A big congratulations to the top teams of InnovationACT who this weekend received grant funding from the $50,000 pool to keep developing their ventures.

InnovationACT for 2019 started back in August with a huge cohort of 71 teams. The students have been on a startup journey over the last 10 weeks learning crucial skills, tools and techniques to accelerate their innovative business ideas.

On Tuesday the 15^th of October, the shortlisted teams had five minutes to pitch their ventures, followed by five minutes of questions from the expert Judging Panel, made up of Glen Hassett from ACT Government, Petr Adamek from the Canberra Innovation Network, Cindy Reese Mitchell from Mill House Ventures and Anna Pino from Lighthouse Business Innovation Centre.

The top teams were announced at aMBUSH Gallery in Kambri, ANU on Saturday.

The Teams:

Solar Campus
Solar Campus are creating a platform that enables solar panels to be installed and have the benefit shared within the community through fractional ownership. Community members invest in solar panels through the platform, and earn dividends from solar electricity, the building owner has cheaper electricity bills, and the solar panels fight climate change!

RescoIO
RescoIO is an open platform and web app for the exchange, maintenance, traceability and financing of products, their parts and materials; with the aim of optimising usage, effective life and circularity. It helps networks, organisations and individuals to offer a service on a product or through a product. This enables communities and organisations to implement the circular economy.

Two Step Tommy
Making a brand recognizable and impactful is critical towards attracting and retaining customers. Two Step Tommy believes a brand’s point of difference can be through the use of data driven generative graphics systems. They assist brands with the conception, build and ongoing support of generative graphics systems to deliver an aesthetic which is infinitely interesting.

Gleeson and Seeber
The ever-increasing use of AI in the workforce is leaving the current generation of workers behind. Gleeson and Seeber plan to solve this problem through a venture that retrains these workers to be suitable for the tasks of tomorrow.

ConSenses Events
The ConSenses Events team is addressing social isolation among groups such as university students and the elderly through events. They plan to solve this by facilitating and encouraging interaction between student volunteers, elderly volunteers, and other members of the community through skill sharing events. Having completed a pilot event during the program, they are looking to run events regularly and scale them to have more impact.

An additional congratulations to IACT19 teams ConSenses Events, Two Step Tommy, DJADVISER and RETNA TECH for being awarded further support through The Canberra Innovations Network’s workshops.

InnovationACT is an initiative of the Australian National University and supports hundreds of budding young entrepreneurs from ANU and the wider Canberra region each year.

Find out more at InnovationACT.