#29 What's Up, Adelaide? Weekly Update

Be in-the-know in the South Australian startup scene

Dec 06, 2020

What's up, Adelaide? I hope you had a great weekend and are fresh for a wonderful new summer week ahead.

As the year comes to a close, are you planning to host an end of 2020 party with your team, friends or family? if so, you should check out a special offer by Sophya, a startup developing fun virtual workspaces.

Finally, I will post next week issue #30 of What’s Up, Adelaide? After this, this author will take a break, so issue #30 and will be the last post until mid-January 2021. Stay tuned!

Special Offer

Sophya Holiday Office Party

This week we have a special offer from Sophya, a startup focused on making work work for everyone, anywhere and at any time. They build fun virtual spaces to help any team succeed delightfully in the remote world.

2020 was, in a word, terrible. But your end of year celebration doesn’t have to be too. Sophya wants to give you the space to reconnect and say goodbye to 2020 together.

You made it through, now enjoy, even if just for one event. Play games, cast music to everyone, and most importantly, have actual conversations instead of one giant checkerboard of faces with holiday backgrounds. Want to use the space as your office afterwards? That’s fine too and the pricing is simple: $20/person/month for a virtual office space.

A good friend of mine, Colton Neves, works for Sophya and wants to extend a 15% off gift to all “What’s up, Adelaide” readers. If you’re interested, connect with him for a tour here.

Opportunities

⚖️ Auctus Allens Legal Accelerator — Due: Dec 11th

Auctus Allens Legal Accelerator has been launched to help startups ‘scale’ by working closely with Allens through a combination of expert advice, an education program and facilitated access to the Allens network. Find more

👩‍💻 Women In AI Awards 2021 — Due: Dec 14th

Women in AI (WAI) is a global network of female experts and professionals in the field of Artificial Intelligence working towards gender-inclusive AI that benefits a global society. Our mission is to close the gender gap in the field by educating the next generation of female leaders in AI and to increase female representation and participation in AI. Find more

South Start and Innovation Bay: Australian Startup Showcase — Due: Dec 22nd

Innovation Bay is teaming up again with Southstart to bring together Australia's brightest startups and the investors who want to fund them to Adelaide, for a special Startup Showcase on 17th February. We're on the hunt for Australia's best tech startups to pitch to an audience of local and national angel investors and VCs at the SouthStart technology festival in Australia's food and wine capital. Find more

🚀 Antler Acceleration Program — Due: rolling basis until December 2020

We are a global early-stage VC that enables and invests in the defining companies of tomorrow. We help you get from 0 to 1 in two phases. The first phase is about team and idea. We will help you find your co-founder, develop, and validate your business idea. At the end of this phase, we can invest in the companies. These teams continue onto phase two. The next three months are about building your MVP, getting traction, and getting ready for your next investment round. Find more

🛰️ UniSA ICC Venture Catalyst Space Program — Due: Jan 3rd 2021

Venture Catalyst is a six-month program of support to develop founders with innovative ideas delivered by UniSA’s startup incubator, the Innovation & Collaboration Centre (ICC). The Space category, supported by the State Government's Space Innovation Fund, is the state's first program designed specifically for startups who are developing new services or products for the space industry. The program gives founders the support and tools they need to plan and successfully build a scalable and investment-ready business. Find more

🍃 Founder Institute: Adelaide - Silicon Valley Virtual 2021 — Due Jan 30th 2021

As the world’s largest pre-seed startup accelerator, the Adelaide Founder Institute can help you: (i) focus on what's important, (ii) make smart decisions and (iii) build a global business. Since 2009, we have helped over 4,500 portfolio companies raise over $950M in funding, solve big problems, build products people love, recruit amazing teams, and more. Find more

🔋 Pitch to EnergyLab’s Cleantech Round 9 — Due Feb 3rd 2021

EnergyLab’s angel group is a unique network of investors who believe in the importance and potential of cleantech startups, can make decisions quickly and will continue to support you well after they’ve invested. Find more

🔋 Pitch to EnergyLab’s Cleantech Round 10 — Due Apr 28th 2021

💻 Melt Accelerator — Due: Jun 29th 2021

The MELT’s accelerator and incubator programs will revolutionize the way hardware Startups prove, prototype, pilot and produce globally scalable products and companies. Find more

💡 Smart Regional Incubator — Due: 4th Tue of the month on a rolling basis

The UNE SMART Region Incubator accepts applications from new startups that are scaling up and ready to build the regional economy. Our focus is on startups bringing to market solutions for agriculture, health, environmental services and creative industries. Find more

🔋 Brinc’s Australian Clean Energy Program — Due: open year-round

A three month Clean Energy Accelerator Program in Sydney, that is uniquely designed to support Australian startups that have fully developed solutions, have established product-market fit, and are ready for commercialization. Find more

👩‍🌾 Spark Lab Cultiv 8 Accelerator — Due: open year-round

SparkLabs Cultiv8 identifies leading startups working on innovative food and agricultural technology. Our mission is to cultivate growth stage Ag and Food Tech companies with researchers, farmers, investors and global corporate partners, to help digitise agriculture and contribute to a more sustainable future. Find more

Government-backed Programs

🛰️ SA Space Innovation Fund — Due: multiple programs and dates

The South Australian Space Industry Centre is supporting the state’s emerging space industry by providing funding to grow jobs and build South Australia’s space ecosystem through the Space Innovation Fund. Find more

🗳️ SA Go2Gov — Due: open year-round

The Government of South Australia has established the Go2Gov
pilot program to encourage and support local startups and early-stage scalable businesses to bring innovative solutions to government as the first or reference customer. Find more

💰 SA Venture Capital Fund — Due: open year-round

To help build South Australian companies to a national and global scale, the South Australian Government has established the $50 million SAVCF that will invest in dynamic and innovative early-stage companies to accelerate their growth to a national and global scale. Find more

🤝 SA Mentor Program — Due: open year-round

Through the Office of the Chief Entrepreneur and the Department for Innovation and Skills, you are invited to register your interest in an informal mentoring service exclusively for South Australian startups and scaleups. Find more

🔬CSIRO Kick-Start — Due: open year-round

CSIRO Kick-Start provides matched funding for start-ups and small to medium enterprises to help access CSIRO's research expertise and capabilities to help grow your business. Find more

💰 Accelerating Commercialisation — Due: open year-round

Accelerating Commercialisation provides small and medium businesses, entrepreneurs and researchers with access to expert advice and funding to help get a novel product, process or service to market. Find more

🏭SMART Projects and Supply Chains — Due: open year-round

The SMART Projects and Supply Chains service provides businesses with access to strategic or high-value projects that increase business capability, meet the specific needs of a market opportunity, or otherwise improve business performance and leadership capacity. Find more

🧾 Research and Development Tax Incentive — Due: open year-round

The Research and Development Tax Incentive helps to offset some of the costs you put into eligible R&D, which benefits the wider Australian economy. Find more

💡 Innovation Connections — Due: open year-round

Innovation Connections assists businesses to understand their research needs, connect with the research sector and fund collaborative research projects. Find more.

🚢Export Market Development Grants — Due: open year-round

Export Market Development Grants reimburse promotional expenses for exporters aiming to increase their international sales. Find more

🔥 Ecosystem Resources

Y Combinator Startup Library

Over the past 15 years, we’ve created many videos, podcasts and essays as resources for startup founders. We’ve now consolidated them here in the YC Startup Library. Find more

The Guild Library

The Guild of Entrepreneurs created a curated library of resources containing 460 pieces of content to help you make the next step along the entrepreneurship journey. Find more

Flinders Legal Centre

Operated by Flinders University, College of Business, Government and Law, the Flinders Legal Centre operates a free legal advice service to the community. Through online appointments, our experienced supervising solicitors work closely with student interns and recent graduates to provide legal advice and information. Find more

Veromo Offers a $50 Discount to Register Your Business

Veromo is a smart business start-up engine, built for start-ups and entrepreneurs. We’ve fast-tracked starting a business into one simple, easy-to-navigate process – all for a fraction of the cost of a lawyer or accountant. Promo code: SUPAD$50. Valid on both: Business in a Box and Company Starter Package until 31 July 2021

Switch, Start, Scale

Entrepreneurship Facilitators provide practical assistance to support and encourage individuals to start a business as a way to create their own job. Find more

🦄 Incubators and Accelerators

Innovation and Collaboration Center

The Innovation & Collaboration Centre (ICC) is the University of South Australia's startup incubator. The ICC engages with the community through the delivery of community events, workshops and programs which draw on the research and professional expertise of UniSA and our partners, to support the generation of new startups and the growth of existing companies. Find more

New Venture Institute

Welcome to Flinders New Venture Institute. Operating out of the Tonsley Innovation District, we provide people and businesses with the tools to take innovation beyond the buzzword, locally, nationally and internationally. By connecting a vibrant ecosystem of startups, businesses and the humans behind them to our award-winning programs, events and educational pathways, we invite the next wave of disruptors to make their mark on the global workforce. Find more

Core Innovation Hub

CORE is Australia’s first innovation hub for the resources sector. We have established a national ecosystem for suppliers, researchers, entrepreneurs and industry to connect and collaborate on innovative solutions across mining, resources, energy, defence and space sectors. Find more

ThincLab

ThincLab is the place where unconventional thinkers can give their ideas an unfair advantage. It’s home to the creative thinkers, the rule-breakers, the challengers. The ones who see the world differently, and for whom ideas are everything and the future is unlimited. ThincLab is backed by the University of Adelaide. Find more

Founder Institute

The Founder Institute is the world's largest pre-seed startup accelerator, having helped launch over 4,500 companies across 200+ cities and six continents. Find more

Foment: Australia’s Wine and Tourism Tech Revolution

FOMENT offers intensive acceleration to innovative wine and tourism tech companies who are ready to scale up and then connects them with businesses in the industry who are positioned to use their products and services. Find more

Female Founders

If you are a female founder or an ally this post has lots of ideas and programs to support you in building your startup or to help bridge the gender gap.

📅 Webinars and meetups:

Cicada Innovations: Emerge Tech & STEM Career Expo. Nov 17th - Dec 19th

When complex science and research combines with the enabling force of technology, incredible things happen. We call these types of innovations “deep tech”. Sponsored by the City of Sydney and supported by South Eveleigh, our flagship event EMERGE 2020 is a 5-week celebration of the deep technologies being developed in Australia that are disrupting industries, revitalising our economy, creating the jobs of the future and changing the way we live. Find more

Innovation Bay: From Idea to IPO. Tue, Dec 8th | 7:30-9am ACDT

In 2000, Kate Morris began a beauty empire in her garage. She had 2 brands on board to start with, asked her boyfriend’s dad for a $12,000 loan to buy a basic website and stored stock under her bed. Kate was on a mission to change the beauty shopping experience for Australian women. A university job on cosmetics counters led Kate to realise that most women found department stores intimidating. Now, 20 years later, the business is definitely out of the garage. Adore Beauty has a warehouse and office, over 150 employees, sells 230+ leading beauty brands, serves over 1.5 million customers and is listed on the ASX as ABY. Find more

SWITCH 2020. Dec 7-11th

Asia’s leading technology, innovation and enterprise festival is back from 7-11 December 2020 in Singapore! The Singapore Week of Innovation and TeCHnology (SWITCH) is the one-stop platform where innovation meets enterprise, with access to global startups, investors, corporates, innovation community and ecosystem players. Last year, SFF x SWITCH saw a record 60,000+ participants from 140 countries, 1,000 exhibitors and 569 global luminary speakers. Find more

Atto Accelerator: Demo Day 2020. Wed, Dec 16th | 10:30am–1pm ACDT

We help female founders launch tech companies in an independent, scalable, and sustainable manner. Our goal is to become the number one educational provider for the world’s most promising female founders. Please join us for our upcoming startup showcase to wrap-up 2020 (what a year) and support the teams! Find more

South Start: In Conversation With Pasha Rayan. Thu, Dec 17th | 8:30am–9:15am ACDT

Join us in conversation with Pasha Rayan, Co-Founder and CTO at Forage - an ed-tech company that runs virtual training programs with world-leading companies to educate and recruit students.

Having raised over $11m in funding from the likes of Y Combinator, Transition Level Investments and Lightspeed Venture Partners - the startup, formally known as InsideSherpa, is seeking to tear down the barriers between potential and opportunity. Find more

Pause Fest Melbourne. Feb 3-5th 2021

Pause Fest is an independent, industry-driven movement with a mission to bring diverse intelligence together to fuel the next generation forward. We’ve been described as 'Innovation Capital', 'Octoberfest for business' and 'Woodstock for digital natives’. In 2020, we welcomed over 9,000 attendees and 10,000 online live viewers with over 50 media outlets from across the world. Find more

South Start: The Emergence. Feb 17-19th 2021

South Start is Australia’s leading curator of immersive and interactive adventures focused on helping humans to accelerate their network and knowledge in ways not traditionally found. We gather the best and brightest minds across Australia, NZ and beyond to connect and share through intelligent conversation, fabulous food and world-class wine. Find more

Bayamaral: Demo Day. Fri, Mar 19th 2021

Following the completion of the Barayamal Accelerator program, our Indigenous entrepreneurs will present their businesses at the demo day event. This national event will bring together Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians to showcase some of the best Indigenous entrepreneurs in Australia, break negative stereotypes and show the world that Indigenous entrepreneurs exist (like black swans) and they can also build successful businesses. Find more

👨‍💻 Jobs

Are you searching for your dream job startup job in South Australia? Have a look at the jobs boards through the link below:

Jobs Board

💰 Venture Funding

Are you seeking venture funding for your startup? If so, consider reading my previous post #6 and have a look at the following database of venture capital firms and private investment groups.

VC Funding

This is all for today! If you like this post, leave a comment and connect with me on Twitter or LinkedIn! If you would like to just say hi, or publish a story, event or job announcement on this newsletter, please drop me a line. Finally, click subscribe below to receive this newsletter every week by email.

Keep building,
Rob Blum

What's up, Adelaide?