Last week I attended the Launch Festival in Sydney. Launch is an initiative by Jason Calacanis an Angel investor from the US. He is most famous for arranging the initial Angel Investment round into Uber where he invested US$25,000. That single investment was worth approximately US$125,000,000 at the IPO a few weeks ago. He runs a great podcast called This Week in Startups where he helps startups overcome the problems in their businesses, interviews successful startup founders and Angel Investors (also see his Angel Investment Podcast if you are interested in Angel Investing). His investment sydndicate seeks to invest in a range of the companies that pitch at the Launch Festivals in the US and Australia. He also runs an accelerator and other events in the US.
Angel Investing is investing in very early stage startups. These companies have usually developed a product and have some recurring sales ($5k to $10k per month) but still have a long way to go to profitability and success. Most Angel investments fail (over 70%), some break even or return a very small amount and a tiny number (less than 1%) become massively successful. The key to Angel Investment is to be able to find great businesses with great founders that have a vision for their company and that can execute on that vision.
There has been some incredible success in the Australian Startup scene since 2011. Nick Crocker from Blackbird Ventures estimates that since 2011 there have been 52 companies founded in Australia that are now worth more than $100,000,000. 14 are worth more than $500,000,000 and six, Afterpay, Airwallex, Canva, ZipMoney, Zoox, and 10X Genomics are worth more than $1,000,000,000. That list doesn’t include Atlassian (A$43 Billion market cap) which was founded in 2002. The co-founders, Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar are worth $9.63B and $9.75B respectively.
This week I will highlight the 8 companies from Australia and New Zealand that made it through to the final stage of the Launch Festival Sydney. Have a look at their websites, read their strategies and vision and let me know which you think was the one that Jason and his team felt had the highest chance of success in raising capital in Silicon Valley.
Staybil
Staybil is an AI-powered Optimization SaaS (Software as a Service) that allows organizations to reduce costs, time, workforce turnover, and environmental impacts while simplifying their operations, not complicating them. They help you plan rostering, scheduling, optimal driver routing to minimize cost and time for transport and logistics. They currently work with Coca Cola Amital, NSW Transport and Spot Parking.
Pursuited
Pursuited is a candidate oriented recruitment site. The candidate fills out a resume and only verified employers can see their profile. The profile stays private from your employer and prospective employers can only search by job criteria. You can hide from any employer you don’t wish to see your profile. Pursuited is designed for the passive job seeker. Their initial focus is on Accounting Jobs however they will expand to other categories as they grow.
Preventure
Preventure is a wearable hardware system (clips onto the back of your shirt and on your arm) used in manual occupations that provides real time movement feedback to the wearer in order to prevent injury. The system provides insights on load and injury risks for different work tasks, whole shift, occupation and locations. The system is currently used in Warehouse & Distribution, Healthcare, Airline Ground Services, Food & Beverage Manufacture, Ship Construction, Meat Processing, Automotive Engineering, Hospitality, Transport and Logistics.
Winely
Winely provides automated real time wine sampling and feedback for wine producers. They have developed hardware that goes into a wine vat, that provides automatic collection of wine attributes and analysis of the wine. The result is a real-time visualisation of the biological process. This leads to less spoilage and more consistent quality of wine. The technology also gives wine taste predictions and suggestions to optimize the wine making process.
Punt Club
Punt Club provides an app which enables groups of friends, teammates and colleagues to operate their punt clubs for free. Punt clubs usually require members to contribute a small amount each week over a season, month or year. Each member takes turns in making bets on horse racing or other sports each week with the goal of winning enough for an end of season celebration or trip. Punt Club will initially focus on Horse Racing and receives a piece of the earnings from the online bookmaker that provides a betting service within the app.
IVF Options
IVF Options aims to make fertility treatment more understandable and affordable to everyone who needs it. They do this by providing transparent information on fertility clinic treatments, costs, success rates and patient reviews. In Australia only part of the process is partially covered by Medicare. IVF Options also links to accredited Medical Loan providers for assistance with the overall cost of treatment.
Six8
Six8 is an online platform which makes accessing gigs and musicians easier. Whether you want to find gigs in your local area, or book a musician for your next party or function, Six8 provides a solution. Musicians can register, name their price and what style of music that they play. Party or function organizers browse musicians, listen to samples and can request quotes and availability information readily.
ShoreTrade
ShoreTrade allows you to buy seafood directly from the commercial fisherman that catches the fish. Search options allow you to find the products that you are seeking. Real-time tracking allows you to track your order from the fisherman to your door. Seller ratings allow you to seek out trusted suppliers. The ShoreTrade system cuts out several levels of wholesaling from the seafood supply process. Prices are set by the fisherman who can see real time market trends that allow them to competitively set their prices.
So which company did you like? Which company has the most potential? Which company would you invest in if you were the decision maker? Is one of these companies the next $100,000,000 startup? Let me know what you think on my website craigcarlyon.com
Paying it Forward
If you have a start-up or know of a start-up that has a product, ready for market please let me know. I would be happy to have a look and give the start-up a shout out to my readers if it is something that I think they could use. If you have any questions or comments please email me via my website craigcarlyon.com
Till next week.