$616,240 in co-investment grants to support the commercialisation of Western Australian innovations has been announced today as part of the third round of the state government’s X-TEND WA grants program.
The service providers will use the grants to deliver educational projects that will help WA entrepreneurs to expand their capability and facilitate their innovation journey and/or improve investor education and build confidence in those investing in innovative projects.
The eight recipients will receive grants ranging from $20,000 to $100,000. The recipients were drawn from more than 40 applications, which included initiatives for regional, female founders and First Nations entrepreneurs.
Though 1:1 co-investment applications were preferred, non-matched co-funding applications were also evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Up to $100,000 per successful applicant was available under the program, with the pool initially being $500,000.
Under the conditions of the program, recipients will be given a year to deliver their programs.
The recipients
| Company name | Title of project | Sector focus | Location |
| VentureX HQ | VentureX HQ | Female founders and female investors networking educational program. | Metro |
| Agristart | CONNECT Sustainable Industries | Regional focused support for entrepreneurs in the sustainable industries and future energy sector. | Regionally focused |
| Life Sciences Inc | Life Sciences WA Investment Series | WA’s first dedicated life sciences investor education program. | Metro |
| Atomic Sky | Quantum TX WA 2022 | Cross-sector industry growth and scaleup program in the space and technology economy | Metro |
| For Blue | Blue Gravity – growing WA as a centre for marine industry innovation | Investment and support for innovative marine SMEs and WA’s ‘blue’ (ocean) economy | Metro and regionally focused |
| IPS Foundation | CREATE | Pre-accelerator program for First Nation entrepreneurs from across Western Australia. | Regionally focused |
| St Catherine’s College | Orbit Accelerator Program | Accelerator for youth entrepreneurship | Metro |
| Spacecubed Ventures | She Codes Female Founders Program | Female founder development through a digital technology incubator program. | Metro |
What is X-TEND?
X-TEND was established in 2019 as part of the state government’s strategy to diversify the economy by supporting and accelerating new and emerging businesses via the New Industries Fund.
Since 2019 it has awarded over $1.6 million to 19 education programs for sectors including health technologies regional innovation, export market entry and impact, along with angel investment.
In last year’s 2021-22 State Budget provisions to continue the fund until 2025 were made.
“Following a large number of competitive applications for round three of the X-TEND WA program, we have increased the total amount of funding available from $500,000 to more than $615,000,” said Innovation and ICT Minister Stephen Dawson in a statement.
Over the next year, the eight grant recipients will deliver education programs that support entrepreneurs on their innovation journey, from ideation to scale up, and help build confidence in investing in innovative projects.
Stephen Dawson MLC, Minister for Innovation and ICT
Previous recipients have included Telethon Kids Institute and Impact Seed, with the first two rounds seeing $933,000 spread across 11 education programs including space supply chain.
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