eChai Melbourne

Nick Molnar, Anthony Eisen

The company that defined global BNPL, founded 2014 with its head office at 406 Collins St, Melbourne (the two founders were Sydney neighbours, but Afterpay Ltd was Melbourne-HQ and ASX-listed). Offers intere...

Holger Arians, Domenic Carosa

Founded 2014 in Melbourne (originally BTC Corporation Holdings), a fiat-to-crypto payments/on-ramp infrastructure provider for crypto exchanges across Australia, North America and Europe. In January 2021 bec...

Rael Ross, Walter Rapoport

Melbourne B2B transaction-funding fintech founded ~2015, offering embedded invoice and trade finance to SMEs (advance against outstanding invoices in as little as 24 hours). Bootstrapped by the co-founders, ...

Joseph Healy, David Hornery

Australia's first challenger bank purpose-built for SME lending, founded 2016 by ex-NAB bankers Joseph Healy and David Hornery. Won a full banking licence in 2019 and hit unicorn status in 2020. Became the f...

(led by Ahmed Fahour; ex-GE Capital ANZ carve-out)

Melbourne-HQ consumer-finance group (personal/car loans, credit cards, interest-free retail finance), Australia's biggest non-bank consumer lender, spun out of GE Capital's ANZ business. Listed on the ASX (L...

Peter Cook

Melbourne digital-banking-and-payments company founded by Peter Cook (roots in 1990s prepaid mobile top-ups). Provides card issuing, cross-border and payment-processing infrastructure for banks and fintechs;...

Myles Redward, Piers Redward

Melbourne BNPL founded 2016 by brothers Myles and Piers Redward, targeting higher-value considered purchases (A$1,000–A$20,000) such as home improvement and lifestyle — differentiating it from small-basket B...

Andrew Ward

Founded 2012 in Melbourne by ex-CBA private-wealth director Andrew Ward, a flat-fee ($9.50) share-trading platform with a social portfolio-construction network. Listed on the ASX (SWF) in 2017. Acquired by S...

Jack Zhang, Max Li, Lucy Liu, Xijing Dai, Ken Xi

Founded 2015 in Melbourne after the founders' coffee-shop venture exposed how costly cross-border payments were for small business. Now a global payments-and-financial-infrastructure platform (accounts, FX, ...

Martin Bajalan

Founded July 2013 in Melbourne, one of Australia's oldest and most liquid crypto exchanges; founder Martin Bajalan was among the founding members of the Australian chapter of the Bitcoin Foundation. Privatel...

Rupert Hackett, Dr. Prash Puspanathan

Founded 2016 in Melbourne, a crypto brokerage applying a traditional wealth-management model (personal brokers) to digital assets for high-net-worth clients. Grew to A$2B+ under custody. Acquired by Brisbane...

Russell Wilson

Founded 2013 in a small Melbourne office by former IT consultant Russell Wilson, CoinSpot grew into Australia's largest crypto exchange with 2.5M+ customers and 400+ coins. Bootstrapped and highly profitable...

Shane Stevenson (CEO Jess Renden)

Founded 2013 in Melbourne by Shane Stevenson; locally owned crypto exchange trading 260+ coins and having handled A$250M+ in transactions. Jess Renden took over as CEO in the early 2020s, becoming the first ...

Aris Allegos, Andrew Watt, Piers Moller

Founded 2014 in Melbourne, one of Australia's first non-bank SME lenders. Provides unsecured small-business loans approved online within 24 hours, using real-time data from Xero, the ATO and others instead o...

Dominic Pym, Grant Thomas

Melbourne neobank launched 2018 as a collaboration between software studio Ferocia (co-founded 2011 by Dom Pym and Grant Thomas, and builder of Bendigo Bank's app) and Bendigo & Adelaide Bank. Popular with y...

Darren McMurtrie, Simon Jones, Simon Lee

Melbourne payments-infrastructure company that began as PromisePay in 2013 (milestone-based escrow payments), rebranded to Assembly Payments in 2017, and became Zai in 2021 after merging with CurrencyFair, b...

Jonathan de Wet, Ryan McCall, Trent Barnes

Founded 2017 in Melbourne, backed by the Victor Smorgon Group family office. Institutional digital-asset firm: OTC trading/liquidity, market making, staking and insured custody (Lloyd's of London) for privat...

Yaniv Meydan (co-founder)

Melbourne BNPL founded 2013, targeting longer-term, higher-value instalment plans (auto, healthcare, home improvement). ASX-listed, but became the first major Australian BNPL to collapse — entered receiversh...

Pat Garrett, Brian Watson

Melbourne robo-advisor founded 2014 (launched 2016) by ex-JP Morgan executives Pat Garrett and Brian Watson, offering professionally managed, diversified ETF portfolios with human oversight. Advisory board i...

Anthony Stevens & Andrew Robinson

Governance, risk and compliance (GRC) platform with an embedded AI engine ("Hailey") that automates control mapping, risk assessments and audits. Reported >100% growth; sells globally to advisories and enter...

Mark Harbottle & Matt Mickiewicz

Founded 2008 in Melbourne as a spin-off of the SitePoint design community, pioneering crowdsourced graphic-design contests connecting businesses with freelance designers. Opened a San Francisco office early,...

Mina Radhakrishnan & Ruwin Perera 🇮🇳

🚩 Founded in SYDNEY in 2016 by husband-and-wife team Mina Radhakrishnan (🇮🇳 Indian-origin; ex-Uber's first head of product) and Ruwin Perera, with a major Melbourne office. Full-service tech-driven residenti...

Sam Kroonenburg & Ryan Kroonenburg

Founded 2015 in Melbourne by two brothers as a hands-on cloud-skills training platform (AWS, Azure, GCP) with labs and certification courses; grew to 2m+ learners and acquired Linux Academy in 2019. Acquired...

Leigh Jasper & Robert Phillpot

Founded 2000 in Melbourne (conceived over squash games) as a SaaS collaboration platform for construction and infrastructure project information management. ASX-200 listed and used on major global projects. ...

(i-body protein platform)

Drug-discovery biotech whose 'i-body' platform (inspired by shark antibodies) targets receptors that are hard to drug with conventional antibodies. Lead candidate AD-214 completed Phase 1 for idiopathic pulm...

Kate Morris, James Height

Australia's largest online-native beauty retailer, founded 1999 by Kate Morris (then 21) out of a Melbourne garage with a A$12,000 loan. IPO'd on the ASX in 2020 (ABY). Long an online-only D2C marketplace of...

Ben & Tim Toner

Founded by brothers Dr Ben and Tim Toner, Affinda uses AI to digitise and process documents — invoice handling, resume parsing and contract analysis. Named by Deloitte the fastest-growing AI company in Austr...

satellite/climate farm data - **venue:** Melbourne (RMIT-linked) - **la:** -37.8136 - **ln:** 144.9631 - **desc:** Melbourne agritech using satellite and climate data ("Agtuary Signal") to map, measure and monitor rural land, natural assets, climate risk, sustainability and emissions — used for carbon and property intelligence. Founding team includes a remote-sensing/aerospace scientist and former RMIT lecturer; positioned alongside carbon-farming peers Regrow, FarmLab and AgriProve. - **link:** https://www.agtuary.com/about - **vertical:** ["Agritech","Supply-chain"] - **stage:** Early / Seed ### 10 -

Melbourne agritech using satellite and climate data ("Agtuary Signal") to map, measure and monitor rural land, natural assets, climate risk, sustainability and emissions — used for carbon and property intell...

satellite/climate farm data

** Melbourne agritech using satellite and climate data ("Agtuary Signal") to map, measure and monitor rural land, natural assets, climate risk, sustainability and emissions — used for carbon and property int...

Jessica Glenn & Dr Jae Daniel

Melbourne directed-energy deeptech; its Fractl high-precision laser achieves hard-kill counter-drone strikes within ~1.5km line-of-sight in under 5 seconds. Won Australia's first ADF prototype directed-energ...

Preetham Akula

Founded 2022 by Preetham Akula, Akula Tech builds AI-powered 'smart' satellites; its Nexus-01 runs an onboard AI engine processing hyperspectral data in orbit into real-time insights for defence, emergency r...

Cameron Knox

Founded by Cameron Knox, Allume makes SolShare — a world-first hardware device (invented 2016) that lets a single rooftop solar system be fairly shared across multiple apartments, cracking the split-incentiv...

Energytech retailer giving households direct access to the real-time wholesale electricity price and smart automation of batteries/EVs/solar to shift usage to cheap, green periods. Melbourne-founded climate-...

(FAK inhibitor platform)

Clinical-stage oncology biotech advancing narmafotinib (AMP945), a best-in-class Focal Adhesion Kinase (FAK) inhibitor designed to break down the fibrotic barrier in pancreatic cancer. Its ACCENT trial repor...

(patient-specific implants)

Melbourne medtech manufacturing patient-specific 3D-printed surgical implants (cranial, maxillofacial, spinal) and surgical planning models for global distribution, and in-licensing novel devices for ANZ. Lo...

Julian Broadbent & Shane Ambry

Founded 2015 in a Melbourne garage by ex-Holden/GM engineer Julian Broadbent, Applied EV builds 'Software Defined Machines' — a drive-by-wire compute-and-control platform for autonomous and industrial EVs (e...

(Darren Thorpe)

Melbourne advanced-recycling company running Australia's first BioFabrik WASTX pyrolysis plant at Dandenong South, converting hard-to-recycle soft plastics back into oil, gas and asphalt feedstock. Backed by...

Clinical-stage biotech developing PVX108, a synthetic-peptide immunotherapy to retrain the immune system and treat peanut allergy. Raised ~A$66M in Jan 2024 (incl. A$12M from Breakthrough Victoria; investors...

Phoebe Gardner & Alex Arnold - **venue:** Melbourne (north-west industrial) - **la:** -37.7500 - **ln:** 144.8500 - **desc:** Founded 2019, Bardee runs a 2,500 sqm vertical-farming facility in Melbourne's north-west that uses black soldier fly larvae to convert food waste into insect protein (animal/pet feed) and fertiliser. Raised a A$5M seed led by Blackbird Ventures (angels incl. Who Gives A Crap's Simon Griffiths and Culture Amp's Didier Elzinga). Went through liquidation in May 2024 but resumed operations later in 2024; a direct Melbourne competitor to Canberra's Goterra. - **link:** https://www.bardee.com/ - **vertical:** ["Foodtech","Agritech"] - **stage:** Seed ### 3 -

Founded 2019, Bardee runs a 2,500 sqm vertical-farming facility in Melbourne's north-west that uses black soldier fly larvae to convert food waste into insect protein (animal/pet feed) and fertiliser. Raised...

Phoebe Gardner & Alex Arnold

** Founded 2019, Bardee runs a 2,500 sqm vertical-farming facility in Melbourne's north-west that uses black soldier fly larvae to convert food waste into insect protein (animal/pet feed) and fertiliser. Rai...

Andrew Fallshaw, Matthew Fallshaw, Hadrien Monloup, Lina Calabria

D2C carry-goods brand (slim wallets, bags, phone cases) founded 2009; the name blends Bells Beach and Fitzroy where it keeps design offices. B-Corp; ships to 180+ countries direct via bellroy.com. Took growt...

Melbourne's powerhouse sports-game developer — the leading maker of licensed cricket, rugby, tennis and AFL video games (Cricket 24, AO Tennis, etc.). Sits at the gaming/sportstech intersection and is one of...

Jason Wyatt, Sam Salter

Global online cycling marketplace founded in Melbourne in 2007 connecting bike brands, retailers and distributors; hosts 1,500+ brands and 900K+ products. Listed on the ASX (BEX) in 2021 via a ~$76M float, t...

Janine Allis

Retail Zoo is the Melbourne-headquartered multi-brand food & beverage franchisor behind Boost Juice (founded 2000 by Janine Allis), Salsa's Fresh Mex, Cibo Espresso and Betty's Burgers. Boost grew from a sin...

(life-science VC)

Australasia's largest life-sciences venture-capital firm and the anchor investor of the Melbourne bio ecosystem. Brandon BioCatalyst is a collaboration of super funds, CSL, ANZ governments and 50+ medical re...

state innovation fund - **venue:** Melbourne - **la:** -37.8136 - **ln:** 144.9631 - **desc:** A$2B Victorian Government patient-capital fund backing innovation across five priority sectors including **agri-food**. Runs the A$100M University Innovation Platform and, with La Trobe, the Eagle Fund (co-invested in YieldX/GAIA). A primary source of Melbourne agri-food venture capital. - **link:** https://breakthroughvictoria.com/ - **vertical:** ["Agritech","Foodtech"] - **stage:** Government VC / fund ### 16 — VC (HQ-flag) -

A$2B Victorian Government patient-capital fund backing innovation across five priority sectors including **agri-food**. Runs the A$100M University Innovation Platform and, with La Trobe, the Eagle Fund (co-i...

(Victorian Government)

Melbourne-based independent investment company (est. 2021) managing the A$2bn Breakthrough Victoria Fund. Has committed A$60m+ to clean-energy, emissions-reduction and circular-economy companies (cornerstone...

Alan Downie & Matt Milosavljevic

Founded 2010–11 in Melbourne, BugHerd is a visual point-and-click website feedback and bug-tracking tool that pins comments directly onto live pages and captures browser/screen context automatically. Widely ...

Keith Pitt, Tim Lucas & Jessica Stokes

Founded 2013 in Melbourne, Buildkite is a hybrid CI/CD platform that runs continuous-integration pipelines on customers' own infrastructure for scale and security — used by Shopify, Uber, PagerDuty and other...

Greg Roebuck & Wal Pisciotta

Founded 1997 to move automotive print classifieds online; IPO'd 2009. Renamed carsales.com Ltd to CAR Group in 2023 to reflect global scale. Operates carsales (AU) plus Encar (South Korea), Trader Interactiv...

Sportstech leader (ASX:CAT) in athlete wearables and performance analytics — GPS/load monitoring, video and athlete-management software used by 5,500+ teams across the NFL, EPL, MLB, NHL, AFL and NCAA. Found...

Gabby Leibovich, Hezi Leibovich

Launched 2006 out of a Moorabbin warehouse as 'Catch of the Day', pioneering daily-deal and marketplace e-commerce in Australia. Acquired by Wesfarmers in 2019 for ~$230M (part of >$1B in total founder exits...

Bianca Lê - **venue:** Melbourne - **la:** -37.8136 - **ln:** 144.9631 - **desc:** Founded August 2020 in Melbourne; the leading nonprofit advocacy/ecosystem body for Australia's cellular-agriculture and food-biomanufacturing sector (cultivated meat, precision fermentation). Lobbies for R&D funding, scale-up infrastructure and policy; Food Frontier merged into CAA to form a single unified alt-protein advocacy organisation. Publishes the Australian cellular-ag industry map. - **link:** https://www.cellularagricultureaustralia.org/ - **vertical:** ["Alt-protein","Foodtech"] - **stage:** Nonprofit / ecosystem ### 12 — Accelerator -

Founded August 2020 in Melbourne; the leading nonprofit advocacy/ecosystem body for Australia's cellular-agriculture and food-biomanufacturing sector (cultivated meat, precision fermentation). Lobbies for R&...

Bianca Lê

** Founded August 2020 in Melbourne; the leading nonprofit advocacy/ecosystem body for Australia's cellular-agriculture and food-biomanufacturing sector (cultivated meat, precision fermentation). Lobbies for...

Darren Kelly

Precision-medicine biotech developing anti-fibrotic drugs (lead FT011) for chronic kidney disease and the rare autoimmune disease diffuse systemic scleroderma, using genetic testing to target patients who sc...

Dean Mintz

Online luxury fashion marketplace founded 2017 by media-shy founder Dean Mintz (via Ark Technologies incubator), aggregating 1,300+ high-end brands on a drop-ship model that holds little inventory. ASX-liste...

Martin Andrews, Mark Wells & Tim Washington

Founded 2017, Chargefox built Australia's largest public EV charging network and opened the Southern Hemisphere's most powerful charging station in Melbourne. Backed by the state motoring clubs (NRMA, RACV, ...

Steve Morriss

Founded 2000 out of a Carlton cartridge-remanufacturing business, Close the Loop runs product-stewardship and resource-recovery programs (toner cartridges, e-waste, soft plastics into TonerPlas roads). Now t...

One of Australia's earliest and longest-running crypto exchanges/wallets, founded in Melbourne (2013). Offers retail and business crypto trading, a crypto card and custody; expanded to the UK/EU. Melbourne's...

Lucas Filer & John de la Motte

Founded 2009; an all-in-one school-management platform (attendance, reporting, payments, parent/student/teacher portals). Bootstrapped for eight years before raising ~A$60m (Advent Partners, then EQT) to exp...

David Burton

Founded 1987 by David Burton; medical-device maker for sleep, neurology (EEG/MEG) and ultrasonic blood-flow diagnostics. Installed Australia's first computerised sleep clinic; holds ~80% of the Australian sl...

Sam Ringwaldt & Ron Conry

Founded 2019/2020 by HVAC veterans Ron Conry (inventor of the modular chiller and oil-free magnetic-bearing compressor) and Sam Ringwaldt, Conry Tech is reinventing air-conditioning with its modular 'BullAnt...

Deeptech pioneer in 'biological computing', integrating lab-grown human neurons with silicon (the DishBrain that learned Pong). Launched the CL1 — billed as the world's first commercially available biologica...

(est. 1916 as Commonwealth Serum Laboratories)

Australia's largest biotech and a global plasma/vaccine leader (blood plasma therapies, influenza vaccines via Seqirus, iron deficiency via Vifor). Founded 1916, privatised 1994. In August 2023 PM Anthony Al...

Melbourne-HQ'd HR-tech leader — the 'employee experience' platform (engagement, performance, development built on people-science). Serves 25M+ employees across 7,500+ companies, ~960 staff, US$228M+ raised. ...

(non-invasive brain oxygen monitoring)

Medtech developing a patented Brain Pulse Monitor for non-invasive, continuous monitoring of brain oxygenation (avoiding surgically inserted probes) in traumatic brain injury and stroke. Raised a ~A$6.25m Se...

Johannes Risseeuw

Founded 2002, Damstra is a subscription SaaS platform for integrated workplace and workforce management — worker safety, access control, asset tracking, e-learning and digital forms for high-risk industries ...

Elena Tsalanidis & Justin Hansky

Legal-tech founded by two ex-big-law M&A lawyers; a collaboration platform that centralises due-diligence workflow and uses AI to do a 'first cut' of the legal review, generating client-ready reports in seco...

Kjetil Hansen - **venue:** Melbourne - **la:** -37.8136 - **ln:** 144.9631 - **desc:** Founded 2015 from a Melbourne kitchen table; plant-based seasonings and meat alternatives (bacon/chicken seasoning, vegan cheese). Appeared on Australia's Shark Tank (2017), hit ~A$25M sales in 2021, took investment from US alt-protein fund Stray Dog Capital, rolled into Whole Foods Market (US) at a reported ~A$65M valuation. All products manufactured in Melbourne. - **link:** https://www.businessnewsaustralia.com/articles/-65m-valuation-gives-melbourne-s-deliciou-a-plant-based-protein-kick-for-whole-foods-market-roll-out.html - **vertical:** ["Foodtech","Alt-protein"] - **stage:** Growth / Series A-equivalent ### 6 -

Founded 2015 from a Melbourne kitchen table; plant-based seasonings and meat alternatives (bacon/chicken seasoning, vegan cheese). Appeared on Australia's Shark Tank (2017), hit ~A$25M sales in 2021, took in...

Kjetil Hansen

** Founded 2015 from a Melbourne kitchen table; plant-based seasonings and meat alternatives (bacon/chicken seasoning, vegan cheese). Appeared on Australia's Shark Tank (2017), hit ~A$25M sales in 2021, took...

CSIRO-backed - **venue:** Melbourne - **la:** -37.8136 - **ln:** 144.9631 - **desc:** Founded 2017 in partnership with CSIRO; AI-powered "Rural Intelligence Platform" delivering rural, agri and climate-risk location intelligence and an automated valuation model for farmers, lenders, insurers and traders. Investors/partners include IAG, ANZ and Rabobank; named in ANZ Climate Tech Top 100. A core Melbourne agri-data play. - **link:** https://digitalagricultureservices.com/ - **vertical:** ["Agritech","Supply-chain"] - **stage:** Series A+ ### 7 -

Founded 2017 in partnership with CSIRO; AI-powered "Rural Intelligence Platform" delivering rural, agri and climate-risk location intelligence and an automated valuation model for farmers, lenders, insurers ...

CSIRO-backed

** Founded 2017 in partnership with CSIRO; AI-powered "Rural Intelligence Platform" delivering rural, agri and climate-risk location intelligence and an automated valuation model for farmers, lenders, insure...

Ringo Chan

D2C 'bed-in-a-box' brand founded in Melbourne in 2015, selling adjustable memory-foam mattresses plus pillows, bedding and furniture; certified B-Corp. Expanded internationally to NZ (2016), Hong Kong (2016)...

Duncan Anderson, Ben Sze & Jeremy Cox

Founded 2011; curriculum-aligned digital learning resources for Years 7-12 (expert video theory, assessment, analytics). Raised ~A$40-44m. Used by 1,000+ schools, 17,000+ educators and 200,000+ students; in ...

plant protein / fermentation

** Melbourne foodtech with a Rapid Solid-State Fermentation platform; flagship "Lupreme" is a clean, affordable protein made from whole Australian-grown lupin (fermenting the entire seed rather than isolatin...

plant protein / fermentation - **venue:** Melbourne (Innovation Centre) - **la:** -37.8136 - **ln:** 144.9631 - **desc:** Melbourne foodtech with a Rapid Solid-State Fermentation platform; flagship "Lupreme" is a clean, affordable protein made from whole Australian-grown lupin (fermenting the entire seed rather than isolating protein). Positioned as a lower-cost, minimally-processed alternative-protein ingredient. - **link:** https://www.eighthdayfoods.com.au/ - **vertical:** ["Foodtech","Alt-protein"] - **stage:** Early / Seed ### 9 -

Melbourne foodtech with a Rapid Solid-State Fermentation platform; flagship "Lupreme" is a clean, affordable protein made from whole Australian-grown lupin (fermenting the entire seed rather than isolating p...

Melbourne-founded applied-AI/ML consultancy — machine learning, NLP, computer vision and generative-AI delivery for enterprise. Now the AI practice of Australian tech consultancy Mantel Group; a key node in ...

Melbourne-founded global creative-assets marketplace (ThemeForest, Elements) serving millions of designers and developers with templates, stock and tools. Bootstrapped to global scale and acquired by Shutter...

(Livium subsidiary)

Australia's first onshore mixed-battery recycler, Envirostream (a subsidiary of ASX-listed Livium, formerly Lithium Australia) operates an EPA-licensed Melbourne facility at Campbellfield recovering ~95% of ...

Mark Cook & Chris Williams

Founded 2017–18 as a collaboration between the Bionics Institute, University of Melbourne, St Vincent's and Cochlear. Its Minder is the first and only implantable continuous EEG monitor for drug-resistant ep...

supply-chain monitoring

** Agri-supply-chain startup whose reusable "Blue Box" IoT trackers ("CCTV for food") capture real-time temperature, dwell-time and location data across cold chains for fresh produce, meat, seafood and dairy...

supply-chain monitoring - **venue:** Melbourne - **la:** -37.8136 - **ln:** 144.9631 - **desc:** Agri-supply-chain startup whose reusable "Blue Box" IoT trackers ("CCTV for food") capture real-time temperature, dwell-time and location data across cold chains for fresh produce, meat, seafood and dairy. Started in horticulture in 2019, added meat (2020) and seafood (2021); early customers include Costa mushrooms at Mernda near Melbourne. Reduces rejections, loss and safety-stock. - **link:** https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/escavox - **vertical:** ["Supply-chain","Agritech"] - **stage:** Early / Seed - **note:** HQ commonly listed as Melbourne; core operations Victoria-centred — verify registered address if precision needed. ### 8 -

Agri-supply-chain startup whose reusable "Blue Box" IoT trackers ("CCTV for food") capture real-time temperature, dwell-time and location data across cold chains for fresh produce, meat, seafood and dairy. S...

Zoë Milgrom & Kunal Kalro

Founded 2017; Australia's original at-home digital genomics service, delivering reproductive carrier screening and preventive genetic testing paired with genetic counselling across ANZ. Partners with Illumin...

Marc Hermann, Anshul Jain, Sam Kothari & Dr Steven Lu

Founded 2023, Everlab is a preventative-health / longevity platform using AI to turn whole-body testing into personalised health assessments and care plans. Raised A$65M Series A led by Airtree (participants...

Sam Korkees & Brendan Wheeler

Founded 2014 after the founders saw Amsterdam's EV rollout, EVSE provides turnkey design, installation and support of EV charging stations plus the Exploren charging-management platform. In Dec 2023 Pacific ...

agrifood-tech accelerator

** National agrifood-tech innovation/acceleration program with a strong Victorian base; has supported 300+ startups/scaleups in under six years. In Sept 2024 launched a 12-week pre-accelerator and workshops ...

agrifood-tech accelerator - **venue:** Melbourne - **la:** -37.8136 - **ln:** 144.9631 - **desc:** National agrifood-tech innovation/acceleration program with a strong Victorian base; has supported 300+ startups/scaleups in under six years. In Sept 2024 launched a 12-week pre-accelerator and workshops backed by a A$500k LaunchVic + Agriculture Victoria grant; partners on the Hugh Victor McKay Fund. - **link:** https://www.farmers2founders.com/startups - **vertical:** ["Agritech","Foodtech"] - **stage:** Accelerator - **note:** National footprint; Victorian/Melbourne-anchored delivery. ### 15 — Government VC fund -

National agrifood-tech innovation/acceleration program with a strong Victorian base; has supported 300+ startups/scaleups in under six years. In Sept 2024 launched a 12-week pre-accelerator and workshops bac...

Rob Mueller, Bruce Davey & Jeremy Howard

Founded 1999 in Melbourne, Fastmail is a privacy-focused, subscription email-hosting SaaS with a worldwide customer base. Briefly owned by Opera Software (2010) before a 2013 staff buyout returned it to inde...

Mark Harbottle & Matt Mickiewicz (CEO Blake Hutchison)

Founded 2009 in Melbourne (out of the SitePoint community) as the leading global marketplace to buy and sell online businesses, websites, apps and digital assets. Positions itself as the 'investment bank for...

Finnlay Morcombe & Oliver Farnill

Founded 2023 by Swinburne engineering grads, Fluency uses AI to document and automate operational workflows — pitched as an AI substitute for management consultants. Raised ~US$6-9M seed led by US VC Accel, ...

Benjamin Young

Melbourne-born reusable-cups and drink-bottle brand founded ~2013–14 by Benjamin Young to cut single-use plastic, with locally manufactured components. Dominant in the Australian reusable market with reporte...

Will Richardson, Adam Milgrom & Rachel Yang

Launched 2016 as Australia's first 100% impact venture fund, Melbourne-based Giant Leap backs mission-driven founders across climate, health and education with 30+ investments and A$65m+ FUM. Pioneered a ben...

Will Richardson, Rachel Yang, Adam Milgrom

Melbourne-HQ'd, Australia's first 100%-impact-dedicated VC fund, backing scalable startups blending returns with social/environmental impact — including sustainable consumer, food and D2C brands. Relevant ca...

Malcolm Horne & Rob Griffiths

Founded 2007 on Florey Institute research; makes the Personal KinetiGraph (PKG), a wristwatch-style wearable that continuously and objectively quantifies Parkinson's movement symptoms (tremor, bradykinesia, ...

Zoë Foster Blake, Paul Bates

'Uncomplicated' D2C skincare brand founded 2014 by beauty editor Zoë Foster Blake and Paul Bates. Sold a majority stake to Melbourne-based BWX in 2021 (valuing it ~A$89M); after BWX's collapse, the founders ...

Jordy Kay & Julia Kay

Founded 2019 by husband-and-wife team Jordy and Julia Kay (ex-winemaking and architecture), Great Wrap makes home-compostable cling wrap and pallet stretch-wrap from compostable biopolymers and food waste, b...

Phil Blythe

Founded 2010, GreenSync pioneered distributed energy management and launched deX (Decentralised Energy Exchange) in 2018 — a 'world first' digital marketplace, developed with ARENA, connecting consumer solar...

Alison Hardacre & Lachlan Wheeler

Founded 2012 in Melbourne (originally HealthKit) as a cloud practice-management SaaS for healthcare practitioners — EMR, billing, scheduling and patient records — plus a searchable practitioner directory. No...

Christie Downs & Kathryn Wood

Founded 2017 by a construction-industry director and a former QBE head of claims; a three-sided marketplace connecting insurers, homeowners and pre-vetted local contractors for small property claims (under ~...

AI clinical 'care partner' / ambient scribe founded by ex-vascular surgeon Dr Thomas Kelly. Closed a US$65M Series B in Oct 2025 (led by Point72, with Blackbird, Headline, Latitude) at a ~US$465M valuation, ...

Andy Sum & Matt Hall

Founded November 2014; creators of the global mobile hit Crossy Road (plus Disney Crossy Road and Pac-Man 256). One of Australia's most commercially successful mobile studios. Fully acquired by Atari SA for ...

Jason & Adam Spencer

Founded 2014 by two brothers; a Melbourne-HQ'd residential property portal and the largest industry-backed alternative to REA/Domain. Differentiator is crowd-sourced street- and suburb-level reviews (traffic...

Mark Calabro, Shannon Hautot

Melbourne hospitality foodtech founded 2016 (by the OrderMate team) providing digital menus, at-table ordering, pickup and in-venue payments to replace paper menus. Self-funded with ~$2M of founders' capital...

Laura Keily

Founded 2017 (launched publicly Sept 2019) by commercial barrister Laura Keily; an online dispute-resolution and virtual-hearing platform. Users include the Federal Court of Australia and VCAT. Raised A$3.75...

Umar Butler

Launched 2025 by former Attorney-General's Dept data-science lead Umar Butler, Isaacus builds foundational legal AI models — positioned as the "AWS for legal AI" that other companies build specialised legal ...

Tim Washington & Ellen Liang

Founded 2013, JET Charge grew from EV charger installation into Australia's leading end-to-end EV charging provider and manufacturer, and co-founded the Chargefox public network. Preferred installer for Tesl...

Tom Dreyfus, Sam Flynn & Kirill Kliavin

Founded 2018 by two former lawyers and an engineer; a no-code automation 'workbench' letting legal teams build chatbots, document-generation and self-service tools without coding. Raised A$2.5m (2021) and A$...

Athan Didaskalou, Richard Li

D2C premium luggage and travel-accessories brand launched 2018 by RMIT-connected founders Athan Didaskalou and Richard Li; raised ~$10.5M (backers include Lachlan Murdoch). Pivoted to drink bottles during th...

Nigel Fellowes-Freeman

Founded 2019 (rebranded from Expense Check in 2021); a data-driven embedded-insurance platform with a low-code stack letting insurers, MGAs and brokers rapidly launch and configure products inside partners' ...

Care-tech marketplace connecting Australians to NDIS, aged-care and home-care providers — improving access and matching in the disability/care sector. Venture-backed Melbourne startup targeting one of Austra...

Ruslan Kogan

Founded 2006 out of Ruslan Kogan's parents' garage selling private-label TVs; became one of Australia's largest pure-play online retailers and marketplaces. Listed on the ASX in 2016 and expanded into Kogan ...

(Victorian Government)

Victoria's startup agency (est. 2016), Melbourne-based, funding accelerators, programs and research across the state's startup ecosystem — including climate and cleantech cohorts. Victorian startups led the ...

Brennan Ong

🚩 Melbourne-FOUNDED (2015) legaltech, now headquartered in London. Flagship SaaS products LegalEye and Fibonacci (a no-code legal matter-management system built with Barclays and top law firms). Raised ~US$7...

Acclaimed independent Melbourne game studio (Armello, Solium Infernal) known for a co-operative, worker-friendly studio model. A creative anchor of Melbourne's globally competitive games cluster; navigated t...

Melbourne (founded ~2018)

Builds intelligent maintenance tools for technicians servicing equipment, machinery and infrastructure. Flagship xAssist is a generative-AI copilot with NLP/ML that surfaces diagnostics and maintenance guida...

Creator-economy 'link-in-bio' platform used by tens of millions of creators, brands and businesses worldwide; grew out of Melbourne's inner-north creative scene. Raised a US$110M Series C (2022) at a ~US$1.3...

William Wong, Grace Wong, David Ballerini

Hospitality foodtech/fintech founded in Melbourne in 2014 as a dining discovery-and-loyalty app, evolved into an end-to-end payments, loyalty, POS and back-office platform for restaurants. Executed a ~$152M ...

(rapid point-of-care tests)

Founded 2015 by Planet Innovation; point-of-care diagnostics company whose flagship FebriDx uses a fingerstick blood sample to differentiate bacterial from viral respiratory infections in ~10 minutes, aiding...

Blockchain platform digitising bank guarantees, born from an ANZ/CBA/Westpac/IBM/Scentre consortium and spun out as an independent Melbourne fintech. Cuts weeks of paper-based guarantee processing to minutes...

Kai Van Lieshout & Linus Talacko

AI-powered medical documentation / ambient scribe that transcribes clinician consultations into structured notes. Melbourne-based; raised ~A$12M for its AI scribe and is scaling across ANZ clinics.

Paul Bevan - **venue:** Melbourne - **la:** -37.8136 - **ln:** 144.9631 - **desc:** Founded 2019, Magic Valley is a Melbourne cultivated-meat startup using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) — avoiding fetal bovine serum — to grow lamb, pork and beef in bioreactors. Secured a A$100k Industry Growth Program grant (eligible for up to A$5M) and has been raising ~A$3M toward a first manufacturing facility. In 2025 launched "Rogue Pet," billed as Australia's first cultivated-meat dog treats. - **link:** https://magicvalley.com.au/ - **vertical:** ["Foodtech","Alt-protein"] - **stage:** Seed ### 4 -

Founded 2019, Magic Valley is a Melbourne cultivated-meat startup using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) — avoiding fetal bovine serum — to grow lamb, pork and beef in bioreactors. Secured a A$100k Ind...

Paul Bevan

** Founded 2019, Magic Valley is a Melbourne cultivated-meat startup using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) — avoiding fetal bovine serum — to grow lamb, pork and beef in bioreactors. Secured a A$100k ...

agrifood-tech VC - **venue:** Melbourne office (HQ Toowoomba, QLD) - **la:** -37.8136 - **ln:** 144.9631 - **desc:** "Farm-to-fork" agrifood-tech VC (seed–Series A); Mandalay Fund I reached final close June 2024 (~A$26–27M committed). Active in Melbourne deals (co-invested in YieldX/GAIA); LaunchVic contributed A$2.4M toward its Victorian office. - **link:** https://www.mandalay.vc/ - **vertical:** ["Agritech","Foodtech"] - **stage:** VC fund - **note:** HQ-flag — primarily Queensland-based; included for its funded Melbourne office and Victorian agrifoodtech activity, not a Melbourne-HQ firm. --- ## HQ flags / excluded (NOT Greater Melbourne) Verified out-of-scope but relevant to the domain — listed so the page doesn't mistakenly claim them: - **v2food** — Australia's #1 plant-based meat co. **HQ Sydney** (171 Clarence St), site team Brisbane. No Melbourne HQ. (Prompt-flagged; confirmed Sydney.) *Excluded.* - **AgriWebb** — livestock management software. **HQ Sydney** (Surry Hills). (Prompt-flagged Sydney; confirmed.) *Excluded.* - **Fable Food** — mushroom-based meat. **HQ Sunshine Coast, QLD** (Hunchy) with a Melbourne development kitchen only. *Excluded.* - **Cauldron** — precision-fermentation network; A$10.5M seed. **HQ Orange, NSW** (regional). *Excluded.* - **Grounded Foods** (Veronica Fil & Shaun Quade) — Melbourne-founded vegan cheese but **relocated HQ to Los Angeles** in 2019. *Excluded (relocated).* - **Change Foods** (David Bucca) — precision-fermentation dairy; **US–Australian, base of operations skewed US (Bay Area)**. *Excluded / ambiguous.* - **ProForm Foods** (MEET brand) — **HQ Mount Kuring-Gai, Sydney**; entered voluntary administration/wound up. *Excluded.* - **Harvest B** — plant-protein ingredient facility in **Penrith, Western Sydney**. *Excluded.* - **Stacked Farm** — vertical farming; **HQ Gold Coast, QLD** (building a Melbourne facility). *Excluded (QLD HQ).* - **Nourish Ingredients** — precision-fermented fats. **HQ Canberra.** (Prompt-flagged; not verified further.) *Excluded.* - **Vow** — cultivated meat. **HQ Sydney.** (Prompt-flagged; not verified further.) *Excluded.* - **All G** — precision-fermentation dairy. **HQ Sydney.** (Prompt-flagged; not verified further.) *Excluded.* - **Provectus Algae** — algae precision-culturing. **HQ Sunshine Coast, QLD.** (Prompt-flagged; not verified further.) *Excluded.* - **Goterra** — insect/food-waste (Bardee competitor). **HQ Canberra.** *Excluded (context).* --- ## Notes for page authors - Merge caution: **YieldX = GAIA Project Australia** (same company, renamed) — one record only. - Melbourne's genuine strength is **CEA/vertical farming (YieldX), insect protein (Bardee), agri-data/climate-risk (DAS, Agtuary, Escavox), and the alt-protein ecosystem/advocacy layer (CAA)** plus a deep accelerator/fund stack (SproutX, Rocket Seeder, Farmers2Founders, Breakthrough Victoria). - Melbourne is **thin on scaled cultivated-meat and precision-fermentation companies** vs. Sydney (Vow, All G) and Canberra (Nourish Ingredients) — Magic Valley and Eighth Day are the main local plays and both are early-stage/pre-scale.

Farm-to-fork" agrifood-tech VC (seed–Series A); Mandalay Fund I reached final close June 2024 (~A$26–27M committed). Active in Melbourne deals (co-invested in YieldX/GAIA); LaunchVic contributed A$2.4M towar...

agrifood-tech VC

** "Farm-to-fork" agrifood-tech VC (seed–Series A); Mandalay Fund I reached final close June 2024 (~A$26–27M committed). Active in Melbourne deals (co-invested in YieldX/GAIA); LaunchVic contributed A$2.4M t...

Jason Wyatt & Sam Salter

Marketplace-as-a-service platform spun out of the founders' BikeExchange marketplace technology; launched as a standalone SaaS product in 2016–17. Lets retailers, brands and loyalty businesses build and scal...

Tom Hamer & Jesse Clark [FLAG: HQ moved to San Francisco]

Founded 2022 in Melbourne by two ex-Amazon/AWS engineers, Marqo is an open-source end-to-end vector search engine / AI-infra platform for text and image data. Raised a US$12.5M Series A led by Lightspeed (Bl...

Richard Wilson & Justin Matthys

Founded 2013 by two teachers; a differentiated-learning maths platform that tailors work to each student's level and gives teachers data insights. Raised an A$2.1m seed led by Social Ventures Australia; grew...

Silviu Itescu

Founded 2004 by physician-scientist Silviu Itescu; global leader in allogeneic cellular (mesenchymal stromal cell) medicines. In Dec 2024 its lead product Ryoncil (remestemcel-L) became the first FDA-approve...

Jock Lawrence & Jack Hurley

** Founded 2018; cloud livestock farm-management software (grazing, compliance, team comms) used by thousands of farmers across Australia and NZ. LaunchVic-profiled Victorian agtech. Integrates with Agworld ...

Jock Lawrence & Jack Hurley - **venue:** Melbourne / Avenel, VIC - **la:** -37.8136 - **ln:** 144.9631 - **desc:** Founded 2018; cloud livestock farm-management software (grazing, compliance, team comms) used by thousands of farmers across Australia and NZ. LaunchVic-profiled Victorian agtech. Integrates with Agworld for mixed livestock/crop managers. - **link:** https://www.mobble.io/ - **vertical:** ["Agritech"] - **stage:** Early / Seed - **note:** HQ-flag — founder's family farm (idea origin) is Avenel, regional Victoria (~130km N of Melbourne). Operates as a Victorian/Melbourne-ecosystem company (LaunchVic); confirm registered office is Greater Melbourne vs. regional VIC before final placement. ### 11 — Ecosystem body -

Founded 2018; cloud livestock farm-management software (grazing, compliance, team comms) used by thousands of farmers across Australia and NZ. LaunchVic-profiled Victorian agtech. Integrates with Agworld for...

University of Melbourne researchers [FLAG: acquired by Santec, 2025]

Founded 2007 by University of Melbourne physicists, MOGlabs makes precision tunable lasers, laser electronics, RF synthesisers and instrumentation used worldwide in quantum computing, sensing and precision m...

(AusNet subsidiary)

Melbourne-based renewable-energy solutions arm of AusNet, Mondo builds and operates community microgrids and its Ubi smart-energy platform, which uses AI and market/weather data feeds to optimise batteries, ...

Kim Teo, Adrian Osman, Kerry Osborn, Andrei Miulescu

Melbourne foodtech founded 2018 building QR-code menu, ordering and payments for hospitality venues. Raised US$65M led by Tiger Global in 2021. Merged in 2023 with Sydney's me&u to form a combined table-orde...

Sean Senvirtne

Founded 2011 in Melbourne by Sean Senvirtne (South-Asian-origin founder), pivoting from a daily-deals site to a third-party online retail marketplace for SMEs. Listed on the ASX in 2020, then acquired by Woo...

Christopher Lee & the Data-Tech Software team

Long-standing Australian business-management software company (accounting, payroll, tax, POS) for SMEs and accountants across ANZ; now largely cloud/SaaS. Headquartered in Cremorne, Melbourne. Taken private ...

(est. 1993)

Melbourne biopharma focused on neurodevelopmental disorders. Its drug DAYBUE (trofinetide), licensed to Acadia Pharmaceuticals, won FDA approval in March 2023 as the first-ever treatment for Rett syndrome an...

Brian Cook & Brett Campbell [FLAG: HQ moved to US]

FLAG — Melbourne-FOUNDED (2006) workflow-automation and process-management software company (SharePoint/Office 365 heritage), now used by 7,000+ organisations in 100+ countries. Relocated its HQ to the Seatt...

Sam Chandler, Karl De Abrew, Chris Marks & Richard Wenzel

Founded 2005 in Melbourne as a PDF productivity and document-workflow challenger to Adobe; the Melbourne office remains a key engineering hub though global HQ moved to San Francisco. Grew into an e-signature...

Medtech developing a continuous molecular-monitoring 'smart patch' — a wearable platform tracking multiple biomarkers (e.g. antibiotics, key molecules) in real time, likened to a molecular version of continu...

Iain Wilson

Founded 2019, Operata is a 'CX observability' platform that monitors what actually happens inside contact centres where human agents, AI agents and third-party voice tools operate side-by-side. Raised ~A$11M...

Megan Baldwin

Late-stage biopharma spun out of Circadian Technologies (renamed Opthea 2015) developing sozinibercept, a novel therapy for wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD) and diabetic macular oedema. Raised ...

(confocal endomicroscopy)

Global leader in miniaturised confocal endomicroscopy ('optical biopsy') delivering real-time microscopic tissue imaging at >1000x the resolution of CT/MRI, aiming to reduce physical biopsies. All R&D and ma...

Precinct anchor

Joint venture of the University of Melbourne and Royal Melbourne Hospital in the Parkville precinct; a global infection-and-immunity powerhouse. First lab outside China to grow and share SARS-CoV-2 in 2020, ...

Precinct anchor

Australia's only public hospital solely dedicated to cancer, co-located in the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre in Parkville. Combines treatment with one of the largest cancer-research groups in the cou...

Australia's largest listed game developer (ASX:PLY, first Aussie game dev to float, 2020). ~60-title portfolio across mobile/PC/console/VR and work-for-hire with Activision Blizzard, Meta, Netflix Games and ...

(biodegradable ocular implant)

Clinical-stage ophthalmology company (tech originally from CSIRO and the Bionics Institute) developing a hair-thin biodegradable polymer implant (PA5108) that delivers glaucoma medication into the eye over 6...

Owen Wilson (REA Group CEO)

REA Group (ASX:REA), HQ at 511 Church St, Richmond, is Melbourne's proptech anchor (realestate.com.au). Its PropTrack subsidiary is the data/AVM arm — automated valuation models and property-market insights ...

Melbourne-based seed-stage firm (founded 2013) investing across ANZ B2B SaaS, AI, climate and health. One of the most active early-stage funds for local enterprise-software founders.

Paul Naphtali, Jim Cassidy

Melbourne-based seed-stage VC founded 2013 backing early ANZ founders across SaaS, marketplaces, consumer, martech and digital health. An active early-stage capital source for Melbourne consumer and e-commer...

Climatetech pioneer of combined solar PV + long-duration 'thermal hydro' energy storage. Completed a Series D in April (2025) taking its total to ~A$127M, backed by investors including Photon Energy and gove...

Karl Sabljak, Carmel Sabljak, Steve Sabljak & Martin Howell

Founded 1995 in a Melbourne garage as realestate.com.au; renamed REA Group in 2008. Operates Australia's leading property marketplace plus international portals (India, and stakes in the US/Asia). Majority-o...

Martin Hosking, Peter Styles & Paul Vanzella

Founded 2006 in Melbourne as a three-sided print-on-demand marketplace letting independent artists sell designs on apparel and homewares. Listed on the ASX in 2016 and acquired TeePublic in 2018. Rebranded t...

Valentin Muenzel & Daniel Crowley

Spun out of University of Melbourne battery-longevity PhD research in 2015, Relectrify's CellSwitch technology combines battery and inverter control at cell level to extend life and cut cost of battery energ...

Assaf Stizki & Ken Brand

Founded 2020, Restoke uses ML/NLP and live POS + inventory data to act as an AI 'restaurant manager' — predicting demand, automating back-of-house workflows and flagging profit leakage. Used by 2,000+ venues...

agrifood accelerator - **venue:** Carlton, Melbourne - **la:** -37.8001 - **ln:** 144.9674 - **desc:** Founded 2017 in Carlton; free 3–6 month accelerator for early-stage food & agriculture startups, deliberately using "agrifood tech" (farm-to-consumer) rather than narrow "agtech." Has supported 70+ founders across 7+ cohorts spanning plant-based protein, insect protein, eggs, organics, liquid yeast and digital farming. - **link:** https://www.rocketseeder.com/ - **vertical:** ["Foodtech","Agritech"] - **stage:** Accelerator ### 13 — Accelerator -

Founded 2017 in Carlton; free 3–6 month accelerator for early-stage food & agriculture startups, deliberately using "agrifood tech" (farm-to-consumer) rather than narrow "agtech." Has supported 70+ founders ...

agrifood accelerator

** Founded 2017 in Carlton; free 3–6 month accelerator for early-stage food & agriculture startups, deliberately using "agrifood tech" (farm-to-consumer) rather than narrow "agtech." Has supported 70+ founde...

Bernhard Tschirren & Michael Cameron

Founded 2010–11 in Melbourne by two former Microsoft engineers as a global multimodal transport search engine, aggregating flights, trains, buses, ferries and driving into single itineraries across 160+ coun...

Daniel Pelliccia

** Melbourne agritech pairing a handheld optical sensor with machine-learning analytics to non-destructively measure fruit maturity/ripeness (the crop's "molecular fingerprint") before and after harvest. Use...

Daniel Pelliccia - **venue:** Melbourne - **la:** -37.8136 - **ln:** 144.9631 - **desc:** Melbourne agritech pairing a handheld optical sensor with machine-learning analytics to non-destructively measure fruit maturity/ripeness (the crop's "molecular fingerprint") before and after harvest. Used across avocado, stone fruit, mango and apple supply chains to cut food waste and optimise picking/storage; piloting across Australia and South-East Asia. - **link:** https://www.growag.com/organisation/rubens-technologies - **vertical:** ["Agritech","Supply-chain"] - **stage:** Early / Seed ### 5 -

Melbourne agritech pairing a handheld optical sensor with machine-learning analytics to non-destructively measure fruit maturity/ripeness (the crop's "molecular fingerprint") before and after harvest. Used a...

Nicholas McDonnell & Winston Tang

Founded 2014; award-winning indie studio behind Screencheat (the '2nd-person shooter'), The American Dream VR and Killbug. 🚩 Ceased development / shut down in December 2023 after a decade — included as an ec...

Barb Hyman

Founded (as PredictiveHire) and led by former lawyer/HR exec Barb Hyman; a chat-based AI recruitment platform that interviews every candidate via text instead of screening resumes, targeting high-volume hiri...

Dennis Savic

Established 2016 by ex-Ford engineer Dennis Savic, Savic is Australia's first high-performance electric motorcycle manufacturer. Its flagship C-Series cafe-racer-styled e-motorbike is designed, engineered an...

Milad Mohammadzadeh & Dr Sadaf Monajemi

Founded 2017 by a husband-and-wife team, See-Mode builds AI-augmented ultrasound reporting software for vascular imaging and stroke detection/management from ultrasound scans. Acquired by US imaging group Ra...

Andrew Bassat, Paul Bassat & Matt Rockman

Founded 1997 by the Bassat brothers and Matt Rockman as an online version of print job classifieds; launched its site March 1998. Now Australia's dominant employment marketplace, capturing ~90% of time spent...

Dean Freestone & Mark Cook

Founded 2017 out of the University of Melbourne / St Vincent's; pioneered at-home epilepsy diagnostics with a portable EEG+ECG kit and cloud/ML analytics that cut monitoring wait times from 6–18 months to 6–...

Jonathan Chang

Long-running Melbourne AI/deep-learning consultancy and product builder; creators of Highlighter, an enterprise computer-vision 'perception system' for visual inspection and object detection. Serves defence,...

agrifood accelerator - **venue:** Melbourne - **la:** -37.8136 - **ln:** 144.9631 - **desc:** Melbourne-based agrifood accelerator/community connecting Australian founders with investors, industry mentors, agribusiness, academia and government across the agrifood supply chain. One of the anchor programs of Victoria's agtech ecosystem. - **link:** https://www.sproutx.com.au/ - **vertical:** ["Agritech","Foodtech"] - **stage:** Accelerator ### 14 — Accelerator -

Melbourne-based agrifood accelerator/community connecting Australian founders with investors, industry mentors, agribusiness, academia and government across the agrifood supply chain. One of the anchor progr...

agrifood accelerator

** Melbourne-based agrifood accelerator/community connecting Australian founders with investors, industry mentors, agribusiness, academia and government across the agrifood supply chain. One of the anchor pr...

Melbourne-founded global VC managing US$2.5B+ across Melbourne, Sydney, Tel Aviv and Singapore. Strong B2B SaaS thesis (Atlassian/Canva playbook); backers of Deputy, Prospa, Athena.

Paul Bassat, Tony Holt, Justin Liberman

One of Australia's largest VC firms, Melbourne-HQ'd, investing across fintech, SaaS and consumer/marketplace tech (Series A/B focus, plus AU/Israel/SEA). Relevant consumer-tech backer in the Melbourne ecosys...

(dendrimer platform)

World leader in dendrimer nanotechnology for pharma and medical products. Three platforms: VivaGel (bacterial vaginosis; launched in Australia), DEP drug-delivery (dendrimer-enhanced oncology assets), and an...

Christian Behrenbruch & co-founders

Founded 2015; global commercial-stage biopharma in theranostic (therapeutic + diagnostic) radiopharmaceuticals for cancer. Its lead product Illuccix (prostate cancer PET imaging) is FDA-approved and drove Te...

Julian Challingsworth & team

Melbourne-headquartered cybersecurity firm that grew (partly by acquisition) into Australia's largest ASX-listed cyber company, serving defence, government and critical-infrastructure clients across ~9 offic...

(electrochemical test strips)

Founded 2001; point-of-care diagnostics company with a proprietary electrochemical test-strip platform that has delivered 10bn+ tests worldwide. Partners include LifeScan (J&J) for OneTouch Verio glucose str...

Omer Molad & David Weinberg

AI-driven skills-assessment platform that evaluates job candidates through realistic, automatically-graded task simulations rather than resumes. Melbourne-founded, expanding across recruitment/HR-tech market...

Melbourne-born online wine marketplace / D2C 'wine deals' community, one of Australia's best-known consumer-ecommerce brands of the 2010s. Included as a notable Melbourne consumer-tech name (has since restru...

Precinct anchor

Australia's oldest medical research institute (est. 1915) and a Parkville Biomedical Precinct anchor. World-renowned for discoveries in immunology, cancer (BCL-2 / venetoclax lineage), infectious disease and...

Jeromy Wells & Romilly Blackburn

Founded ~2001–02 in Melbourne, Whispir is a communications-platform-as-a-service (CPaaS) SaaS that lets enterprises orchestrate multichannel messaging (SMS, email, voice, rich media) via low-code workflows. ...

Melbourne-founded (2012, Simon Griffiths + co-founders) social-enterprise consumer brand selling recycled/bamboo toilet paper, tissues and paper towels D2C and donating 50% of profits to sanitation charities...

Daniel Visser

Founded 2001, one of the longest-running Melbourne studios, with a strong sports and licensed-title output (AFL Evolution, NRL). Acquired by Keywords Studios in 2021; the founder later spun out a new venture...

Nadun Hennayaka - **venue:** Melbourne (La Trobe University precinct, Bundoora) - **la:** -37.7050 - **ln:** 145.0500 - **desc:** Founded 2020 as a La Trobe University spin-out, YieldX builds a high-density "Omni-System" for controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) that lifts leafy-green yields up to 40% without expanding greenhouse footprint. Originally engineered for NASA's Deep Space Food Challenge (a La Trobe/GAIA team finalist). Raised a A$1.7M seed in 2024 led by the Eagle Fund (Breakthrough Victoria + La Trobe), with Mandalay Venture Partners and LaunchVic's Hugh Victor McKay Fund; in Nov–Dec 2025 commissioned a commercial pilot at Butler Market Gardens (Lyndhurst, VIC) and signed a multi-year deployment with Hyperpure by Zomato in India. - **link:** https://launchvic.org/case-studies/this-melbourne-agtech-could-change-the-galaxys-approach-to-growing/ - **vertical:** ["Agritech"] - **stage:** Seed ### 2 -

Founded 2020 as a La Trobe University spin-out, YieldX builds a high-density "Omni-System" for controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) that lifts leafy-green yields up to 40% without expanding greenhouse fo...

Nadun Hennayaka

** Founded 2020 as a La Trobe University spin-out, YieldX builds a high-density "Omni-System" for controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) that lifts leafy-green yields up to 40% without expanding greenhouse...

Katy Barfield

Founded 2016 by social entrepreneur Katy Barfield OAM (former SecondBite CEO), Yume is an online marketplace that connects manufacturers' quality surplus food with buyers, turning would-be food waste into re...

Fintech challenger for SMEs — payments, transaction accounts, cards and financial tools — founded 2020 by ex-Square Australia lead Ben Pfisterer. Rapid Silicon-Yarra scaleup that reached unicorn-territory va...

Vinay Samuel & Michael Cimino

Founded 2013 in a Melbourne garage by Indian-origin founder Vinay Samuel (ex-Teradata, Greenplum, HP), Zetaris is an analytical data-virtualization / 'networked data lakehouse' platform that queries distribu...