Gregor Whyte, Rachelle Dunstan and Matthew Morrison
Other tech

Startmate Demo Day: Kite Therapy helps parents give better support to children with developmental issues

- April 22, 2024 4 MIN READ

Ahead of Startmate Demo Day on May 2 in Sydney at Blackbird’s Sunrise, Startup Daily is profiling the 10 startups involved. Today it’s  Kite Therapy, which is empowering parents to help their neurodiverse children thrive As we become more aware of neurodiversity, parents are seeking diagnoses for their children earlier, and the rates of autism… Read more »

Ben Scales and William Murrell
Accelerator

Startmate Demo Day: KiwiFibre has turned a native New Zealand plant into something better than carbon fibre

- April 17, 2024 5 MIN READ

Ahead of Startmate Demo Day on May 2 in Sydney at Blackbird’s Sunrise, Startup Daily is profiling the 10 startups involved. Today it’s New Zealand startup Kiwifibre, which is hoping to build race cars from plants. KiwiFibre creates natural fibre composite materials from ‍Harakeke – a natively grown New Zealand wonder plant, and one of the… Read more »

Alt.Leather founder Tina Funder and chief scientific officer Dr Tuan Nguyen
Funding

Tesla chair Robyn Denholm backs substitute leather startup in $1.1 million angel round

- January 29, 2024 2 MIN READ

Plant-based leather substitute startup Alt. Leather has raised $1.1 million in an angel round to replace the alternative of petroleum-based synthetic leathers. The Melbourne-based startup, founded in 2022 by Tina Funder, was backed by Startmate, The Austin Group, Robyn Denholm’s family office Wollemi Capital Group, and LaunchVic’s Alice Anderson Fund, along with strategic angel investors. … Read more »

Climate Tech

Meet Ubiquetherm: the Startmate climate tech startup creating new ways to create energy for heating and cooling

- December 1, 2023 5 MIN READ

Every now and again you hear about a technology that has so much transformative potential that it’s hard to wrap your head around it. ‍ The team from Ubiquetherm humbly refers to their invention as ‘the next generation of heating and cooling.’ What they are actually creating, is a breakthrough product that could have dramatic and brilliant… Read more »

Mic Black and Darryl Lyons
Other tech

Holy shiitake! Meet Rainstick, the Indigenous startup growing mushrooms with lightning

- November 24, 2023 6 MIN READ

Take a third-generation farmer with three startups under his belt and a serial innovator who’s turned algae into medicine and developed an AI mental health app for an A-league football team, and what you get is a recipe for magic. ‍ Combining ancient knowledge with future tech, Rainstick is developing a breakthrough innovation that mimicks the… Read more »

Gridmo
Funding

Grok Ventures backs renewable energy startup gridmo in $500,000 pre-Seed raise

- October 9, 2023 2 MIN READ

A renewable energy software startup to emerge out of the Startmate program has raised $500,000 in its first external round. Power systems engineers Jarman Stephens and Damien Vermeer cofounded gridmo earlier this year to fast track renewable energy grid connection studies. It was built to MVP in Startmate’s summer 23 cohort. The raise was led by the… Read more »

Accelerator

Startmate reveals the 13 new startups it’s backed ahead of SXSW Demo Day

- September 15, 2023 4 MIN READ

Female founders are involved in nearly 40% of the 13 startups in the Startmate class of winter 2023, with climate tech and AI among the key themes backed by the accelerator and investment program. The Winter23 Accelerator cohort spans everything from AI-powered recruitment to misdiagnosed prenatal ultrasounds and inflatable space solar panels.  Two of the… Read more »

Michael Batko
Events

LaunchVic is tipping another $300,000 into Startmate to teach uni students about startup life

- July 26, 2023 2 MIN READ

Victorian-government backed startup agency LaunchVic has granted another $300,000 to early-stage accelerator and investor Startmate to inspire around 300 university to become founders. The $300,000 grant over two years will see at least 320 Victorian university students complete the Startmate Student Fellowship, a three-week intensive designed to give students the confidence, connections and skills to… Read more »

Reactory founder Mark Eltom
Accelerator

It’s whisky Jim, but not as we know it: how distilling startup Reactory is creating mature flavours in days rather than decades

- May 15, 2023 4 MIN READ

Like so many of the world’s great tech companies, Reactory’s story starts in a garage. In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, while others were making their own kombucha and sourdough, Mark Eltom bought a still, and started making and maturing booze. A few lockdowns in, he was getting pretty good at it. Mark is… Read more »