The remarkable success of employee management platform Deputy, which became Australia’s first tech unicorn in two years in March, has seen the 15-year-old tech company named Scaleup of the Year at the 2024 Startup Daily Best in Tech awards.
The recognition, at a gala dinner with 270 guests at Sydney’s Ivy Ballroom had a certain synergy, on a night where Startup Daily editor Simon Thomsen, AWS head of startups John Kearney and keynote speaker Maria MacNamara spoke of love, hope, inspiration and collaboration.
In presenting the award to the Deputy team, Kearney revealed that he’s worked there prior to joining AWS. And Thomsen recognised Deputy’s global strategic communications director, Mat Beeche, as the founder of Startup Daily, saying “without his foresight we wouldn’t all be here tonight”.
AWS head of startups, John Kearney, and the Deputy team, winners of Scaleup of the Year
Among Deputy’s achievements in the past year, the company is now profitable, having delivered an $8.5 million statutory profit in FY23, a turnaround from a $24.9 million loss 12 months earlier. Impressively, revenue trebled in just three years to pass $100 million in annual recurring revenue by 2023.
Startup of the Year went to Fortiro, a fintech specialising in automated document fraud detection and financial verification, used by some of Australia’s most trusted financial institutions.
In her keynote address, Maria MacNamara compared Australia’s recent Olympic success and the investment made to achieve with the potential for Australian startups, especially as a leader in space tech.
There were plenty of surprises on the night, with food waste recycling startup Goterra sharing the Most Innovative Startup award with Agili8, which is closing the gaps of healthcare inequity, especially for Aboriginal, rural, regional and remote communities, connecting frontline and remote workforces with offsite experts and/or AI assistance in real time using smart glasses or a smartphone.
The second year of the Best in Tech Awards had its own scaleup, with five new categories, including The GSD Award.
Will Tjo from Day One with the winners of the GSD award, LaunchVic
While tech giant Atlassian has popularised the phrase, polite version of the acronym is “Get Stuff Done”. And LaunchVic has, recognised for its pioneering Alice Anderson sidecar fund to back female founders and now rolling out the Hugh McKay fund, focused in agtech.
The judges also recognised crowdfunding platform Birchal in the GSD category with a Highly Commended. In 2023, Birchal facilitated $53 million in investment across 57 successful offers from 29,000 investors.
Accelerator and investor Startmate received the new Startup Investor of the Year award, having written 49 seed cheques in 2023, making it the most active seed investor in ANZ. Melbourne early-stage investor Skalata Ventures was Highly Commended
Among awards for individuals transforming the sector and the world, The Startup Network’s Vicki Stirling was recognised as Industry Champion and told the audience it had been a tough year for her networking startup over the past 12 months, and the award was both validation and inspiration to keep pushing to support other startups.
Dr Vikram Palit, who set out to digitise medical referrals, which, to the shock and surprise of many, are still sent by fax, was named Best New Founder leading his startup, Consultmed, a finalist in the Startup of the Year and AI Gamechanger categories too.
And in another new award, Youth in Motion CEO Caitlin Tanaka was recognised as Future Leader of the Year for her work in helping young people in remote NSW with their education.
Tank Stream Labs CEO Brad Delamare and the Fortiro team, winners of Startup of the Year
Some of the biggest cheers of the night were heard from the Agrifutures table with the annual evokeAG was named Startup Event of the Year. The fourth evokeAG in Perth supported 40 local and international companies in Startup Alley, featured 8 companies pitching at the Investor Pitch Dinner, hosted 15 companies on the demo stage, and introduced Scaleup Station, an exhibition of 10 agritech scaleups previously in Startup Alley.
With artificial intelligence one of the hottest startup sectors, a new award, AI Gamechanger, went to Curious Thing AI, which recently launched Lucy, the world’s first free AI phone agent, to handle missed calls.
AJ Koch, managing director of Pinstripe Media, publishers of Startup Daily, said the awards recognised the brilliance, resilience and imagination of Australia’s startups and scaleups.
“A huge thanks to AWS Startups for returning as major partner for the Best in Tech awards. It was such a great night and a much-needed boost for the sector, giving everyone a chance to celebrate and let their hair down, especially with Tank Stream Labs hosting a rocking after party in the Ivy penthouse,” he said.
“Thank you so much to all our sponsors and supporters who made the night possible. We can’t wait to do it all again next year.”
Alongside a trophy, the winners also received a 15-inch touchscreen portable display from Sydney startup espresso Displays, laser-marked with a special Startup Daily Best in Tech logo.
The winners in the 15 categories in the Startup Daily Best in Tech Awards are:
Deputy – Scaleup of the Year
Supported by AWS Startups
Deputy’s workforce management solutions streamline compliance processes to reduce admin. But what impressed the award judges is the company’s turnaround over the past 18 months, including a return profitability in FY2023, and strong growth in Aussie, UK, and US markets with revenue growing by nearly 50% alongside a similar increase in headcount. In early 2024, Deputy formed strategic partnerships with Express Pro and Xero, making them the first unicorn in Australia in the last two years.
Fortiro – Startup of the Year
Supported by S2S Summit
Fortiro is leading the way by fighting document fraud and reducing fraudulent loans, claims and payments, with its automated fraud detection capabilities enabling lenders, insurers and payments companies to proactively identify and prevent fraudulent applications and transactions.
In the last 12 months, Fortiro has grown 3 times over on most key metrics. It has top 10 ASX clients including NAB, launched new products including Protect Investigator, which uses advanced image forensics to identify document tampering in real time and is now processing documents from North America.
Goterra and Agili8 – Most Innovative Startup
Supported by x15ventures
Based in the ACT, Goterra manages food waste with modular, robotic insect farms. The startup now collaborates with City of Sydney, launched in Brisbane and is building a major facility in Western Sydney. They’ve processed over 20,000 tonnes of food waste, saving over 30 million kilograms of CO2-equivalent emissions.
Agili8 closes the gaps of healthcare inequity in communities where clinicians are scarce and healthcare is inaccessible due to distance. It can solve critical problems like wound care from a workplace injury, as well as healthcare in remote communities, in real time, integrating extended reality, AI and computer vision into a pair of lightweight smart glasses or a smartphone.
Cauldron – Best Regional Startup
Supported by Antler
Cauldron is pioneering the next frontier in biomanufacturing to transform how everything from food to fibres, animal feed, fuels, and more are created.
In March the startup raised $9.5 million in a Series A and just last month, $4.3 million from the federal government’s revamped entrepreneurship program.
Over the past year under founder Michelle Stansfield Cauldron has gained commercial traction, taking on several customers with commercial agreements generating nine figures in annual revenue.
Curious Thing AI – AI Gamechanger
Supported by AWS Startups
Curious Thing AI has been shaking up the way businesses communicate with their customers for the past 6 years. It was Australia’s first voice AI startup, and processes more than 3 million calls annually.
This year, Lucy, the world’s first free AI phone agent, launched in Australia and the US, and will soon land in the UK and Canada. Curious Thing’s goal is to replace voicemail with AI for personal, professional or business to handle missed calls.
Vicki Stirling – Industry Champion
Supported by Airwallex
Vicki Stirling is the CEO of The Startup Network, and has had a huge impact over the last 12 months, most notably in June last year when OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman appeared in Melbourne in front of more than 2000 people at a free event.
She’s taken The Startup Network national and delivered 89 events, 15 programs, a major startup festival, all within a year, with a team of just 3. Vicki also developed the Female Founder Circle, which brings together Female Founders at all stages in their journey.
Samsara Eco – Best Sustainability Startup
Samsara Eco’s unique technology breaks complex plastics down to their building blocks so that they can be used again, and again and again, ending a reliance on virgin plastics to create true circularity, starting with fashion waste and moving to automotive and other complex plastics.
They are the first company in the world to recycle nylon 6,6 with their partners, the activewear brand lululemon.
Hysata – Best Startup Culture
Supported by Vanta
Wollongong-based hydrogen startup Hysata was the 2023 Best in Tech Startup of the Year. They currently have around 85 staff and in the last 18 months they have averaged an employment engagement score of 92%, placing it in Culture Amp’s top 10% of companies globally.
As employee Denise Chan said: “the team culture is phenomenal”.
Sunflower AI – Best New Idea
Highly commended: Build Buddy
Supported by ACS Labs
Sunflower AI is a social impact startup using LLM-powered AI technology to provide high-precision, browser-based live captions solution for events to help the hearing impaired. The real-time captions creator can provide live translations of 32 languages.
Since launching in late 2023, they’ve worked with clients including the NSW Government, CSIRO, Tank Stream Labs and the University of Queensland.
Dr Vikram Palit, Consultmed – Best New Founder
Supported by Spark Festival
Vikram Palit, Consultmed’s founder, is a doctor who decided to do something about clinicians drowning in paperwork, building a digital platform to connect patients, care providers, and specialists with hospital networks to deliver tracked digital referrals, triage, and AI-backed digital advice and guidance.
Anna El Tahchy, Nourish Ingredients – Best Technical Leader
Supported by StartxLabs
Dr Anna El Tahchy is an innovator in agriculture, food and product development, with a background in food chemistry and deep experience in lipid engineering. She steers Nourish Ingredients’ R&D efforts and oversees a team of scientists. Anna is a fierce advocate for women in science and over half of her diverse team are female.
Nourish Ingredients identifies fats for alternative and traditional food companies seeking to boost production with fewer or no animal ingredients, without sacrificing taste.
Caitlin Tanaka, Youth in Motion – Future Leader
Supported by Firemark Ventures
Caitlin is CEO of Youth in Motion, which connects people under 24 with volunteer tutors who provide guidance and mentorship, operating online capacity to reach people across NSW. YiM has partnered with 10 schools to offer support.
They have a team of 12 tutors who’ve collectively delivered 640 hours of tutoring. Caitlin has completed her MBA in Entrepreneurship with a focus on Youth in Motion.
Agrifutures evokeAG – Best Startup Event
evokeAG, which began in 2019, is a dynamic bridge within the agrifood tech landscape, linking emerging startups and ambitious scaleups with a diverse ecosystem encompassing farmers, innovators, researchers, industry giants, government bodies, and investors.
The evokeAG Startup Program gives founders a compelling platform to share their stories and successes, while spotlighting their groundbreaking innovations.
Startmate – Startup Investor of the Year
Highly Commended: Skalata Ventures
Michael Batko and his Startmate team invest in founders from the beginning – an idea, obsession, and ambition to change the world, spanning hardware and software solutions across climate-tech, health-tech, ed-tech, fin-tech and more. Over the last 5 years the average Startmate Accelerator cohort is 43% women co-founded companies.
Mentors personally invest and founders pay it forward and return to mentor the next gen of founders.
LaunchVic – The GSD Award
Supported by Day One
Highly Commended: Birchal
LaunchVic’s Alice Anderson Fund has now made 36 investments in women-led startups since 2021, activating more than $42 million in private sector investment into women-led businesses.
Portfolio companies have created more than 300 new jobs, with 60% of executive positions are held by women and generating more than $2 million in export revenue. They hope for similar success with the Hugh McKay fund.
The success of Dr Kate Cornick’s team was reflected in the Victorian government providing an additional $40 million in funding to the organisation over the next 4 years.
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