Optus Innov8 short-lists startups for seed funding
- 21 February, 2013 10:15
Ten Australian startups have made the short list for possible funding through round two of the SingTel and Optus Innov8 seed program.
The startups will pitch their business plans at an event in Sydney on 26 February, and final negotiations will take place in March and April.
Computerworld Australia interviewed one of the short-listed applicants, Pocketbook, earlier this year.
The full short list is:
- Pocketbook, a personal finance service
- Shiftr, mobile-based shift changing for casual employees
- Kinderloop, connecting parents to child care professionals at preschools using mobile devices
- Moore’s Cloud, a company that designs connected, intelligent Internet of Things devices and apps
- Ollo Mobile, which has designed a wearable mobile phone connecting seniors or children to their family
- Good Call, a marketplace of sales people from around the world
- Recruit Loop, a service that automates and outsources career recruitment
- Stackla, a social media aggregation and curation software-as-a-service tool for businesses
- Storyberg, a tool for app developers to measure impact of their releases
- OrionVM, developer of cloud technology that powers public, private and hybrid clouds
Optus Innov8 received 92 applications, including 44 from New South Wales, 23 from Victoria, nine from South Australia, seven from Queensland, four from Western Australia, one from Canberra and one from Hobart. Another three came from Australian startups based overseas, Optus said.
Each application was reviewed by at least three people at Optus Innov8. The applications that ended up on the short list were reviewed by seven people, Optus said.
In November, Optus and Innov8—SingTel’s corporate venture capital fund—announced that it would invest in two Melbourne-based startups, 121cast and Venuemob. The seed program launched in June last year, provides up to $250,000 for each startup selected for investment.
Besides cash, the seed program provides startups with mentoring, networking and dedicated co-working spaces. Startups can reach Optus’ Australian customer base and also potentially expand into Asia.
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