QUT Creative Enterprise announces marketing entrants for Australia’s first creative tech accelerator
Marketing, customer experience and design companies are among the first intake of startups to the Queensland University of Technology’s creative tech accelerator announced today.
The announcement;
QUT Creative Enterprise Australia announces 10 startups accepted into Australia’s first creative tech accelerator
QUT Creative Enterprise Australia (CEA) today announces the 10 startups that have been accepted in its Collider Accelerator.
The three month accelerator is a proud Australian first which is carving the way for startups specialising across the creative tech verticals.
Commencing this week, the 10 participating companies will receive coaching from international mentors and deep domain experts. They’ll also receive pre-seed investment of $30,000 and meet strategic investors including angels, seed and Series A.
Heading up the 2018 program is CEA’s new Entrepreneur in Residence (EiR) Alan Jones who is revered as one of the most active Angel Investors and startup advocates in the country.
CEA’s Acting CEO Mark Gustowski says that this cohort is the next wave of entrepreneurs driving the creative economy.
“In additional to Alan, the 2018 Collider Accelerator will host over a dozen world class entrepreneurs to support and facilitate components of the program.
“We have attracted international talent spanning Australia, South Africa, Asia, the United Kingdom and the United States and this is all just the beginning. From here, we’ll take the cohort and offer them unprecedented opportunities in overseas markets”, says Mr Gustowski.
The final companies chosen each fitted the creative tech profile spanning verticals including machine learning, robotics, fashion tech, AR, VR and music tech.
Heading up the cohort is BOP Industries a Brisbane based holographic entertainment company started by teen entrepreneur Scott Millar; Exaptec, a robotic automation solutions startup specialising in service and social robots; VibeWire, an online platform that utilises advanced technology to verify, buy and sell concert tickets, and Brandollo, who won this year’s PauseFest pitching competition and aims to reduce the cost of marketing advice by up to 80 percent.
Furthering the stronghold of the cohort is Birdee, facial recognition software that provides data on shoppers to retailers; Can’t Sleep, an app developed that uses generative algorithms to create music to help you sleep better; Lána an online fashion tech marketplace for clothing rentals; Neona virtual wedding app that lets couples experience their big day in advance; Prysim a tech company dedicated to helping artists and musicians find their next gig, and Tribefire, who have developed automated logistics to produce and ship on-demand branded sports jerseys for teams and communities.
The nation’s first dedicated creative tech accelerator was conceptualised to fill an important industry gap and ensure that creative founders of these verticals were supported with niche area expertise. The program has been made possible through several strategic partnerships includingAdvance Queensland and the Queensland University of Technology (QUT).
“The support from our partners has helped us to shape rich engagement opportunities for the Collider companies to integrate with a myriad of creative programs, events and competitions to allow them every opportunity to grow.
“One of these opportunities lies in SE Asia where we’re opening up the channels into the ASEAN market, as an Australian first. The participants will meet with creative startups in Thailand, attend investor networking events and the TechSauce Summit, one of Asia’s biggest tech conferences with up to 12,000 people from the region expected to attend.
“Another crucial element to the accelerator is in ensuring we scope further pathways to support our startups across the lifecycle of their businesses”, says Mr Gustowski.
CEA’s pinnacle event Creative3 Pitch also targeting creative tech will open applications to the public in early May where the winner will be offered a host of incredible prizes to develop their business.
“Last year’s winner was Collider investee company Creatively Squared who went on to represent Australia at the global pitch competition, Creative Business Cup in Copenhagen, where they met with international investors. From there, they travelled to London and took place in the by-invitation only Virgin StartUp mini accelerator, StepUp”.
“We’re humbled and proud to offer these opportunities to the next winner of Creative3 Pitch and it’s fair to say that our Collider companies will be strong contenders for the title”, says Mr Gustowski.
For more information about submitting your interest for CEA’s Creative3 Pitch event visit:http://www.creative3.com.au/pitch/
The program and operations team from the Collider Program acknowledge the tremendous supportMcCullough Robertson have provided to each of the founders from the 2018 cohort and are very excited to be co-hosting the this year’s Demo Day in collaboration with the McR team.
From a QUT media release
