Venture Catalyst Awards

The Hon. T.T. NGO (15:13): My question is to the Minister for Science and Information Economy. Can the minister update the chamber on the latest recipients of the Venture Catalyst Awards?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Employment, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation, Minister for Automotive Transformation, Minister for Science and Information Economy) (15:13): I thank the honourable member for his question and his ongoing interest in the entrepreneurial ecosystem in South Australia and particularly through things such as university programs.

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to attend this year's Venture Catalyst Awards ceremony at the new University of South Australia business school facility at the City West campus. The government has proudly supported the University of South Australia in the start of the Venture Catalyst Program. Three tech start-ups joined the ranks of Adelaide's thriving start-up community, sharing in $135,000 of seed funding as part of the joint initiative between the state government and the University of South Australia, which over the last three years has been supporting and developing entrepreneurial talent in our state.

The program encourages collaboration between Uni of SA students and industry to turn knowledge and ideas into business opportunities and to create start-ups for the commercialisation of products, services or processes. It is helping increase the number of university graduates that are skilled at developing and commercialising new ideas, which is motivating them to start new local businesses, which in turn boosts employment opportunities for South Australians. The Venture Catalyst program continues to support some of the brightest and most innovative students and recent graduates by providing up to $50,000 in seed funding, mentoring, support and working space in the Innovation and Collaboration Centre.

I want to congratulate Secure Nest, Playt and Studio Buddy, who each took out a Venture Catalyst award on the night. Secure Nest is led by UniSA graduate Sally Skewes and received $50,000 funding, taking out the social enterprise stream of the program. This start-up delivers an e-health platform that provides greater accessibility for clients of innovative schema therapy that helps to overcome negative behaviours and helps with treatment and recovery.

In addition, current UniSA student Nicole Henderson has established the start-up Playt and received $50,000 in the mainstream category. Playt is a start-up that makes recipe shopping very easy. It's a food tech start-up that converts text from online and print recipes into a digital shopping list, integrating it with both national and international grocery partners to provide reliable and accurate home deliveries.

Finally, the third recipient of seed funding was Studio Buddy, led by James Walsh, a UniSA graduate. The start-up received $35,000 in start-up funding and $15,000 worth of incubation space in the Innovation and Collaboration Centre. Studio Buddy has developed a business management software solution incorporating all aspects of studio management, with the added ability of being able to scale into other industries to capture data and track performance across the sector.

Through programs like Venture Catalyst, this government and our university sector are supporting entrepreneurship in this state and supporting new businesses that will drive economic growth and job creation into the future. I congratulate the three new start-ups that join a growing list of alumni who have progressed through the program. Start-ups that are progressing very well include Vinnovate, TCPinpoint, EcoJet Engineering, Jemsoft and Voxibox.