Startup News

Curtin Accelerator cohort pitch to Perth

Liam Wignell
Liam Wignell
// // Nine pitches were made on Wednesday night

As part of Curtin University’s free annual week-long Research Rumble events program, Pitch Perfect was held on Wednesday, 21 April at Curtin University’s 137 George Terrace building to a sold-out crowd.

The event is designed to showcase teams of promising entrepreneurs who have been developing business plans to pitch to the local business community.

All the participants have been through Curtin Accelerate – a free 10-week business idea program – which is designed to help kick start clever business ideas.  The program is Perth’s oldest running accelerator program and is open to Curtin students, staff and alumni along with graduates of the Curtin Ignition program.

Notably, the pitches were not necessarily for investment – many simply wanted to raise awareness of their new ventures and attract the attention of potential mentors and advisors.

In total, there were nine pitches during the evening. All pitches were limited to about five minutes with the audience free to ask the entrepreneurs questions afterwards.

The enterpises

First up, Apsyrtus Biotechnology – a team, consisting of vets and Curtin engineering graduates, who are developing VetChip – a next-generation pet monitoring device that will help manage the health of animals. 

Curtin Accelerator cohort pitch to Perth
The Apsyrtus Biotechnology team. Image Supplied.

Fibre Economy – a team of three Curtin fashion graduates and mine workers whose mission is to help steer Western Australia towards a circular fashion and textile model. As part of this, they have established Second Life Workwear, which is a workwear recycling initiative that facilitates the redistribution of unwanted high visibility workwear.

Omni Biotechnology – founded by two Curtin graduates – who actually met on a course at Stanford University in the United States – this venture is tackling dehydration, an issue considered to be the biggest occupational health safety risk in many workplaces, by using user-centric wearable devices that provide fluidic biomarker analytics.

Challenge – a gamified team-based learning platform. Platform can offer individualised feedback.

Co-Architecture – a membership-based platform for on-demand architecture staff. Currently has staff in Perth and Sydney with an adviser in Melbourne.

eDNA Frontiers – an industry-driven and Curtin research group that provides a biomonitoring solution that audits environmental samples. Currently has a revenue model where users pay-per-sample.

JOSO GLOWSO – a natural skin product featuring tablets consisting of collagen peptides from Germany. Currently listed by the Therapeutic Goods Administration with MECCA already asking for samples.

LinXmart – a Curtin-based group that has developed secure data-linkage software. Already being used by universities in Australia, Canada and the UK.

Mango Project – an enterprise that re-purposes mango waste into skincare products – capitalising on the numerous health benefits of mangoes.

Curtin Accelerator cohort pitch to Perth
Larry Lopez (second from right) addressing the crowd with Rohan McDougall (L) and Paula Taylor (R) along with several of the programs participants on the left. Image – Startup News.

After the pitches, Larry Lopez, Rohan McDougall and Paula Taylor were all thanked by the participants for their efforts towards conducting the program. Larry concluded he was impressed with this year’s cohort and their pitches – especially given only a relatively small part of the program was devoted to the art of pitching.

Many previous alumni of the program have gone on to great success with their ventures; upon graduating from the program, HyprFire, a cyber defence company, went on to raise $2.25 million from prominent local investors.

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Curtin University is a sponsor of Startup News. The author was invited by the University to attend the event on behalf of Startup News.

Read more of the latest news from the startup ecosystem here

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Liam Wignell

Liam Wignell

Liam has extensive experience across marketing, procurement and project management roles in both the public and private sector. He contributed to Startup News from 2020 to 2023 and was contracted as Managing Editor in 2022.
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