banks was often an impediment to businesses obtaining credit.

Michelle Deaker, founding partner — OneVentures

OneVentures is a later-stage venture capital firm specialising in scaling healthcare and technology sector companies by providing equity and credit funding. It focuses on financing transformative technology companies and supporting healthcare and biotech innovations. With $900m in funds under management, OneVentures has already invested in Vaxxas, a biotech company developing a high-density patch that aims to do away with needle vaccinations, and ImmVirx, a clinical stage oncology company developing powerful cancer immunotherapy combinations. Managing director Dr Michelle Deaker founded OneVentures in 2006 after a career as a successful IT business owner, entrepreneur and angel investor.

Spiro Rokos and Paul Weingarth, co-founders — Slyp

Australian start-up Slyp is working to solve a number of problems with one tech solution. It is giving retailers more data about their customers, offering consumers more rewards when they shop, and trying to decrease the use of printed receipts in Australia. More than 10.6 billion paper receipts are printed here every year, often on paper that isn’t recyclable. The idea is a simple one: receipts are sent from the retailer to an app on your phone. “By switching to a digital-first mindset, we can create a transaction experience that’s not only more convenient for the customer, but also more environmentally friendly for our planet,” CEO Paul Weingarth says. He and co-founder Spiro Rokos now count some of Australia’s largest businesses, including Kmart, Chemist Warehouse, Country Road and Harris Farm, among their customers. As well as helping these companies go paperless, the Slyp platform matches retailer SKUs and data about shoppers to provide insights into in-store customers.

Alex Badran and Mario Hasanakos, co-founders — Spriggy

According to research carried out by Spriggy, one of Australia’s most popular apps for teaching children about banking, 85 per cent of parents think it’s their responsibility to teach kids financial literacy, but 66 per cent of parents are reluctant to talk to their kids about money. The Spriggy Pocket Money app works like credit card but is controlled by parents, who can schedule regular pocket money transfers that either go onto a prepaid card or into their child’s savings. Kids (aged eight to 18) can view statement balances, while parents can monitor spending and set savings goals. Spriggy, founded by Alex Badran (pictured) and Mario Hasanakos in 2015, has raised almost $60m from five funding rounds, with investors including Grok Ventures and National Australia Bank.

SOFTWARE AND TECH

Keaton Okkonen, co-founder - Black.ai

Keaton Okkonen is still surprised Australian companies are only just picking up on his business product – software that can tell them more about their customers than the CCTV systems on which Black.ai is based. The Melbourne-based company has won contracts with big retailers, including Walmart in the US, Mexico and Chile, but the local market has been harder to crack for Okkonen and co-founders, siblings Phoebe and Sebastien Collier. Launched eight years ago, Black.ai now employs 20 people and is valued at about $25m. The software, developed over six years of research and development, uses video captured by retailers, for example, to create a shorthand picture of customer movements.

Todd Ryall, director - Tantsissa

Tantsissa is an Australian app development company kicking goals. Its focus is on health and fitness apps for the Apple Watch that consistently rank in the top three paid apps in the Health & Fitness category in Australia, the US, Germany, Japan and further afield. Led by Todd Ryall, Tantsissa is responsible for AutoSleep, an app designed to improve the quality of sleep; HeartWatch, which monitors heart health; and AutoWake, which gently awakens users when they’re least asleep. The company’s newest release, Eclipse Yourself, analyses workout, recovery and readiness to go again, and is being used by organisations such as the Adelaide Crows and the Australian men’s cricket team.

Geoff Sizer, founder - Genesys Electronics Design

Genesys specialises in electronics and software, working across platforms, including mobile apps, cloud systems and aesthetic human-centred user interfaces and enclosures. Projects include early-stage investigations into manufacturing a radiation dosimeter system, used to enhance the precision of radiation therapy. The team also took a bulky first-gen cervical screening product, TruScreen, and transformed it into an easy-to-use system with an integrated charging dock. After being frustrated by the constraints of working with corporates, Dr Geoff Sizer founded the company under another name in 1991, later renaming it Genesys. In September, he was recognised at the Engineers Australia Excellence Awards for his contributions to engineering innovation and leadership over the past 40 years.

Amy Benson, founder - Diolog

Amy Benson solved a problem for investors when she launched Diolog in 2023: 45 per cent of them don’t have confidence in the financial information released by publicly listed companies. Her app is retail investor communication software that bridges the gap between companies and individual investors. With the technology, you can access real-time updates, engage directly with companies, and even ask questions to executives, all from your phone – plus, it’s free for investors. Diolog’s goal is to become the global leader for acquisitions and analysis of investor communication data.

Marc Washbourne, co-founder - ReadyTech

ReadyTech started as a small software company just over 20 years ago. Now listed on the ASX, it has offices in Australia and the UK, and more than 4000 customers globally. The company, led by Marc Washbourne, provides SaaS technology to sectors including education, justice and government. In 2020, Washbourne was invited to join the board of the federal government’s Digital Skills Organisation, which is committed to improving digital skills and industry-ready candidates as part of the Skills Reform agenda.

Prem Naraindas, founder - Katonic.ai

Formed in 2020, Katonic.ai rode the first wave of generative AI and is now poised to capitalise on what Prem Naraindas believes will be the technology’s second iteration. “While tech giants may dominate headlines, the real value of generative AI will be realised by businesses that can effectively integrate it into their operations,” he says. Katonic.ai does this by giving businesses an easy way to build a wide range of AI applications without the traditional risks of data security or data hallucinations and with no coding skills required. The company has offices in Sydney, India and Singapore, and is backed by Artesian and Boab AI.

Michelle Simmons, founder - Silicon Quantum Computing

Professor Michelle Simmons is a world leader in creating electronic devices that have atomic precision. Her team at Silicon Quantum Computing, which she founded in 2017, developed the world’s first single-atom transistor, the world’s narrowest conducting wires and also demonstrated the ability to encode information on single atoms with record fidelity, spin relaxation and coherence times. Its end goal is to break down calculations that would take a regular computer thousands of years to just a few minutes. The 2018 Australian of the Year also won the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science last year for commercialising a new approach to quantum computing. Simmons aims to have the first commercially useful quantum computer by 2028.

Thom Mackey, CEO - Atticus

Atticus uses AI to help lawyers and corporates fact-check critical documents, such as IPO prospectuses and annual reports. Launched in 2017, the company lists BHP, CBA, the ASX and many Australian corporate legal firms including Allens, Linklaters and Herbert Smith Freehills as its customers. Founded by Misha Wakerman, Saul Wakerman and Mitchell Brunton, the company raised $10.8m in funding rounds earlier this year from backers including Blackbird Ventures and Skip Capital.

Numa Bertron and Zac Duff, co-founders - JigSpace

Augmented reality app JigSpace allows users to create detailed, interactive 3D models of a product and augment them in a 3D physical space. These “jigs” can then be integrated into websites, presentations and training manuals. Numa Bertron and Zac Duff founded the company in 2015, but received its biggest endorsement in 2023, when Apple showcased JigSpace’s collab with Alfa Romeo during the global launch of its Vision Pro AR headset. “Long term, our goal is to be the standard for how people communicate in augmented reality,” Duff says. “We want to be as ubiquitous in spatial computing as PowerPoint was for personal computers.”

Michael Biercuk, founder - Q-CTRL

Q-CTRL is doing groundbreaking work, helping to make quantum technology useful for businesses. Its AI software expands the usability and capability of quantum computing by improving its stability and minimising errors, which cause some of the sector’s biggest bottlenecks. The venture-capital-backed Q-CTRL is delivering new quantum sensing capabilities to fields such as biotechnology, logistics, finance and cyber security. CEO Michael Biercuk founded Q-CTRL, the first spin-off from the University of Sydney’s Quantum Science group, in 2017. In September this year, it was announced that Q-CTRL’s performance management software, called Fire Opal, would be integrated into four quantum platforms, including that of IBM.

Aengus Tran, co-founder - Harrison.ai

Healthcare platform Harrison.ai uses AI automation to assist clinicians in making faster and more accurate diagnoses. Currently, its focus is on radiology and pathology, but there are plans to expand into other health sectors. Dr Aengus Tran and his brother Dimitry founded the company to make high-quality medical care scalable and accessible and it’s recently been awarded public health tenders with the UK’s NHS and the Hong Kong Health Authority. With Ramsay Health Care, Sonic Healthcare and radiology company I-MED among its industry backers, Harrison.ai is preparing to launch a $100m-plus Series C round.

Dave Elkan and Nick Muldoon, founders - Easy Agile

Before launching Easy Agile in 2015, co-founders Dave Elkan and Nick Muldoon worked as developers at Atlassian. Nowadays, they make story mapping and road mapping solution add-ons for Atlassian’s Jira software, helping teams work and plan more easily. They now have more than 160,000 users worldwide, with customers ranging from Rolex and Cisco to Amazon and Netflix. While the company has offices around Australia, the HQ is based in Wollongong, NSW, and it is consistently listed as one of Australia’s fastest growing companies.

Mark Hartmann, founder - Snapi

Snapi revolutionises reading electricity meters using the power of AI. The Brisbane-based company, founded in 2020 by director Mark Hartmann, has designed a digital meter reader that snaps onto any analog water, gas, electricity or pressure meter in seconds. The device answers many problems caused by ageing infrastructure and slow data capture with traditional meters. These meters offer real time data that allow strategic analytics to drive more sustainable consumption.

MANUFACTURING

Adam Jones, founder, CLT Toolbox

Adam Jones was a structural engineering undergraduate at Monash University when he became fascinated with CLT, a construction product touted as a sustainable alternative to steel and concrete in buildings around the world. “I was the first student there to investigate it as part of my final-year project,” he says. Cross laminated timber (CLT) is categorised as a mass timber, a product type that’s already proving attractive for use in mid- to high-rise buildings, as nations such as Australia position themselves to transition to a decarbonised economy. The Melbourne-based company has raised $2.5m from venture capitalists, and now services 15 CLT suppliers with its software, which is used by about 1500 individual designers and engineers.

Eric Peck and Joshua Tepper, co-founders — Swoop Aero

The company was set up in 2017 by former air force officer Eric Peck and engineer Joshua Tepper to develop drones to transport urgent medical supplies, carry out disaster and area mapping, do coastal patrols and monitor wildlife and conservation efforts. (Since the list was finalised and printed, the company has been placed in voluntary administration but is continuing to trade.)

Charlie McGill, Shaun Oosthuizen and Huanting Wang, founders — ElectraLith

ElectraLith claims to be unlocking a green future with the cleanest, most versatile and most cost-efficient method of extracting and refining lithium. With the evolution of electric vehicles, the demand for lithium is going through the roof and ElectraLith identified a problem – the huge amounts of water and power it takes to process lithium – but also came up with a solution: it has combined the refining and extracting processes and does it at low voltages with very high levels of recoverability. Compared to traditional brine extraction, which uses 2.2 million litres of water per tonne of lithium, ElectraLith’s method uses no water and no carbon. ElectraLith started in the Monash University Research Hub and its backers include Monash, Rio Tinto and large venture capital firm, IP Group. This year, the team achieved proof of concept, successfully producing 99.9 per cent pure lithium hydroxide from a contaminated brine comprising less than 60 parts per million lithium. The process was completed using only renewable energy.

Amanda Siqueira and Michelle Aguilar, co-founders - VAPAR

Amanda Siqueira started her career interning as a civil engineer where she manually reviewed CCTV footage of pipe inspections for a living. Knowing there had to be a better system, Siqueira and fellow engineer Michelle Aguilar founded VAPAR, which uses an AI-powered monitoring system to automate condition assessments from pipe CCTV footage. Their pioneering software saves considerable labour costs and is an accurate way of tracking maintenance and repair requirements. Since its launch, VAPAR has received more than $1.2m in funding from federal and state governments, as well as investors, and has clients in Australia, New Zealand and the UK.

Bevan Slattery, founder — NEXTDC

NEXTDC is one of Australia’s largest data centre developers and operators, with 15 centres across the country in its growing portfolio. It was founded by Rockhampton tech entrepreneur Bevan Slattery in May 2010 and ASX-listed just seven months later. Initially, the business was largely focused on Australia but has recently raised $750 million to expand into Asia. Slattery is the founder of five ASX-listed companies including fibre infrastructure company PIPE Networks, and APAC fibre and broadband company Superloop. He is also founder and CEO of SODA, his family business that invests in digital, infrastructure and sustainability ventures. It operates some of Australia’s most strategic submarine cable infrastructure, with more than $750m in assets in its portfolio.

Jekaterina Viktorova and Luke Connal, co-founders - Syenta

Canberra-based start-up Syenta wants to wrestle electronic manufacturing dominance away from China by democratising component making with its 3D printers that are the size of a coffee table. Founded by Jekaterina Viktorova and Professor Luke Connal, Syenta has developed a method of producing electronics, such as semiconductors and circuit boards, that is fast, precise and successful with a wide array of metals, including copper, gold, palladium, nickel and more. The energy-efficient process leaves little waste at the end of production. Unlike other forms of 3D printing that use heat or light, Syenta uses electrochemistry. The start-up garnered immediate attention when it launched, doing at least one demo a week to local and international companies. Co-founder and CEO Viktorova presented on the ‘Meet Australia’s Radical Innovators’ panel at Cicada x Tech23 Sydney this year.

Dave Budge, CEO - Jaunt Motors

Porsches, Land Rovers, classic Mini Coopers … Jaunt is giving some of the most famous cars in the world an EV makeover. One of Australia’s largest electric conversion workshops, Jaunt allows car enthusiasts to reduce their environmental impact without giving up their much-loved automobiles. The team, led by Dave Budge, also re-engineers and rebuilds the cars to improve safety, handling, comfort, usability and performance. Jaunt launched in 2019 as a crowd-funding initiative. In 2022, Jaunt merged with Zero EV under the Fellten banner, with Budge now carrying the dual roles of Jaunt CEO and Fellten chief product officer. “Every vehicle on the road will need to be electric by 2050 for us to achieve net zero emissions and classic car owners will want their vehicle to be electric much sooner,” Budge said during the merger. “With production facilities on three continents, industry-leading technology and development capabilities, Fellten is ready to meet those needs for consumers and the automotive industry.”

Kyle Hardman, Christian Freier and Paul Wigley, co-founders - Nomad Atomics

The aim at Nomad Atomics is to take quantum technology into the commercial sector – the company specialises in taking the natural properties of atoms and their interaction with light to create state-of-the-art sensors for measuring gravity, accelerations, magnetics and time. But how does this translate into the real world? Quantum sensors are used for applications such as navigation without the need for external input and deep underground resource exploration to support mining operations. The sensors can be miniaturised and have been tested under extreme conditions proving themselves to be extremely robust.

Heba Khamis, founder - Contactile

Robots don’t have feelings but Dr Heba Khamis is hoping to one day allow them to feel. The Sydney-based tech entrepreneur has built a start-up developing tactile sensors that allow robots, in real time, to detect, react to and handle different materials. One major issue it’s solving is that of opening doors, which, while it sounds hilarious, is a task that can tip over multimillion dollar robots. It’s all part of a broader vision to allow robots to not only do repetitive tasks, but to also react in unpredictable environments and not cause harm.

Robin Khuda, founder - AirTrunk

Robin Khuda has cracked the code to building data centres the world’s largest companies can use. Just look at his list of customers, which includes TikTok, Microsoft, Amazon and Google. The 45-year-old tech founder sold the business he founded nine years ago for $24bn to US asset firm Blackstone. The mission doesn’t end there, with Khuda announcing his next goal: to turn AirTrunk into a $100bn company. It’s a task he says isn’t that difficult considering the size and scale of data centres and the world’s ever growing demand for data

Andrew Terry and Michael De Nil, co-founders - Morse Micro

Just as wi-fi revolutionised computers, Morse Micro’s long-range, low-power, large-capacity wi-fi HaLow chip is on a path to transform IoT (internet of Things) devices, such as smart lighting, door locks and video cameras that need a longer range than wi-fi can provide. The company raised a $170m Series B round in 2022, at the time one of the largest capital raises for an Australian start-up. Now, Andrew Terry and Michael De Nil are preparing to bring the first wi-fi HaLow variants of smart IoT products to market, following successful trials in North America.

Rory San Miguel, co-founder - Propeller

Using drone data and GPS hardware, Propeller creates realistic 3D sitemaps on large industrial builds like construction sites, mines, quarries and landfill, with a cloud-based workspace that supports real-time collaboration across multiple devices. This allows project managers to accurately analyse operations and make informed decisions more quickly. With about 70 per cent of the company’s revenue now coming from the US, the Sydney-based company runs a second office from Denver, Colorado. Last year’s funding round drew US$15m ($22m) from locals Blackbird and Aware Super, long-time investor Costanoa Ventures and others.

Tom Hussey and Brian Conolly, co-founders - Xefco

Xefco is rethinking the textile industry with products that use considerably less water and fewer pollutants. Its innovative solutions include Ausora, a water-free dyeing and finishing process, and XReflex, a barrier surface coating that increases heat retention to create lighter and warmer fabrics with a carbon footprint up to 50 per cent lower than traditional insulated garments. Xefco’s technologies are now used by some of the world’s leading technical apparel and fashion brands, including Zara and The North Face. In April, the company, led by Tom Hussey (pictured) and Brian Conolly, raised $10.5m in its latest funding round.

Tim Kentley-Klay, co-founder - HYPR

Serial entrepreneur Tim Kentley-Klay has had successes with animation studio XYZ, and Zoox, the autonomous vehicle start-up acquired by Amazon in 2020. Now he’s back with HYPR, another autonomous vehicle company using sophisticated AI based on reinforcement learning, where the software essentially trains itself. It’s still in stealth mode so there’s a veil of secrecy surrounding HYPR, beyond Kentley Klay promising it will develop “next-generation scalable ecosystems that our communities and environment will love”. Blackbird Ventures came on board as an early backer in 2022.

Jefferson Harcourt, executive director - Eco Detection

Jefferson Harcourt’s Grey Innovation Group helps fast-track new technology from universities and hospitals to commercial success. Eco Detection is one of his success stories: the University of Tasmania-developed tech offers remote, automated monitoring of waterways, providing lab-grade, cloud-based data to NGOs, industry, government and research institutes to improve food and water security. A recent $10m investment from mining services firm Capital Limited will be used to support Eco Detection’s move into the UK market. The company was highly commended in AuManufacturing’s list of the 50 most innovative Australian manufacturers of 2024.

RETAIL & ECOMMERCE

Danielle Johansen, founder - Threadicated

Danielle Johansen has faced some challenges building her e-commerce styling business, Threadicated, but she reckons she’s on the right track with her offer of a personalised digital service. “E-commerce can be an amazing channel to sell on,” says the CEO. “However, I think we need to start being smarter about it, because the customer isn’t going to put up with being treated like a number anymore.” Johansen, 39, has spent about 20 years in the fashion business. She started Threadicated in 2019 as a side hustle, but has been full-time for the past three years. She employs a dozen people and has a fulfilment centre in western Sydney as well as shared CBD office space. She says 50,000 customers have used the service since it began.

Adam McCurdie and Joshua Ross, co-founders - Humanitix

Humanitix is an event ticketing platform with a difference: 100 per cent of profits from fees go towards education, such as literacy programs for young girls and indigenous scholarships. Founded by two high school mates in 2016, the not-for-profit business is operated like a profitmaking enterprise, generating revenue from selling tickets to events and concerts. However, Humanitix is a registered charity that donates all profits – so far about $10.5m – to social impact projects. From its early days, Humanitix was funded by the Atlassian Foundation and NSW State Government. It won the Google Impact Challenge in 2018 and has since doubled in size every six months, becoming the fastest-growing ticketing platform in Australia and New Zealand.

Hannon Comazzetto, founder - AirRobe

CEO Hannon Comazzetto is tackling the fashion industry’s notorious lack of sustainability head-on by putting circularity at the centre of how we buy, wear and rehome clothes. Through partnerships with fashion brands and retailers, AirRobe shows shoppers the potential resale value of an item before they’ve even added it to their cart. Once selected, they have the item instantly added to their AirRobe digital wardrobe and, when they’re ready, they can put it up for rent or sale as second-hand. “Addressing the global fast-fashion waste problem requires a shift in consumer demand for higher-quality, longer-lasting products,” Comazzetto says. “To facilitate this transition, we provide fashion brands and consumers with the necessary tools to seamlessly integrate into the circular economy.”

Shadi Houshyar, textile developer - RMIT

At RMIT University, senior lecturer Dr Shadi Houshyar heads a research team creating smart, functional textiles. Its most recent project involves coating cotton fabric with nanodiamonds, making it cooler to wear. Thanks to the nanodiamonds’ excellent thermal conductivity, heat is transferred from the wearer’s body, leaving them two to three degrees Celsius cooler. “While two or three degrees may not seem like much of a change, it does make a difference in comfort and health impacts over extended periods,” Houshyar says “In practical terms, it could be the difference between keeping your airconditioner off or turning it on.” The use of the fabric in clothing is projected to lead to a 20 to 30 per cent energy saving due to lower use of airconditioning.

Zac Leigh, Jason Webb and Denis Mysenko, co-founders - Tixel

When Zac Leigh, Jason Webb and Denis Mysenko found themselves denied entry to a concert venue after purchasing fake tickets from a resale site, they knew they had to change the industry. In 2017, they founded Tixel to make ticket resale fairer and safer by capping prices, offering a buyer guarantee and monitoring listings for compliance with resale laws. Their operations have now expanded around the world to countries including New Zealand, the Netherlands, the US and the UK. In new research carried out by Tixel, 56 per cent of Australian fans said they believe live music events are a priority expense, and 75 per cent stated having confidence to resell tickets makes them more inclined to buy tickets earlier.

COMMUNITY WEB CRYPTO

Maryna Kovalenko, founder - Syla

Software for ensuring you’re paying the right tax on crypto investments might sound like a niche market, but with trades likely to grow in the future, Maryna Kovalenko is optimistic. The Brisbane-based tax professional set up her own company, Syla, three years ago and now employs six people. The subscription service already has 20,000 users in Australia, all paying a base annual fee of $59 for access to software that calculates the tax on investments in cryptocurrency. Kovalenko, who migrated from Ukraine in 2011, used her own funds, along with a federal government Boosting Female Founders Grant in 2022 and an Ignite Ideas Fund grant from Advance Queensland, to set up Syla. More than $1m has been invested in the company so far.

Wayne Jones, founder - XReality Group

Specialising in building and operating virtual reality, augmented reality and physical simulation, xReality Group works in the enterprise, defence and leisure sector. Founder and CEO Wayne Jones, a former member of the Special Air Services Regiment, listed XRG – as it was known – on the ASX in 2013, rebranding to xReality Group in 2021. It was initially an operator of indoor skydiving facilities, and one of its offerings is a mission planning and rehearsal system for military and law enforcement groups. In 2019, the company launched VR brand FREAK Entertainment, and in 2021 moved into the enterprise XR (extended reality) space through the acquisition of XR production company Red Cartel.

James Ferguson, Robbie Ferguson and Alex Connolly, co-founders - Immutable

Immutable is one of the few companies making real-world use of Web3. Every year online gamers spend $150bn on in-game items they don’t own. Immutable allows gamers to own their digital assets and for games manufacturers to monetise them in a new way. Founded in 2018 by James and Robbie Ferguson and Alex Connolly, the Sydney business now has more than 240 employees and investors including BITKRAFT Ventures and King River Capital. This year the team launched Immutable zkEVM, which has become one of the most used blockchains in the world, and announced a strategic partnership with Spielworks, a leading Web3 game distribution and publishing company.

Annie Liao, founder - Build Club

Annie Liao yields some power. The Gen Z go-getter isn’t afraid to chase big dreams or help others achieve theirs. At just 23 she’s already worked in consulting, as a data scientist and in venture capital as an investor. She’s also built the nation’s largest pool of AI start-ups, giving them a place to work and even a place to live while they focus on building the company of their dreams. Her AI accelerator, Build Club, has piqued the interest of international tech companies and local players who have sponsored the program and given her funds and room to host events, foster a community and bring like-minded, budding entrepreneurs together.

IMPACT

Barb Hyman, founder — Sapia.ai

The ethical use of artificial intelligence may still be up for debate but there is at least one Australian entrepreneur who believes AI can often operate more ethically than humans. Barb Hyman has been certain about this for some time, and it’s the theory that prompted her to launch a hiring platform, Sapia.ai, which has already won several big clients. Backed by Woolworths, the platform is used by companies including Qantas, Suncorp, David Jones, Starbucks Australia and Joe & the Juice. Sapia.ai uses generative AI to interview job candidates on behalf of clients, ensuring the process is completed even if their applications do not progress to the next stage.

Sarah Jones, CEO — Sydney School of Entrepreneurship

The not-for-profit Sydney School of Entrepreneurship (SSE) helps budding business people hone their talents as part of its mission to build a national culture of innovation. Backed initially by the NSW state government in 2016, the SSE is a collaboration between 11 NSW universities and TAFE NSW. SSE is committed to increasing access and equity to ensure a diverse community of next-generation innovators. Its CEO, Dr Sarah Jones, has more than 20 years’ experience in research and teaching.

Jodi Geddes and Kate Pollard, co-founders - Circle In

Circle In is a digital-first platform offering on-demand access to expert advice for employees who are caregivers. The business, which received $2m in funding in 2023, offers tools and resources for situations including planning for a baby, menopause and losing a family member. Founded in 2017 by Jodi Geddes and Kate Pollard, the business now has more than 70 corporate customers around the world, including Coca-Cola Amatil, Medibank, REA and Universal Music Group. “Leading companies know that supporting working families and caregivers is good for business,” Geddes says. It’s also good for employees, with Geddes noting that, in the post-pandemic era, one in two workers now ranks great family benefits in their top three most important employee benefits.

Colette Grgic, executive - Amazon Web Services

Colette Grgic is passionate about start-ups and innovation. “I’ve started my own, ran start-ups for others, and have led landmark corporate innovation programs and ventures,” she says. Grgic’s focus now is fostering innovation through her role at Amazon Web Services (AWS). Her specialities include strategy, program design, business models, value proposition development, strategic partnerships and business development. This year AWS launched its Generative AI Spotlight program for early-stage start-ups in the Asia Pacific region as part of a $US230m ($334m) investment by AWS into AI start-ups globally.

SOFTWARE & TECH

Jordy and Julia Kay, co-founders - Great Wrap

The founders of Great Wrap believe solving our plastic pollution problem can only happen at a molecular level, involving a complete rethink of design. That’s why the business, created by married couple Jordy and Julia Kay, has developed an Australian-made compostable cling wrap that, unlike traditional cling wraps, breaks down in less than 180 days. The Melbourne-based B Corp Certified business has products for home use, called Nudie Rolls, and a pallet wrap product for businesses. The company raised $5m earlier this year with Opal ANZ, one of Australia’s leading packaging and recycling companies.

Sally-Ann Williams, CEO - Cicada Innovations

Cicada Innovations bills itself as Australia’s leading deep tech incubator, providing full life cycle support to start-up entrepreneurs to help them scale their ideas into fruition. In the past 21 years, it has supported more than 300 start-ups that together have raised more than $900m. Among its alumni is Mike Cannon-Brookes, who went on to co-found Atlassian. Spearheading Cicada is Sally-Ann Williams, who previously spent 12 years with Google Australia’s R&D team overseeing that company’s start-up engagement and research collaborations. Williams is a non-executive member of many boards, including Cicada Innovations, Qudos Bank and AusOcean. She is chair of the Computing Advisory Board at ANU, a member of the Centre for Entrepreneurial Agri-Technology governance committee, and a member of the NSW government Tech Central Advisory Board.

Andrew Deveson and David Caputo, co-founders - Kapitol Group

Kapitol Group, founded by Andrew Deveson and David Caputo in 2018, is a construction business making an impact. It has a focus on no-harm building and a targeted environmental, social and governance (ESG) policy, with commitments to 92 per cent waste diversion, using renewable grid power for all operations and embodied carbon modelling. For the staff, there are flexible hours that promote family as a top priority and one per cent of work hours are also dedicated to volunteering in the community. “Our vision is to build the best buildings, do no harm and improve the construction industry for a better life,” says Deveson. The company has been recognised in the top five of Australia’s best places to work for the past two years, which is a first for a construction company.

Louise Nobes, CEO - 42 Adelaide

A school with no professors, no schedules and no tuition fees? That’s the modus operandi at France-headquartered coding school 42, which now has campuses in more than 30 countries including Australia. Social worker-turned-social entrepreneur Louise Nobes opened 42 Adelaide in 2021, offering self-guided peer-to-peer learning for students aged 16 and older, 50 per cent of whom have never coded before they enrol. There are no formal prerequisites, however creativity, problem-solving and logic are all highly regarded. “Our mission is to become the number one tech school in Australia for diversity and inclusion,” Nobes says. “Our oldest student is in their late 60s and our youngest is 16.”

SPACE

Chris Shaw, CEO - Advanced Navigation

The Sydney-based artificial intelligence, robotics and navigation technology manufacturer produces inertial navigation systems for land, air, sea and space use. This year, the company, which grew out of research at the University of Technology, Sydney, won a $1m federal government grant for collaborative research into navigation sensor technology and will help transition the tech from the laboratory to a commercial product. Last year, Advanced Navigation was awarded $5.2m to develop LiDAV technology for use on lunar landers.

Peter Schultz, James Schultz and Patrick Neumann, co-founders - Neumann Space

Neumann Space was founded by Peter Schultz, James Schultz and Dr Patrick “Paddy” Neumann in 2015 to develop Neumann’s research into spacecraft propulsion systems. International standards now demand all satellites launched into space have a means to move themselves into the atmosphere to reduce the growth of orbital space junk. The Adelaide company has designed a metallic plasma propulsion system that discharges energy to generate a pulse of plasma that nudges the spacecraft in a new direction. It is also working with partner CisLunar Industries to demonstrate that debris can be economically recycled on-orbit, turned into propellant for thrusters then used to move debris around.

Michael Smart and David Waterhouse, co-founders - Hypersonix

If supersonic jets are fast, hypersonic jets have been in the realm of science fiction … until now. Queensland company Hypersonix is using “air-breathing scramjet propulsion” to go faster than ever thought possible – up to Mach 12, or five times the speed of sound. The cutting-edge technology is fuelled by hydrogen to give it higher thrust capabilities and longer flight times. The launch technology is also reusable. The scope of hypersonic flight could enable craft to fly to the edge of space for spacecraft deployment then return to land like a plane. It could also reduce passenger aircraft flight times from Sydney to London to just two hours. Before co-founding Hypersonix with David Waterhouse in 2019, Michael Smart, now the company’s chief technology officer and head of engineering, was a research scientist at NASA’s scramjet branch.

Matt Ryall and Dominik Daners, co-founders - Mawson Rovers

NASA and SpaceX plan to return to the Moon’s surface in 2025 and Mawson Rovers wants to go with them. The company designs and builds robotic vehicles that support human exploration of space. Its robots will help with construction, maintenance and inspection of infrastructure. In early 2024, the company had its first spaceflight hardware launched aboard SpaceX Falcon 9. CEO Matt Ryall is ex-Atlassian, while Dominik Daners is the mechatronic lead at Mawson Rovers, directing vehicle design and manufacturing.

Will Crowe and Hiranya Jayakody, co-founders - HEO Robotics

At HEO Robotics, the team believes understanding objects in space is key for humanity’s spacefaring future. The company uses satellite-mounted cameras owned by other companies to capture non-Earth imaging and deliver analytics on spacecraft, like other satellites. In September, HEO and Black Sky, a leading provider of real-time geospatial intelligence, signed a seven-figure contract to bring Black Sky’s current constellation into HEO’s sensor network for defence, intelligence and commercial use. Dr Will Crowe and Dr Hiranya Jayakody (pictured) founded HEO Robotics after finishing their PhD research at the University of NSW.

CYBER

Rachael Greaves and Gavin McKay, co-founders - Castlepoint Systems

Years of working on government audits showed Castlepoint founders Rachael Greaves and Gavin McKay there had to be a better way of securely storing data, particularly when it comes to meeting regulatory and statutory obligations. The company’s platform uses ethical AI to discover, classify and control every document, email, chat message, database or web page in an organisation’s network, identifying rogue data and compliance risks based on regulatory rules and reporting. It now manages more than 286.5 million records for its clients, who include two-thirds of the Australian federal government portfolios.

Michelle Price, partner - EY

Before joining EY Oceania in 2022, Michelle Price was CEO of non-profit AustCyber and worked at the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet as a senior adviser for domestic cyber policy. Her focus at EY is on trends and risk, policy and regulation, R&D and commercialisation, economic and trust incentive structures and trade and global networks. In her role she works in EY’s cyber security practice with public and private clients, as well as Australian start-ups.

Ashwin Ram, cybersecurity evangelist - Check Point Software

Check Point Software has long been a pioneer in the cyber security space, inventing the first commercially used firewall in 1994. Now, the company protects more than 100,000 companies worldwide. Ashwin Ram has been with Check Point since 2010 – in his current role as cybersecurity evangelist, he helps Check Point customers understand, prioritise, communicate and address cyber risks. His deep technical expertise has made him a trusted adviser on emerging cyber security threats.

Shantanu Kulkarni, Tim Thacker and Tony Mao, co-founders - Nullify

This start-up, founded in 2022, has developed a security bot that scans coding to help software developers and security teams identify and repair security weaknesses. It uses generative AI and open-source resources to find security flaws. Shantanu Kulkarni (pictured), Tim Thacker and Tony Mao previously worked in cloud security roles in finance, health insurance and technology. The company has so far raised $6.3m in seed funding.

Dali Kaafar, founder - Apate.ai, Macquarie University

While most people are worried about deep fakes, Professor Dali Kaafar has seen the potential, creating an AI-based program to tackle scammers head on. His project, a spin-out from Macquarie University, uses conversational AI and realistic multilingual bots to keep scammers on phone calls longer and divert them away from potential victims. In August, Apate and the Commonwealth Bank launched a pilot program to trial the scalability and effectiveness of the technology.

Casey Ellis, founder - Bugcrowd

In late 2023, Casey Ellis, founder of Bugcrowd, moved into a new role at the company, with the aim of pushing the cyber security business to the next level. “Stepping into the role of chief strategy officer at Bugcrowd marks a new chapter in driving the company and the cyber security industry forward,” he said. “As the founder, my journey has been about pioneering a billion-dollar industry, and now the focus shifts to advancing our strategic direction in innovation, public policy and community.” Bugcrowd is a crowdsourced security knowledge platform that works with “the crowd” – hackers and researchers – to help secure organisations in every industry from automotive to fintech. This year, Bugcrowd secured $US102m ($149m) in strategic growth financing to scale its platform globally.

TRAVEL

Justin Hales, founder - Camplify

Australian caravan owners use their vans on average four times a year, which is where Camplify comes in, with a community of van owners renting their vehicles in countries including Australia, New Zealand, Spain and the UK. The company calls itself Australia’s largest and fastest growing campervan, motorhome and caravan sharing community. Founded in Newcastle in 2015, the company has more than 10,000 van owners on its books and has paid them more than $315m in earnings. Camplify is part of the ASX-listed CHL Group, led by Justin Hales. The group also includes PaulCamper, another peer-to-peer van sharing platform that was founded in Germany, and MyWay, providing insurance products to RV owners.

Marlon Law and Nathan Sampimon, co-founders - Riparide

Riparide is a travel platform that puts storytelling first. Each listing features a photo essay-style story of how travellers use the accommodation they’re booking, which might be as a base for hiking to a local waterfall or going fishing. The company specialises in offering “soul-fulfilling escapes”, with accommodation including tiny houses, cabins, cottages and farms. There’s even a treehouse, houseboat and train carriage for short stays. Instead of using star ratings, satisfaction is measured in fulfilment metrics such as peacefulness, slowness and self-discovery. The company, which has delivered more than 175,000 experiences since 2016, has had investments from Macdoch Ventures and Upswell Ventures, with the aim to expand into the international market, starting with New Zealand.

FOOD

Remo Carbone, co-founder - MEQ Solutions

In a world-first for the red meat industry, MEQ Solutions has designed a probe to accurately measure the intramuscular fat percentage in lamb and the marble score in beef. The probe uses AI and machine learning to assess the quality of the meat in live animals and carcasses. According to Meat & Livestock Australia, the innovation provides quality grading and branding opportunities in the lamb market that have never existed before, while for beef, the estimation of marbling grade pre-chilling can bring market efficiencies. When used on live animals, the technology can predict the best type of feeding regimen for higher yields. Rather than following a standardised program, the animals can be managed only for the time needed, thus reducing methane emissions. The agtech start-up was founded by South Australian Remo Carbone in 2020 and, in 2023, closed a $6m Series A funding round.

Jan Pacas, founder and CEO - All G Foods

In the four years since founding All G Foods, Jan Pacas has continued to refine his vision for the Woolworths-backed biotech start-up. Last October, All G divested its plant-based meat operations, merging it with competitor Fenn Foods to form The Aussie Plant-Based Co., of which Pacas is chairman. The move allowed All G Foods to focus on using precision fermentation to develop bio-identical, animal-free dairy proteins and products for the food, infant nutrition and nutraceuticals markets. “Our initial focus is on the sought-after lactoferrin dairy protein, which is prized for its antiviral, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, prebiotic and probiotic attributes,” Pacas says. “At the same time, we continue to advance our work around casein dairy proteins, which are responsible for the key functional attributes that give us everything we love about dairy.”