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Selecting 11 companies to invest in out of 600 hopefuls is without a doubt the most challenging and exhilarating 4 weeks on the Startmate calendar. With the help of over a hundred committed mentors, we unearth the grittiest, hungriest founders; the ones with cosmic dreams and colossal drive.

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But the best part, the very best part, is when we kick off Week 0, meet the founders, and reflect on the missions we’re backing.

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This cohort is ending online abuse, rethinking firefighting to make it safer and more effective, and building novel ways to support mothers post-childbirth. They are revolutionising the tender process, transforming the fitting room experience, finding new ways to extract oil, and re-creating the physio-patient journey. They’re creating a new thermal heating and cooling system to halve energy costs and emissions, catching bugs before your users do, enabling digital health companies to expand globally, and using human avatars for live interviews to power recruitment.

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Week 0 kicked off this week and spirits are high. The next 12 weeks will be some of the most intense and explosive periods of the founders’ lives. 

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Without further ado - meet our Winter’24 Accelerator cohort. 

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Borne

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One liner: Australia’s first mother-centric postpartum hotel and wellness platform ensuring every mother’s health is well-supported, deeply understood and expertly navigated following childbirth.

Borne’s is revolutionising maternal healthcare by making hospitals the place to give birth and Borne the place to recover. With 24/7 expert care, a comprehensive wellness program and membership platform, Borne is where mothers and their families can stay, recover, and thrive. Borne’s unique care model aims to foster a positive long-term effect on future generations.

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Founder/s: Avalon Nethery

Location: Sydney, Australia

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Bugster

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One liner: Bugster tests software products automatically using AI, catching bugs before your users do. 

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What used to take months of manual effort, Bugster can do in seconds and automatically. Bugster generates end-to-end tests on web products 80% faster, safely and without the need to expand your development team. With founders blending expertise in software testing, artificial intelligence, and customer experience, Bugster is the unified testing platform for software products.

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Founder/s: Facundo Lopez Scala, Ignacio Solorzano, Bautista Roberts

Location: Sydney, Australia

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Fairgo.AI

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One-liner: Live, AI-powered recruitment interviews that cut through noise, eliminate bias, and find the best candidates, faster. 

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Fairgo.ai is an AI-powered live video interview platform that cuts the hiring time by 50% through automated screening. Unlike traditional methods, every question and response is not simply captured, but discussed with an AI expert. Candidate suitability is assessed and summarised, delivering in-depth insights for high-quality, efficient hiring decisions that minimises unconscious bias. With the solo founder's impressive 20+ years of experience at Amazon and SEEK, Fairgo.AI is well positioned to revolutionise recruitment.

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Founder/s: Julian Bright

Location: Melbourne, Australia

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Hurtec

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One-liner: Hurtec makes firefighting safer and more effective through automated software, powerful electric pumps and data driven decisions.

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Hurtec is revolutionising firefighting with advanced electric pumps and integrated software that automates complex operations and provides real-time data for enhanced safety and efficiency. Founded by experts in firefighting and technology, Hurtec's innovative system outperforms traditional pumps, improves safety, and seamlessly connects equipment for smarter fire management.

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Founder/s: Justin Hurcom, Jeffery Summers, Andrew Newton

Location: Nerang, Queensland

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NE Tech

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One-liner: Food oil extraction technology that produces additive-free oils 85% cheaper. 

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NE Tech extracts oil from food. It’s 85% cheaper, uses significantly less energy, and removes the traditional drying process completely. Their technology is driving the future of nutritional oils with cutting edge green technology to produce odourless, tasteless, shelf-stable oils without additives. What’s most impressive? The founding team combines 50 years of expertise in supplement manufacturing, bioengineering and biochemistry.

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Founder/s: Ron Park

Location: Christchurch, New Zealand

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PREVE 

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One-liner: Helping physiotherapy clinics deliver the best and most affordable patient treatment programs.

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PREVE is the world’s first AI-assisted physio membership platform, bringing clarity, automation and delightfulness to every step of the physio-patient journey. Through PREVE, patients receive high-quality and affordable treatment leading to better recovery outcomes. At the same time, clinics thrive through predictable revenue and exceptional customer experience. The founding team combines a decade of clinical experience, clinic ownership and product expertise in preventative health. This team is poised and ready to revolutionise physio-patient care. 

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Founder/s: Adam Beaupeurt, Caelum Trott

Location: Byron Bay, Australia

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Recant.ai

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One liner: Recant.ai combats abusive messages and harassment on social media.

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Recant.ai is putting an end to online harassment. How? Their technology intercepts abusive messages, introducing disincentives that hold perpetrators accountable. With a team combining 15 years of AI expertise, and scaling and exiting multiple successful companies, Recant.ai is a company to watch.

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Founder/s: Cam McMaster, Martin Kemka & Chris McLoghlin

Location: Perth, Australia 

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Tendl

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One-liner: Respond to tenders and grants faster with Tendl.

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Tendl makes it simple to unlock the information in an organisation's documents. Starting with tenders and grants, Tendl deep dives into documents and historical responses to help organisations pursue more opportunities, delivering better results while dramatically reducing the stress of submissions. Tendl runs locally on your computer, eliminating the need to transmit sensitive data. The solo and veteran founder has a decade of experience in software engineering and a deep understanding of the pain point from building businesses in the government sector.

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Founder/s: Laurie Nicol

Location: Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia

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TOTEX

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One-liner: Next gen sustainable all in one heating, cooling and hot water system that cuts energy cost and emissions in half.

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60% of Australians pay over $4,000 on energy bills every year. Totex’s combined heating, cooling and hot water system halves the energy cost and CO₂ emissions by seamlessly integrating with solar panels, batteries and the dynamic energy grid. The founding team is leveraging their 20+ years of building within engineering services to address the impact of heating and cooling on the environment.

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Founder/s: Berlin Raj, Bosco Raj & Mailys Baerg

Location: Melbourne, Australia

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Trova

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One-liner: Trova enables rapid global expansion for digital health companies. 

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Trova is tackling the high costs and complexity of entering the $105B international market for digital health companies. Their platform seamlessly integrates into a company's existing systems, providing localised and compliant healthcare delivery software and a ready-to-use provider network across borders. This allows companies to reduce expansion costs by 75%, accelerate growth, and increase margins. Led by a team with deep health tech and clinical expertise, Trova is transforming how digital health scales globally.

Founder/s: Dana Allison, Dr. Truida Botha & Balaji Varanasi

Location: Melbourne, Australia

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Zello

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One-liner: Reinventing the way shoppers try on clothes to improve retailers decision making.

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Zello is Australia’s first fitting room assistant using real time data to enhance shopper experience and deliver insights to store owners. Through Zello, retailers can track shopping behaviour inside the fitting room, detecting items, fulfilling requests and suggesting alternative outfits.  In turn, retailers can utilise this data to plan future retail operations, reducing time and costs. With the founders’ impressive hustle and a user-centric approach, Zello is set to modernise the shopping experience for good. 

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Founders: Olyvia Munro, Sakina Aliasger 

Location: Melbourne, Australia

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