- Cook
Government's Founders Factory Nature Tech Accelerator program begins
- Six
nature tech start-ups confirmed as the first participants after an extensive
selection process
- Start-ups to benefit from expertise of one of
the world's most acclaimed commercialisation accelerators
A project developing
'plant factories' to grow food in space and a start-up producing seaweed
compounds to reduce methane emissions from cattle are among the inaugural
participants the Founders Factory WA Nature Tech Accelerator program.
Announced earlier this
year, the Cook Government's
Nature Tech Accelerator partnership with global start-up accelerator Founders
Factory has selected six early-stage start-ups to receive seed capital and
expert support.
The global tech investor
already runs programs in cities including London, Milan, Berlin, Johannesburg
and New York, and has backed more than 300 companies around the world - with
its new Perth-based accelerator backed by a $7.2 million Cook Government
investment.
Each enterprise will receive $50,000 funding to support their enterprise
in the early development, often pre-revenue stage. The start-ups will be
involved in a four-month
intensive support program where they will receive wraparound, bespoke support to help them grow
their enterprises.
The accelerator program
will run over three years and mitigates the need for ambitious local start-ups
to exit the State to pursue their global scaling goals.
The six successful start-ups
are:
- SeaStock - producing and extracting compounds
derived from seaweed;
- Agra - sustainable crop production systems
producing crops at same price as traditional field agriculture;
- OceanHex - marine restoration through
innovative, scalable kelp reforestation technology;
- Nitronic - sustainable nitrogen fertiliser
production through non-thermal plasma technology;
- Call to Country - empowering organisations to
embed cultural competency and Indigenous engagement into core operations; and
- X-Centric - high performance soil testing
instruments.
For more information and
for start-ups looking to apply see: Western
Australia Government & Founders Factory Nature Tech Program - Founders
Factory
Comments attributed to Innovation and the Digital Economy Minister
Stephen Dawson:
"Supporting unique nature
start-ups to expand and thrive on a global scale is key to our Government's
goal of diversifying and decarbonising the State's economy.
"WA has a thriving nature-based
innovation sector, and I'm pleased that local projects will be able to access a
global network of investors and experts, without leaving the State.
"Founders Factory is
renowned worldwide as being one of the best commercialisation accelerators and
having the opportunity to nurture local start-ups here is an incredibly
valuable opportunity.
"I am looking forward to
the continued innovations to come from not only these selected six but for what
the next few years hold for the WA Nature Tech Accelerator program."
