Are you a techstar? Thursday, 22 March 2018

Innovative engineers are invited to apply to the Asia Pacific Techstars program that helps accelerate the launch of start-ups with a mentorship-driven program and funding.

Following a successful year of the US entrepreneurial organisation’s accelerator program, the second intake is open to start-ups involved in new technology in the defence and security sectors. In particular, it supports start-ups building innovative applications in IoT, big data, sensors and robotics.

Techstars Adelaide has positioned itself in the state that has become a hub for technology and defence contracts. These include $100 billion worth of major industry projects in South Australia including the Australian Government’s submarine program plus the $230 million Centre for Defence Industry Capability, the South Australian Space Industry centre and the world’s largest lithium ion battery built by Elon Musk.

Techstars managing director Terry Gold said the future for the Asia Pacific (APAC) program is looking bright.

“Adelaide is emerging as a regional hub for start-up development and we could not be more excited to be inviting the world’s best start-ups to participate in what is fast becoming the world’s leading defence accelerator,” Gold said.

The program can certainly put the money where its mouth is as it’s backed by international industry giants such as Boeing Defence Australia, Saab Australia, Thales and Codan Defence Electronics.

One of last year’s start-ups, Teamgage, developed a platform to enable large organisations to manage change and has grown its user base by more than 200% since July 2017. Noelle Smit, Teamgage’s co-founder and COO, said the start-up had signed up Thales as a client and is set to roll out the platform across the company’s 3500 team members across Australia.

Once applications are in for this year’s intake, 10 start-ups will be selected to join the APAC program. Applications close 13 May 2018 and the program starts 10 September 2018.

 

Image: Teamgage