The Business Centre on 30 January hosted the Regional NSW to the World investor showcase in Sydney, where some of the Hunter’s most exciting scale-ups pitched to a room full of venture capitalists and the cream of the Sydney innovation community.
The event, co-hosted by Ernst and Young, saw a selection of Hunter based start-ups, from industries including renewable energy, agri-tech and health, pitch their scaleable companies to a full house.
According to the CEO of the Business Centre, Steve Wait, many of these start-ups have serious traction for their products and services and are looking to continue their commercialisation or globalisation process.
“These founders were all champing at the bit to show Sydney investors some of the brilliant, scaleable innovations that come from the regions,” he said.
“We heard exceptional pitches from our scale-up founders – Dr Dan Powell of Kompozition, Erich Kisi of MGA Thermal, David Lyall of Bee Innovative, Justin Bain of 3ME Technologies and Daniel Edge of Compeat Nutrition.
“Bee Innovative took out the best pitch award and David and Kate Lyall are doing amazing things with their company – an AgTech company that significantly increases bee pollinated crop yield and quality through the identification, tracking and reporting of bee pollination in near real time.
“Their BeeDar and Bee ID innovations will maximise pollination and eradicate disease, in their words, ‘for farmers, for food security and for our future,” he continued.
Steve said that the founders were blown away by the ideas each start-up presented and how the region are excelling with innovative technology solutions.
“Our NSW To The World Investor Showcase was an outstanding opportunity for Hunter region scaleups to take their innovations to the world via the Sydney start-up and innovation community.
“We love to share the extraordinary talent that lies within our region with people who can recognise that talent, nurture it, invest in it and take it even further,” he said.
Steve said the event was opened by Member of the Legislative Council, Taylor Martin MLC, who supported the regional scaleups who travelled to Sydney to be part of the event.
Taylor said the NSW Government is committed to cultivating the entrepreneurial spirit that exists in the Hunter.
“It is the ideas and innovation that come from local start-ups that will drive the Hunter’s future economic growth,” he said.
Steve said Justin Hales, CEO of Camplify – a Hunter company now operating in Spain and the UK and set to launch into New Zealand – was the guest speaker at Regional NSW to the World.
“Camplify is a brilliant example of how regional companies can solve a local problem and then scale up to meet national and international needs.”
“We have curated the ‘NSW to the World’ event to showcase all of the amazing regional talent we know exists and to ensure that these startups are given what they need to continue on their journey of commercialisation and globalisation.”
He went on to say that the event was a huge success, and that the Start House in the Upper Hunter and Port Stephens region can’t wait to welcome more start-up ideas and innovation in 2020.
IMAGE | EY Night scale-ups partners
