Start-up comp Rackspace Australia announces 10 finalists – live pitch on Tues, August 6th in Sydney
Rackspace Australia’s ‘Small Teams Big Impact: Down Under’ startup pitching competition has announced the 10 finalists that will go through to pitch live tomorrow evening at Fishburners Ultimo in Sydney.
Finalists:
• OpenLearning – a student centred online learning platform based around the principles of student autonomy, diversity of learning materials, openness of resources and social interactivity.
• Food Orbit – a marketplace that is changing the food system, enabling wholesale buyers of food, such as chefs and restaurateurs to connect and trade directly with local farmers and producers online.
• Projectia – a social network that enables you to share, connect and collaborate around the projects that interest you most.
• Annexium – a global contract drafters’ network, training provider and publisher: a web app for professional education courses, intensives, legal templates, ebooks, seminar papers and webinars.
• AuthoPay – a credit card fraud protection service that allows shop owners to verify end customer address details.
• Ollo Mobile – voice controlled, 3G cloudphone technology which aims to reinvent the monitored telehealth industry, and improve the safety and communication of families worldwide.
• Revolutionise – an end-to-end online platform for sports club management, managing members, scheduling games, entering results, and more.
• Clipp – allows customers to open, view and pay their bar or restaurant tab, and earn points to redeem at any Clipp venue.
• DigitalSorbet – a social working platform to help home-based professionals from all over the world connect, share and work collaboratively to get things done.
• Geepers – a vision to create a globally consistent addressing system; one based on precise GPS locations rather than country-specific conventions. The easiest way to find people, places and things anywhere in the world.
Tomorrow evening they will be pitching to a guest judging panel including:
• Robert Scoble – Rackspace Startup Liaison
• Ruslan Kogan – Kogan
• Chris Ridd – Xero
• Kim Heras – PushStart
• Mick Liubinskas – Pollenizer
Rackspace has long been a partner to successful startups – coming from startup roots itself in 1998. Since its early days, Rackspace has been committed to helping entrepreneurs drive the next generation of innovation, backed by its cloud hosting and Fanatical Support. Rackspace Australia has supported startup incubators for years, with cloud hosting benefits through Pollenizer, PushStart, Startmate, and Innovyz.
Rackspace recently brought online its fully blown public cloud offering, powered by OpenStack, to Australian businesses from its Sydney datacentre. This completed the full Rackspace Hybrid Cloud offering for local customers. The Rackspace Cloud is perfect for startups. It offers them affordable, scalable, and flexible hosting, helping them focus on what they do best – building disruptive technology. Here are a few quotes you are welcome to use as well:
Says Angus Dorney, director and general manager, Rackspace Australia: “At Rackspace, we love helping startups. We’re in a particularly exciting spot in Australia, having just brought the full Hybrid Cloud offering to our Sydney datacentre.
“With Sydney and Melbourne ranking 12th and 18th cities globally for startup activity, and Adelaide, Brisbane, and other cities hot on their heels, we’re seeing a surge in activity in local entrepreneurship.
“A recent PwC report found that startups alone could contribute $109 billion and 540,000 jobs to the Australian economy by 2033.
“We’re looking forward to seeing the best of the best, and holding a great final event for the whole community to enjoy”
Says Robert Scoble, startup liaison, Rackspace: “I get to travel around the world all the time to see some of the most exciting startups. However, I’ve never had the pleasure of coming to Australia.
“I can’t wait to see what all the Aussie entrepreneurs have in store for the Small Teams Big Impact competition, both at the final event when I visit Sydney, and when they visit our shores for a recording session in our studio.
“We’ll be judging startups based on the scope of their innovation, the highest potential to change or disrupt an industry, and having the greatest impact to the largest number of people or businesses.”