Startmate’s Summer time’25 Accelerator cohort is its greatest but, involving 16 wildly totally different startups looking for to make a big effect is profoundly different methods
Driving them are 28 hungry, fast-moving, relentless founders who see a distinct future: one the place Gen Z’s are extra linked than lonely, the place commerce is collaborative, and the place the 4 million tonnes of surplus textiles created a yr are pulled again into the economic system.
They arrive from as distant as San Francisco and LA, with a number of additionally heading throughout The Ditch from New Zealand.
These founders are utilizing AI in novel methods; to create studying reminiscence for voice brokers, to resolve extra crimes and to automate course of documentation. Due to their work, extra individuals could have the chance to purchase properties, mother and father can be higher geared up to assist their households and childhood improvement can be personalised to unlock each child’s potential.
You’ll get an opportunity to satisfy them at Startmate’s vastly in style Demo Day in Might. Particulars on tickets can be revealed quickly.
Within the meantime, right here’s who’s going to be on stage pitching their good concepts.
Chirp
Founders: Nick Armstrong & Johnson Lin
Chirp cofounder Nick Armstrong
Sydney, NSW.
One-liner: Chirp’s AI amplifies gross sales groups to qualify and shut offers sooner.
CRMs have hostages, not prospects. Salespeople spend 72% of their time not promoting; as an alternative, they’re manually filling in a number of programs.
Chirp orchestrates information and automates your entire gross sales pipeline from lead analysis to closed gained, empowering gross sales groups to deal with their relationship constructing and time promoting.
The imaginative and prescient for Chirp is that each one GTM groups who handle purchasers, prospects and companions will use a conversational interface and by no means do information entry once more.
Nick and Johnson are well-placed to resolve the gross sales funnel and information orchestration drawback in SaaS. Nick has 20 years in founder-led gross sales and beforehand constructed a system that banks may use to maneuver information safely, while Johnson constructed an AI platform for top-of-funnel advertising.
Round Sourcing
Round Sourcing founder Courtney Holm
Founder: Courtney Holm
Melbourne, VIC.
One-liner: Round Sourcing connects companies to supply and promote high quality surplus textiles, growing revenue whereas lowering waste.
Over 4 million tonnes of surplus textiles are generated globally annually and with an absence of sustainable options for reuse, completely good supplies are devalued, stockpiled or wasted.
Round Sourcing’s imaginative and prescient is to be the premier sourcing platform for all round uncooked supplies, offering companies with significant design options alongside influence metrics to adjust to international rules. Already, they’ve acquired funding from the Nation Highway Local weather Fund and have secured a number of main Australian retailers as prospects.
With over a decade of expertise at pioneering round style label A.BCH, Courtney Holm and the founding workforce mix sturdy trade networks with in depth expertise in round design, style, e-commerce improvement and know-how.
Duohub
Duohub founders Oseh Mathias and Jason Beck.
Founders: Oseh Mathias, Jason Beck & Jennisha Arnanta
Sydney, NSW.
One-liner: Actual-time, repeatedly studying reminiscence for voice brokers.
Conversational AI is the way forward for the client companies trade, however for voice purposes, AI must have exact recall about the subject material, whereas studying from previous interactions in real-time.
Duohub saves firms months of engineering sources by giving them entry to express, low-latency graph reminiscence with a 5-minute setup.
The workforce brings deep expertise throughout know-how and enterprise domains, together with international infrastructure, graph reminiscence programs, TTS fashions, voice brokers, commerce, and enterprise gross sales.
Edsemble
Edsemble founders Mel Liu and Duncan Anderson
Founders: Duncan Anderson & Mel Liu
Melbourne, VIC.
One-liner: Bettering early childhood improvement by way of personalised studying.
The primary 5 years of a kid’s improvement are crucial for lifelong success. Nevertheless, most mother and father lack a scientific plan to assist their baby’s development or a dependable technique to monitor their progress.
Edsemble does all of the analysis to make sure mother and father obtain the proper merchandise on the proper time.
The corporate is beginning with an age-appropriate e-book subscription for youngsters aged 0–5 and plans to broaden into personalised choices for youngsters, reporting for folks, and extra choices comparable to video games and toys for ages 0–10, all designed to assist parenting and enhance developmental outcomes.
Duncan co-founded Edrolo, an EdTech firm serving over 200,000 college students and producing tens of tens of millions in income in 2024 whereas attracting $50 million in funding from Blackbird and AirTree. Mel co-founded Owltail, a podcast discovery startup, the place he labored alongside Duncan for 5 years till it was acquired. He then joined Minbie, a child product startup, to deal with acquisition and advertising.
Evidentful
Evidentful founders Duncan Faulkner and Ravi Sohal
Founder: Duncan Faulkner & Ravi Sohal
Queenstown, New Zealand.
One-liner: Automated legal investigations for Police.
Globally there’s a scarcity of law enforcement officials obtainable to analyze the excessive quantity of reported crime leading to 95% of reported crime remaining unsolved. Beginning with witnesses interviewing,
Evidentful addresses the police scarcity by automating the witness interview course of, eradicating the necessity to deploy a human useful resource.
The broader imaginative and prescient is to automate the broader investigation course of, together with offender interviews, intelligence gathering, name dealing with and case file preparation. Piloting begins in early 2025.
Based by Duncan, a former British police officer and exited tech founder and Ravi, an skilled software program engineer, Evidentlul is poised to rework conventional policing.
Fluency
Fluency founders Oliver Farnill and Finnlay Morcombe
Founders: Oliver Farnill & Finnlay Morcombe
Melbourne, VIC.
One-liner: Fluency makes enterprise course of documentation 50x sooner by way of automation.
Fluency transforms complicated course of documentation writing from a 4-6 hour handbook burden right into a 5-minute job with AI, serving to enterprises keep away from effectivity losses and expensive compliance penalties.
Based by long-time pals and self-taught builders, Oliver (24) and Finn (24) mix finance and engineering experience, constructing a platform that has rapidly secured main enterprise purchasers round Australia.
With its AI-powered system occasion seize and enterprise-grade safety features, Fluency is constructing the way forward for course of excellence whereas delivering confirmed ROI for patrons inside their first week of use.
Gloss Information
Gloss Information founders: Courtney Clemence and Ash Hoey
Founders: Courtney Clemence & Ash Hoey
San Francisco, USA & Brisbane, QLD.
One-liner: Gloss Information is the trusted magnificence companies listing connecting impartial suppliers and prospects with a high quality service assure.
Magnificence customers face inconsistent outcomes with high quality assurance and remediation, whereas suppliers are buried in advertising duties, struggling to draw and retain purchasers.
Via Gloss Information, customers, for the primary time, can navigate a listing of verified magnificence practitioners, e-book their appointment and have certainty that if the companies are beneath trade requirements, they’re insured with a straightforward refund request.
Courtney, a former lash technician and retail chief, brings deep perception into the frustrations of each customers and suppliers. Her co-founder Ash, a 4x founder with an ASX exit, presents the operational experience to construct and scale disruptive options.
Landid
Landid founder Alex Hutchison
Founder: Alex Hutchison
Manly, NSW.
One-liner: The quoting automation platform for Tradies to win and ship extra worthwhile tasks.
Landid empowers tradies in all places to run and develop their companies with ease and confidence.
Landid harnesses AI to digitise each element of any property, automating venture scoping, planning and costing with excessive accuracy and reliability to save lots of tradies hours of misplaced time with improved venture conversion and revenue margins.
Based by a workforce of extremely skilled builders with experience in enterprise design, software program improvement and course of automation for firms globally, Landid is reimagining the way forward for work for commerce companies in all places.
Luniate
Luniate cofounders William Stone and Dominique Harrison-Bentzen.
San Francisco, USA.
One-liner: Luniate allows monetary companies to speed up content material creation to succeed in the next-gen investor.
We’re within the largest wealth switch in historical past, with millennials set to inherit $90 trillion. They demand genuine, real-time monetary data, but 50% of monetary companies are archaic and fail to attach with this technology on-line.
Luniate addresses this with a content material platform powered by AI brokers. This platform automates the creation and distribution of compliant, sentiment-driven content material, considerably lowering content material manufacturing time from days to minutes.
Led by co-founders Dominique (CEO), former World Head of Digital Advertising at UBS, and William (COO), a seasoned M&A and personal fairness veteran who has managed over $20 billion in transactions.
Collectively they’re constructing the #1 funding content material working system for the world’s main monetary manufacturers, powered by insights from a world neighborhood of next-generation buyers.
NOD
NOD founder Haylee Killip
Founder: Haylee Killip
Auckland, New Zealand.
One-liner: NOD connects mother and father with trusted childcare professionals, immediately.
NOD goals to seize 1% of the $78B casual on-line childcare market inside 5 years ($780m income) and seeks to reshape 9-5 childcare inside the subsequent decade, changing into the primary selection for working mother and father.
Haylee Killip is a dynamic promoting knowledgeable and devoted mum to a energetic toddler, bringing 15 years of experience in crafting daring, memorable manufacturers and campaigns that drive development throughout numerous industries. Her knack for turning model concepts into family names makes her a powerhouse on the planet of promoting and model constructing for startups.
Since August 2024, NOD has achieved a median 51% month-to-month development charge of first-time customers, a 56% repeat reserving charge, and 61% common month-to-month income development.
O3
03 founder Luca Yang
Founder: Luca Yang
Melbourne, VIC & Auckland, New Zealand.
One-liner: A bodily social community to assist Gen Z reconnect in a lonely world.
We’re the loneliest technology ever—bodily communities are dying whereas social media leaves us empty.
O3 turns warehouses into workspace cafes, powered by a social app that scales past the partitions. We’re constructing the primary social community that lives in the actual world. A hub in each metropolis. Actual individuals. Actual communities. Actual connection.
In 6 months, 500+ members joined the Auckland area, beginning at $20/week. Melbourne is subsequent, with area for two,000 extra. $1M in income, $1m raised, 100k followers on-line, and hundreds on the waitlist.
Luca, CEO and founder, has expertise as a banker, tutor, now designer and engineer. He additionally constructed and bought an training startup whereas partying at Harvard.
PentaCue AI
PentaCue cofounder Jack Chan
Founders: Eddy Kurmakaev & Jack Chan
Melbourne, VIC.
One-liner: AI platform that lets electronics producers uncover certified leads immediately by analysing their product parts.
PentaCue AI is reworking B2B electronics gross sales by changing handbook lead discovery with clever AI-driven concentrating on. They’ve constructed a specialised search engine that analyses authorities filings, and trade information to determine firms actively creating digital merchandise.
Their platform helps gross sales groups filter by particular digital parts and manufacturing necessities, revealing hidden alternatives that conventional strategies miss.
PentaCue AI is already serving enterprise purchasers together with Tesla suppliers, serving to them determine certified prospects that had been beforehand invisible by way of conventional channels. The electronics manufacturing trade nonetheless depends closely on commerce exhibits and handbook analysis – they’re making lead discovery data-driven.
Based by two product and software program engineering consultants, Eddy has lead product at a fast-growing fintech startup and Jack is an AI software program engineer with a background in massive information processing.
Puralink
Puralink cofounders Harrison Crowe-Maxwell, Lengthy Tran & Shyeon Delnawaz
Founders: Harrison Crowe-Maxwell, Lengthy Tran & Shyeon Delnawaz
Sydney, NSW.
One-liner: Puralink supplies autonomous robots for pipe inspection, mapping, and restore.
Puralink’s mission is to remove pipe leaks and disruptions with autonomous robots that discover and repair leaks 24/7.
Inspection and upkeep of pipe belongings is a USD$500B+ trade. Domestically, in FY24 Sydney Water misplaced over $130 million to water leaks and spent over $350m on pipe inspection and upkeep.
Puralink’s patented robots autonomously navigate complicated pipe networks to search out leaks, improve effectivity and lower prices.
The founding workforce combines expertise throughout machine studying, robotics, analysis and product administration – giving them a contemporary perspective to sort out a world drawback.
Slice
Slice founder Amy Stevens
Founder: Amy Stevens
Auckland, New Zealand.
One-liner: A market that automates the house shopping for course of for consumers, brokers and legal professionals.
Greater than 40% of potential consumers don’t pursue homeownership as a result of they really feel uninformed, whereas over 35% of millennials imagine they will’t afford a house, solely to find they qualify for finance after receiving steering.
Slice is making a world the place everybody has the chance to personal a house. Slice simplifies the home-buying course of with steering and instruments in a single place, whereas leveraging AI to automate monetary and authorized companies. This not solely simplifies the method for consumers but additionally reduces inefficiencies for professionals (brokers and legal professionals), permitting them to deal with high-value duties and supply fixed-price options consumers can belief.
The workforce has grown Slice to 1,800 consumers and 30 companions (6 figures ARR), delivering a dollar-for-dollar+ ROI and showcasing distinctive capital effectivity. Amy has in depth expertise as a lawyer and monetary adviser and has lived and breathed the challenges dealing with dwelling consumers.
Vulnetix
Vulnetix founders Christopher Langton & Sean Marshall
Founders: Christopher Langton & Sean Marshall
Canberra, ACT & Sydney, NSW.
One-liner: Vulnetix is an orchestration and analytics layer above your safety detection instruments.
Vulnetix is making cyber safety resilient to an ever-changing future by constructing an clever monitoring layer that prioritises safety points with enterprise context comparable to protection, analytics, and influence to cut back threat with much less effort.
Their know-how harnesses a community impact, notifying prospects about vulnerabilities and potential options based mostly on different buyer’s safety points whereas sustaining privateness.
Each founders have greater than 20 years of expertise constructing software program from scratch. Sean is an exited founder and was an early worker at a number of firms together with Deputy, MobileDen (exited), PureCommerce (exited), and Tutch.
Chris has constructed the inner model of Vulnetix for five enterprise firms and authorities organisations and was an early worker at Punters and CMD Options.
Zipline
Zipline founder Michelle Reeves
Founder: Michelle Reeves
Brisbane, Australia/Los Angeles, USA.
One-liner: Powering the way forward for commerce by enabling manufacturers and customers to collaborate on merchandise.
Shoppers aren’t responding to conventional e-commerce development methods, driving manufacturers to adapt. With buyer acquisition prices hovering by 222%, manufacturers should prioritise cost-effective innovation to seize consideration, ship personalised experiences, and improve gross sales.
Zipline has already examined its product with manufacturers together with Gucci and Disney, growing person engagement from 54 seconds to as much as 47 minutes. Delivering priceless time for manufacturers to transform and drive gross sales. Customers co-designed purses and sneakers expressing sturdy optimistic sentiments in direction of the model; “I really feel like I’m a part of one thing particular, an insider,” and “I like having a say, it’s like I’ve VIP entry.“
Zipline integrates into the model’s web site with a customized AI engine skilled on the model’s tips. This ensures each user-generated creation displays the model’s distinctive model whereas safeguarding its IP and integrity.
With over 30 years of expertise working with client manufacturers comparable to Amazon, Microsoft, and Coca-Cola, Michelle has international experience in retail, tech, and AI.
