Excitement was at its peak on Tuesday evening as our highly anticipated Plus Eight Demo Night for 2023 unfolded at Pan Pacific Perth, featuring six groundbreaking startups, spanning healthcare, data security, construction and fintech.
This annual event, marking the end of the Plus Eight Accelerator program, served as a pivotal platform for the cohort, allowing them to showcase their business to over 350 founders, investors and local Perth startup ecosystem supporters.
Welcoming the audience was Kylie Gerrard, Plus Eight Accelerator Program Lead who discussed the incredible quality of startups we saw both apply for and partake in the 2023 Accelerator program, as well as how far the cohort has come since Bootcamp earlier this year.
After speeches from Innovation Minister Stephen Dawson, Brodie McCulloch, Founder of Spacecubed and Derek Gerrard, Entrepreneur in Residence, the founders of Personr, Pharmacy Halo, Matilda Health, Quarterback, Tradable and Piksort took to centre stage and impressed the crowd with their standout pitches and inspiring ideas.
Plus Eight Accelerator is one of Australia’s largest seed-funded programs, and provides local WA startups with the knowledge, skills, connections and tools to scale their business globally through weekly masterclasses, connections with partners and investors, and international immersion trips.
When the cohort were asked what their favourite part of the program was Glenn Angel, Founder of Pharmacy Halo, stated “the mentorship program, having specific mentors and varied mentors has been really good”.
Jo Morris, Co-Founder of Matilda Health shared, “the masterclasses have been great, not only did we get to hear from domain experts but they also provided really actionable tasks versus just education.”
“There were so many moments that wouldn’t have been made possible unless you were a part of a program like this,” Amy Miocevitch, Co-Founder of Quarterback added.
Many of the founders also expressed how the international immersion trip to London was a program highlight, as they got to connect with international VC’s, learnt how to scale into the UK, and engaged in panel discussions, masterclasses and pitch sessions. See the full London trip recap here.
To date, the Plus Eight Accelerator program has invested over $2.5M in local West Australian startups, has seen an additional follow-on investment of $16M, and has a portfolio evaluation of over $110M.
The achievements of the Plus Eight Accelerator program would not have been possible without the support of our incredible 2023 partner network, which grew to include adapt and the New Indsutries Fund this year, alongside Betterlabs, Woodside Energy, Capricorn Society, Vici Ventures, Hawaiian, Jackson McDonald and DFK Gooding Partners.
Meet our 2023 cohort below!
Matilda Health
Founded Jo Morris and Kevin Wernli
Matilda Health is a digital platform providing holistic, affordable care to improve symptoms for people with confirmed or suspected endometriosis through online courses, cohort-based learning, community support, and 1-on-1 telehealth appointments.
Personr
Founded by Nicholas Ahrens and Charlie Westerman
Personr is an all-in-one identity verification platform that allows companies of all sizes to onboard and screen customers, clients and staff using AI. Their focus is providing a full-stack solution to provide context and visibility to the lifecycle of sensitive personal information.
Pharmacy Halo
Founded by Glenn Angel
Pharmacy Halo was founded by a pharmacist who finds niche tech solutions to time-consuming issues in pharmacies by creating applications to fix slow and inefficient systems within the community pharmacy environment.
Piksort
Founded by Daruosh Khadembashi and Koorosh Khadembashi
Piksort is the perfect blend between Snapchat and Dropbox, designed specifically for construction contractors. Piksort helps streamline your project's photo management, keeping your team connected and on track, while showcasing progress and success with ease.
Quarterback
Founded by Amy Miocevich and Greg Mitchinson
Quarterback is the answer to the changing landscape of Investor Relations for publically listed companies. Their platform helps CEOs attract and retain more investors.
Tradable
Founded by Garrick Brown and Simon Hardy
Tradable is a platform for traders to create, test and share automated trading systems with the cryptocurrency community, to help remedy each of the retail investor stumbling blocks.
Looking forward, 2024 is set to be bigger than ever for the Plus Eight Accelerator program. If you’re interested in partnering with us to support the next generation of West Australian entrepreneurs, contact us at info@spacecubed.com, or if you’re looking to apply for the 2024 program, express your interest here!
