Vocus Upstart finalists named

Tech accelerator Vocus Upstart has named the seven successful applicants to be offered a placement in its program and seed funding to help grow their ideas towards commercialisation.

The program will offer a three-month mentoring program, dedicated work space at tech hub Spacecubed and $40,000 to tech startups Veri.Vote, Everythere, Prevyou, Filtered, Jurimetrics, Immersia VR and Yabble.

Everythere and Alex Ure and Martin Astbury-founded Prevyou have both previously featured as Business News apps of the week.

The Vocus Upstart accelerator was formerly known as Amcom Upstart, prior to Vocus Communication’s takeover of Perth-based Amcom Telecommunications last year.

The program was created last year, in partnership with e-business association eGroup and Spacecubed.

This year, the program received 74 applications from across Australia and internationally, with 13 invited to pitch to an investment committee that included venture capitalist Matt Macfarlane, Brett Looney from Amazon Web Services, and program founder and director Robert Nathan.

“Whilst the number of applications was similar to last year the strength and depth of the applications this year was much greater,” Mr Nathan said.

“The Perth startup ecosystem is growing and evolving which is great to see.”

Vocus board member and former Amcom boss Anthony Grist said the combination of mentoring and financial help in the program would open doors to greater success in the WA tech sector.

“It is entirely possible that with the right support, encouragement and experienced help, these startups could turn into substantial businesses making a major contribution to the skills and status of the local tech sector, as well as the Western Australian economy,” Mr Grist said.

The mentors lending a hand in the program include Business News CEO Charlie Gunningham, Mr Grist, Mr Nathan, Mr Macfarlane, Timothy Brewer, Andrew Larsen, Cliff Obrecht and Brodie McCulloch.

See below for the list of winners.

Veri.Vote

Veri.Vote utilises blockchain technology to create an efficient, secure, and transparent voting system.

Veri.Vote makes use of recent advances in technology such as Bitcoin and Zero Knowledge Cryptography to preserve all of the desirable properties of physical voting in an electronic system.

Once a vote is placed onto the blockchain, it remains there, unchangeable and retrievable by anyone until the end of time.

Veri.Vote is secure, transparent, anonymous, and verifiable. A democracy is only as good as the voting process on which it stands. Veri.Vote is leading the charge in revolutionizing this process and strengthening democracies around the world.

Everythere

Everythere is a mobile app offering tours and interactive experiences by connecting physical spaces to digital media.

Everythere offers an already in-built tour and interactive app, negating the need for content providers to develop their own bespoke and expensive mobile application, allowing them to be part of one platform, and saving marketing costs through natural cross promotion.

PrevYou

PrevYou is an online marketplace where employers can find talented students from a range of different disciplines for freelance based work.

PrevYou is reinventing the way that Australian tertiary students find work experience with a focus on better serving small/ medium businesses.

The PrevYou platform gives employers direct access to a flexible and multi-skilled workforce, whilst providing students with exposure to a range of different professions.

The mission at PrevYou is to create a whole new market of quality work experience opportunities for Australian students with the ultimate goal of creating a more job-ready graduate workforce.

FilteredHQ

FilteredHQ is a B2B vetted supplier discovery platform which connects Sellers to Buyers through a 'Pay to Play' business model.

Their platform gives high quality suppliers a pathway to meet decision makers without the need of using ineffective unsolicited sales tactics which is causing major disruption to workflow.

The platform filters out low quality suppliers through a vetting and review process so decision makers can invest more time meeting innovative suppliers who can solve their problems.

In time Filtered believes the data captured will offer both Sellers and Buyers unique insights into identifying market weaknesses helping Australian businesses grow bigger better faster.

Jurimetrics

Jurimetrics is a publishing company that will bring statistical big-data analysis to our legal system.

Using natural language processing and machine reading Jurimetrics is able to collect and aggregate important commercial information from thousands of court and government decisions and display this information as a series of graphs accessible through a user friendly database.

We believe that statistical analysis will be a driving disruptor to our legal system in the coming years, changing the way we view the law and how it affects society.

Jurimetrics will be championing this innovative new technology whilst participating in the Vocus Upstart Accelerator Program.

Immersia VR

Immersia develops innovative safety and training applications using cutting-edge virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) technology.

This enables companies in industries such as mining, oil and gas, manufacturing and construction to ensure they meet compliance requirements and reduce safety hazards while improving productivity.

The availability of affordable VR and AR hardware means the delivery of safety training through this method is now a cheaper and more effective alternative to traditional forms of training such as classrooms, online and video.

Yabble

Yabble is a marketplace that connects parents with the providers of after school activities for kids.

It aggregates local after school activities and programs on one easy to use platform that includes sports, arts, tutorials, holiday programs, and clubs. Parents can find activities using filters for age, location, price and activity type.

Yabble takes the pain and stress out of the process for parents wanting their children to live a healthy, challenging lifestyle and discovering what they’re passionate about, while making business management and discoverability easier for activity providers.