Australian natural gas producer Woodside has come on board as a major partner for the 2021 Plus Eight Program, which is set to open later this month.
Woodside joins BetterLabs, Eastcourt, Mirvac, Hawaiian and Jackson MacDonald in shaping the future of startups in Western Australia.
With $1.08M invested through the program, $10M in follow-on investments and an $81M portfolio valuation, the Plus Eight program has Perth’s most prestigious and successful tech accelerator program.
Woodside’s partnership is the latest step in the company’s plans to better connect with startups. With a recent track record of investments in companies like Blue Ocean Seismic Services, GLX and Sapien Cyber, Woodside launched the FutureLab Spark! program at the end of last year. FutureLab Spark lead Rob Affleck said Woodside is proud to invest in the State’s emerging entrepreneurs.
As a Western Australian company founded on pioneering efforts, we fully appreciate the value of bright ideas and cutting-edge thinking from unexpected sources. We’re excited about tapping into this talent and supporting its growth.
Rob Affleck, Woodside
Despite the Covid pandemic, the 2020 program was successful, in terms of participation from the wider startup community and also with deal flow. BetterLabs recently executed one follow on investment and a further two opportunities are in the pipeline.
General Manager of Strategic Innovation at RAC James Edwards said that participation in the 2020 Plus Eight program has been of significant value for BetterLabs and they are very excited to continue this partnership for the 2021 program.
“Supporting a thriving and diverse startup community in WA is one of the key objectives of BetterLabs, and Spacecubed’s Plus Eight program is a strategic vehicle with which we can achieve this goal.”
Spacecubed expects a strong year for startups in 2021, and General Manager Chandra Sundareswaran is looking forward to working with the new partners to support the next wave of startups in WA.
“Over the past four years we’ve established a very strong program, and the Plus Eight alumni have been growing and scaling in Australia and overseas. We’re seeing a significant shift in the number of quality startups in WA and we’re excited to enable this positive change”.
An information session hosted at FLUX was held this evening (March 25, 2021) and the Plus Eight program will be launching in May.
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Spacecubed is a sponsor of Startup News.
