NRMA reveals startups for Jumpstart accelerator

Successful startups get $30,000 and a workspace

The founders of the six startups entering NRMA Jumpstart strike a pose in Darling Harbour. Credit: NRMA

The founders of the six startups entering NRMA Jumpstart strike a pose in Darling Harbour. Credit: NRMA

Six startups will join the Jumpstart accelerator program at the National Road & Motorists’ Association, NRMA has announced.

Each startup entering the 12-week Jumpstart program will receive $30,000, a workspace, training and mentorship, and access to NRMA’s 2.4 million members.

“Our successful startups have a very steep business education ahead of them,” said NRMA Group CEO Tony Stuart. “They will receive business advice, training and mentoring from recognised experts in the startup world.”

NRMA partnered with Slingshot Accelerator to provide the program. It is supported by Artesian Venture Partners, UTS Business School, the University of Newcastle, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Sparke Helmore Lawyers.

The Jumpstart program opened on 6 December with six startups :

  1. Careseekers - a national service to help people find in-home carers
  2. WunderWalk - a personalised pocket tour guide
  3. Gamurs - a social network for gamers
  4. Camplify - a service to connect campers with camping services including caravans and holiday parks.
  5. OTTO by Gizmosis - voice recognition technology for making and receiving calls and SMS while driving
  6. Hive UAV - maker of drones for agriculture, emergency services and industry

NRMA is one of several large Australian enterprises looking to startups to spur innovation within their organisations. Other examples include Telstra (muru-D), Optus (Innov8) and ANZ Bank (Innovyz).

At a Jumpstart launch event in Sydney last year, Stuart said he’s excited about the startup program because startups bring fresh outsider perspective and can act as representatives for NRMA customers.

“We’re frustrated entrepreneurs,” he said of the people at NRMA. “We think we’re entrepreneurs but we’re stuck inside reasons why companies can’t do this and can’t do that – business process, budgets [and] plans.”

Adam Bender covers telco and enterprise tech issues for Computerworld and is the author of dystopian sci-fi novels We, The Watched and Divided We Fall. Follow him on Twitter: @WatchAdam

Follow Computerworld Australia on Twitter: @ComputerworldAU, or take part in the Computerworld conversation on LinkedIn: Computerworld Australia

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Tags startupsNRMAfundingroad-side assistancestartup acceleratorsstartup workspace

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