The Turnbull Government recently announced $280,000 to bring one of the world’s top start-up accelerators, MassChallenge, to Australia to help our local start-up entrepreneurs expand and grow their businesses.
Speaking at Microsoft’s Innovation Centre in South Australia, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, the Hon. Christopher Pyne, announced MassChallenge will run a bridge program in Australia in 2016 with a view to launching a full program in the country in 2017.
Based in Adelaide, the MassChallenge program will help start-ups get started and connect with mentors, investors, professionals and other partners to achieve their goals. Complementing incubators such as BlueChilli and Fishburners to help join-up Australia’s innovation ecosystem.
Last year alone, MassChallenge had more than 835 start-ups through its program, who have collectively raised US$1.1 billion in outside funding, turned over US$520 million and directly created 6,500 jobs and thousands more indirect jobs.
“That is the kind of opportunity we want to create for start-ups here in Australia whilst also helping upskill the Australian innovation ecosystem,” Mr Pyne remarked.
A great opportunity for Australian start-ups
At the Microsoft Innovation Centre, he also participated in a demonstration of three start-ups with local connections – Makers Empire and Teamgage, both Adelaide locals – and Buddy – established by an Adelaide ex-pat in the US which has recently relocated its engineering capacity to Adelaide.
“The products on show here today would not have been developed without the support of organisations like MassChallenge,” Mr Pyne said. “Accelerators are an important component of the ecosystem and boost the skills of participating startups through training, mentoring and exposure to investor networks.”
“The project also brings with it a strong international connection with start-up ecosystems from Boston, London and Israel, ensuring a network of international connectivity and promotion of Australia as a global entrepreneurial hub.”
Microsoft Australia Managing Director Pip Marlow congratulated the Government on the initiative. “Microsoft Australia is delighted to be the founding partner for MassChallenge in Australia. This announcement continues a long association between MassChallenge and Microsoft globally, and is a further step in our ‘Joined-Up Innovation’ campaign to help build a stronger innovation ecosystem in Australia,” Ms Marlow said.
“Along with the Australian Government and Microsoft, MassChallenge is excited to support the highest-impact entrepreneurs in Australia to help boost the innovation economy across the country. We will also work to connect entrepreneurs and the wider ecosystem with our global network across the U.S., Europe, Israel, Latin America, and beyond,” said Kara Shurmantine, Senior Director, Global Partnerships, MassChallenge.
“This allows us to gain a valuable connection to the thriving startup scene in Australia and we’re looking forward to working with key players here to exchange best practices and help the ecosystem to flourish.”
Mr Pyne said the Government’s $1.1 billion National Innovation and Science Agenda recognised the importance of start-ups to Australia as value creators and job creators.
“NISA is encouraging investment in start-ups via tax breaks and easier access to more diverse funding options through new laws that enable crowd-sourced equity funding,” he said. “We are committed to establishing Australia as a leading nation in innovation and want to help businesses embrace risk and incentivise early stage investment in start-ups.”
