The Government has as part of its support for innovation , announced today an investment of 280k bringing to Australia Masschallenge, who will be JV'ing with Microsoft to develop programmes for startups that will encourage Connection, Collaboration and Education.
This initiative will encourage idea-pitching competitions, startup boot camps and local and international mentoring.
I absolutely and wholeheartedly endorse and approve this initiative - it's awesome !!! but they should applaud, encourage and continue to build on the success and experience of Australian accelerators and programmes that have been doing the same for many years and have been supported with significant funding by both Liberals and Labour over the years from both Federal and Victorian Government's (Sydney has been behind the 8 ball in this regard)
BSI has been and continues to assist their clients access these programmes - that have added exponential value to the companies that have benefitted and are continuing to benefit from these programmes.
With regard to the accelerator programmes, through its incubator ADI, that the government supported from 2002 to 2005, $5m was used to
- provide education and support through taking 150 companies through an investor ready programme, culminating in them pitching their opportunity in front of 200 high net worth individuals and funds through our bsi investor forums held nationally
- Provided an opportunity to take 30 companies to Silicon Valley enabling them to pitch their opportunities to VCs and potential alliance partners
- 24 companies being directly invested in by ADI - which facilitated in excess of $500m of private investment over the past 10 years.
- Our incubatees scoring a number of home runs - while others have "failed forward"-
- notable investees successes have included :-
- NewLease - that listed under Rhype - current asx valuation +$100m
- Spreets - sold to Yahoo for $40m
- Redbubble - currently listing at a valuation of $300m
- Adlogic and My recruitment plus - still private but kicking significant goals in online recruiting
- Retriever - being the major player in field force technology - setting the pace for current technology
- Memsid morphing into asx listed bluechip - leading the field in rfid technology
- Referron - a technology close to my heart - adding value to thousands of business's - helping them easily refer and be referred with 3 taps of their phone, enabling them to track measure and reward referrals! ( my mates would be disappointed if I didn't give my obligatory plug!!!)
The investment of $5m (as one of 8 other incubators ) in 2002-2005 have resulted in - in excess of $500m to the incubatees that were supported. Many of those entrepreneurs supported by these programmes are now the fabric of innovation in Australia today.
The reason for such significant leverage was that the government provided the spark - that encouraged private enterprise to fuel the flame.
The incubator programme should have continued , but stopped due to change of government or budget cuts, although all reports clearly showed that the roi of the funding was significant!
The Turnbull $1.1b initiative is genius! It will encourage enterprise and the massive pot of superannuation available to invest in this all important sector - as long as these companies are educated, have a clear plan and an opportunity for exponential growth.
We can already see this happenning with 4 Recent Australian funds committing $800m to the innovation sector.
It's interesting to see the hype of the $280k of Masschallenge when the Victorian Government (who gets it) has just allocated $60m to support accelerators over 3 years, making Victoria a place to be for innovation! I haven't seen this in the news?
Startups and innovators should not be used as a political football.... They should be supported and nurtured for the benefit of all Australians!
Bsi looks forward to playing a part in The Innovation game to 2020 helping Innovative companies grow through Connecting Collaborating and Educating - helping them create ther generational legacies.
It's going to be an exciting and rewarding time for Innovation in Australia.
Some of the current government programmes include:-
The export market development grant - encouraging exporters to take risks - marketing their products and services to overseas countries - knowing that 50pc of their marketing spend can be recoups in the form of a grant to a maximum of $150k per annum. This scheme has been paired back - where exporters don't get their full entitlement - although the kpis show that for every dollar the government supports these companies, $12 is returned to australia in export revenue - increasing employment and tax dollars, providing significant benefit to Australia and its stakeholders.
Research and Development Tax Concessions - whereby innovators can get back up to 45pc of their r and d spend - encouraging them to innovate take risks and allowing them to fail - knowing that all is not lost
Commercialisation Australia - with a range of programmes - encouraging education and collaboration to innovative companies looking to grow their business
Vet fee help and state government programmes , investing billions of dollars up skilling the Australian workforce - getting them ready for the inevitable shift that is happenning - replacing most current jobs that exist today with technology.
If you are interested in finding out more -
Say "yes" in the comment below - or add to the conversation
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