STARTUP ECOSYSTEM REPORT

Regional Queensland 2015 

STARTUP ECOSYSTEM REPORT 

A report on the People, Groups and Companies involved in Regional Queensland’s startup sector. 

JANUARY 2016 

Commissioned by the Department of Science, 

Information Technology, and Innovation; 

the Toowoomba Regional Council; Ipswich 

City Council; Bundaberg Regional Council; 

Rockhampton Regional Council; Mackay Regional 

Council; Townsville City Council and the Cairns 

Regional Council. 

Produced by Boundlss.

Green Valley Digital 

Jay Daniells 

Andrew Whitlock 

Diggy 

101 Business Group 

Michael Waters 

Owen Rippingale 

Peta Neale 

David Withers 

Thales 

Queensland Investment Corporation 

Richard Chappell 

Matt McKinley 

Microair 

Minstaff Survey Pty Ltd 

Procedures Online 

Precision Agriculture 

Bundaberg Region Rising 

BigMate 

Tim Neale 

Phil Ainsworth 

Andrew Beckenhauer 

Conetix Web Hosting 

Queensland Fire and Rescue Service 

Peta Jamieson 

Stephen Moore 

Chris Jenkins 

Graham Smith 

BMA 

HelloClaims 

UAView 

Jabiru 

Mick Storch 

Garry France 

Rodney Stiff 

Bundaberg Regional Council 

mangoesmapping 

Inspection Apps 

Chris Mills 

Peter Byrne 

Real Time Instruments Tony Crowley 

DEC-MECH 

Townsville Lean Network 

Shane Ridley 

Matt Hanson 

ResPax 

Ashley Walker 

Robert Sluggett 

Kristy Gostelow 

Strategenics 

Glenn Skerman 

Snipe 

PakYak 

Otrain 

Greg Skerman 

Farmacist 

AgData 

Neil McPhillips Kadence Group 

Junta Simon lenoir 

AUFO 

Defence Materiel Organisation 

AgData Australia MyPool Inspection 

BetsWithFriends Andrew Bills 

Unisys 

Stephen Dummett 

Darryl Postgate 

NQ UAV 

Mark Matthews 

George Corea 

David Cole 

Australian Digital Futures Institute 

River City Labs 

Stephen Baxter 

Almost Anything 

ShareStuff 

Wishbone Communications 

Peta Ellis 

Westpac 

John Thornely 

hello claims 

Paul Pisasale 

Richard Sazima Australian Army Queensland Health 

Startup Townsville 

Benjamin Taylor 

University of Southern Queensland 

Supercell Media 

NQ Innovate 

Matthew Tebble 

Make it Strategic 

RiverPitch 

500 Startups 

Royal Australian Navy 

Solidfacts NQ Victor Attwood Joe Hoolahan 

Sandra Harding 

Digital Physics 

Helen Farley 

Glen Rice 

Broadband Today Alliance 

Department of Defence 

Strictly Service 

JESI 

Darren Cooke 

Kurt Pudniks 

Thought Select Andrew Whannell 

Matthew Schultz 

Engineers Australia 

Startup Cairns 

LogiCamms 

Jesse Gileppa Code Valley 

GHD 

Helen Newell 

Daniel Peacock 

Alan Jones 

Rhonda Whiteside 

Alan Brown 

ABB Industry 

Get Back 2 Basics 

Startup Mackay David Finnish 

University of Queensland 

Peter Watson 

Damian Zammit 

Ergon Energy 

Ipswich City Council 

ShareBoat Technologies 

Wide Bay Volunteers 

David Morrison 

James Cook University 

Oz Apps 

My Water Filter 

Dennis Murphy 

University of Wisconsin Madison 

Townsville ICT Business Network 

Jodie Stanley 

theSpace Cairns 

Mick Scott 

Damian Zammit 

ASSOB 

Sally Kift 

Upson Downs Imaging Services 

Chris Cocklin 

Unity Finn 

iAMConnected 

Troy Haines 

Wow Factor 

FNQ Apartments 

Xerospace Australasia 

Osmotion 

Robert Gilmour 

David Beitey 

Therma Culture 

Narain Ramakrishnan 

Hummingbird 

David Henry 

Terry Kearney 

Startup Weekend 

Experimental 

Unicorns 

Springfield Land Corporation 

John Williams 

SaferData 

David Masefield 

Charles Darwin University 

Central Queensland University 

Andrew Joy 

2bit Studios 

Roy Pidgeon 

QR 

CSIRO Hilary Winchester 

SafetyCulture 

Adam Young 

Ian Devenish 

CatchLog 

Ecosure 

Robert Buhrke 

Christine Bell 

EnviroSource 

Intritec 

Rodney Archdall 

Phil Baker 

Iceberg Innovation 

Dieter Bohm 

TedX Rockhampton 

Dave Swain 

Robert Buhrke 

iMeasure 

Peter Milani 

Tony Best 

Andrew Bate 

Brett Bundock 

HoverCam 

Joanna Batstone 

SwarmFarm Robotics 

Kerry Purcell 

Ji Shen 

Glen Garner 

ESRI 

Konveen 

Nicholas Flor 

Emma Monro 

Steven Hambleton 

Sales VA 

IBM Australia 

Shedproject 

Joy Taylor 

Kix Fit 

Terry McCosker 

Smart HR Solutions 

emailancer Aden Tranter 

TAFE QLD 

Anton Mazkovoi 

Chris Brown 

John Mlikota 

WR Grace 

David Newby 

inCapital 

Carbon Link 

Insight Creative 

Dr Larry Marshall 

Luke Anear 

D2K 

Insite SJC 

John Bruce-Smith 

Comit 

Mr Craig Roy 

Happy Healthy Kidz Australia 

Startup Toowoomba 

Chris Bosomworth 

Skydronics 

Leanne Griffin 

Eat Smart B Active 

Innov8 

Eduhealth Plus 

Stuart Pocknee 

Matthew Drane 

Jenny Legge 

QIT Plus 

Mark Venz 

Canvas Co-Working 

Caked On 

Mitch Miller 

Scan2Convert 

Gilmour Space Corp 

David McCallum 

Fierce Ventures 

Adam Gilmour 

Grant Bajema 

JobFit Systems 

BajTech 

Martin Oates 

Craig Hodges 

James Gilmour 

Site Specific Software Solutions 

Stuart King 

Hortus 

QLD Emergency Medicine Research Foundation 

Chris Madsen 

Jason Spence 

Jack Milbank 

Nicky Jurd 

Tyson Clarke 

Lisa van den Berg 

Best Practice Software 

ClinicalHub 

iAssist 

Precedence 

Bargara Brewing Company 

Tradiesweb Focuss WebTraf 

Voista 

Rail Innovation Australia 

Kaj Haffenden 

Elise Wyandra Warring 

Lorraine Pyefinch 

Queensland Property Advice 

Biofilm Crop Protection 

Frank Pyefinch 

Symon Pritchett Jeffrey Smidt 

Vince O'Rourke 

tourstogo.com 

Dale Edney 

Natasha Wells Patrick Latter 

Tourback 

Don Neal 


Anna Daniel 

Vivia 

Koolivoo 

Didgigo 

SamTheWaiter 

Dynamic Conversations 

CurvyDames 

Casey Brown 

Agri Labour Australia 

Precision Terrain Solutions 

NFA 

Circuit Wiz 

Aaron Pirie 

Carol Hautot 

My Footy Boots 

Scripti 

David C. Wajsgras 

Taylor W. Lawrence 

Polaris Data Centre 

Raytheon 

Relocations2go 

Greg Stamper 

Acubis 

Why Not Tours 

Sam Leo 

Droner 

Global Store Solutions 

Matt Ewing 

Sakure 

BitPlex 

Insta Connect Elliot Strickland 

Airmap3D 

yRepublic 

Nicole Hambleton 

Barry Knights 

Phil Martin 

Anthony Dukes 

Mogtastic 

nupath 

Bronwyn Voyce 

Inmarketing 

GamePlan Global Solutions 

Michael Sloggett 

Nathaniel Armer 

Bundaberg Brewed Drinks 

Taste Paradise Tropical North Queensland 

Daniel Lundh 

Adam Williams 

CloudSpark 

Second to none Nutrition 

Ian Irving 

Jamie Armer 

OrbStudio 

TenderHound 

4tel 

Townsville City Council 

John McLean 

Darren Smith 

Northrup Grummond 

Rent Resume 

Greg Bruce 

A Few Extra Bucks

CONTENTS 

Foreword 4 

Summary 5 

About 7 

Context 8 

Fundflow 10 

Organisations 12 

Regional Showcase 14 

Regional Comparisons 15 

Toowoomba 16 

Ipswich 18 

Bundaberg 20 

Rockhampton 22 

Mackay 24 

Townsville 26 

Cairns 28 

Company Stages 30 

Angel & Startup Density 31 

Global Comparisons 32 

STEM Talent Flow 34 

STEM Talent Flow Map 36 

Meetups & Events 38 

Network Centrality 39 

Market Focus 40 

Technology Strengths 41 

Spotlight – AgTech 42 

Spotlight – SafetyCulture 44 

Community Insights 46 

Thank You 48 

References 50 

3

FOREWORD 

The Regional Queensland Startup Ecosystem 

Report was commissioned by the Queensland 

Government in partnership with the Cairns 

Regional Council, Townsville City Council, 

Mackay Regional Council, Rockhampton 

Regional Council, Bundaberg Regional Council, 

Ipswich City Council and Toowoomba Regional 

Council. 

The Queensland Government is investing, 

through the Advance Queensland initiative, $180 

million over four years to create the knowledge 

based jobs of the future. 

Advance Queensland is a comprehensive suite 

of programs designed to solve global challenges, 

seize opportunities in growing markets, attract 

investment dollars and create the jobs of the 

future. It will help position the state as an 

attractive investment destination with a strong 

innovation and entrepreneurial culture. 

In support of Advance Queensland, the Regional 

Queensland Startup Ecosystem Report provides 

valuable data about the contribution startups make 

to regional Queensland economies. The report 

estimates regional Queensland currently has more 

than 70 startups, employing approximately 450 

people and since January 2010 has raised $10.4 

million in funds. 

This report complements the South East 

Queensland Startup Ecosystem Report, which 

was released in July 2014 https://www.qld.gov. 

au/dsitia/assets/documents/startup-ecosystemmapping-report.pdf. 

Similar to the South East Queensland Startup 

Ecosystem Report, this report provides an indepth 

insight into the diversity and unique aspects 

of regional Queensland startup ecosystems and 

associated infrastructure. 

The Regional Queensland Startup Ecosystem 

Report’s findings indicate regional Queensland 

has a strong foundation on which to position the 

state as an attractive investment destination with a 

strong innovation and entrepreneurial culture. 

The importance of the startup ecosystems to the 

growth and diversification of regional Queensland 

economies cannot be understated. 

Regional Queensland, through the support of this 

report, is embracing the opportunities to broaden 

regional economies in which their communities 

operate and are ready to assist in reskilling and 

retooling the existing workforce to take advantage 

of the opportunities available through technology 

startups. 

The Queensland Government will work with 

regions to understand and build their innovation 

ecosystem. 

4

SUMMARY 

NO. STARTUPS 

83+ 

Estimated number of startups within Regional 

Queensland (RQ) a 

NO. FOUNDERS 

150+ 

Estimated number of startup founders within RQ 

NO. PEOPLE 

~450 

Estimated number of RQ startup employees 

N0. MEETUPS & EVENTS 

71 

Estimated number of startup events per annum 

NO. COWORKING SPACES 

3 

NO. SUPPORTING COMPANIES 

150+ 

Estimated number of companies involved in the 

startup ecosystem 

NO. ASSOCIATED PEOPLE 

~1,500 

Based on the number of technology meetup groups 

and employees of startups and supporting entities 

TOTAL FUNDING RAISED BY STARTUPS 

$10.4M 

Estimated total amount of funding raised by RQ 

startups between January 2010 and July 2015. 

Funding sources include venture capital, angel 

investment, government grants and awards. 

Excludes bootstrapping (self funding) 

AMOUNT OF STARTUP BOOTSTRAPPING 

$20M 

Based on global benchmarking, we estimate that it 

takes $250,000 to get a startup off the ground 

NO. STARTUPS FORMED BY YEAR b 

Strategy 

Marketing 

Project Management 

Management 

Education & Training 

Leadership 

Information Technology 

Business Development 

Stakeholder Management 

Finance 

10 

12 

24 

22% 

4 

4 

6 

24% 

4% 

MARKET FOCUS: % STARTUPS BY TOP 10 d 

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 1 2-5 5-10 11-50 

Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing & Hunting 

Arts & Recreation Services c 

Information Media & Telecommunications 

Professional, Scientific & Technical Services 


Entertainment, Tourism & Sport 

Public Administration & Safety 

Retail Trade 

Communication 

Construction 

% OF PEOPLE BY COMMON SKILLS e 

18 

17% 

10% 

10% 

10% 

8% 

6% 

6% 

6% 

5% 

4% 

10% 

8% 

7% 

6% 

5% 

5% 

5% 

4% 

3% 

2% 

a) For the purpose of this report, Regional Queensland 

(RQ) is defined as the following regional areas; 

Toowoomba; Ipswich; Bundaberg; Rockhampton; 

Mackay; Townsville; and Cairns. 

b) Number of Startup companies founded by calendar 

year in the “No. Startups formed by year” graph does 

not equal the total “No. Startups” as the founding dates 

of some startups within RQ were not identified. 

c) Arts & Recreation Services includes digital game 

studios, developers and tourism. 

% OF STARTUPS BY TEAM SIZE 

50% 

% OF PEOPLE BY AGE e 

4 

29 

18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55+ 

FEMALE FOUNDERS e 

Female (13%) 

Male (87%) 

32 

d) While the report uses the Australia New Zealand 

Industrial Classification (ANZIC) to classify the 

“Market Focus” of companies, this does not represent 

their industry classification, but rather the target 

market of a startup company - the primary market they 

are addressing. 

e) Based on estimated percentage of people in RQ with 

“Founder” or “Owner” in their job titles, working in 

Technology companies identified on Linkedin. 

27 

9 

5

SUMMARY OVERVIEW 

The report was produced by Boundlss in 

partnership with the Department of Science, 

Information Technology, and Innovation 

(DSITI), Toowoomba Regional Council, Ipswich 

City Council, Bundaberg Regional Council, 

Rockhampton Regional Council, Mackay 

Regional Council, Townsville City Council and 

the Cairns Regional Council. 

This report identified 83 technology startups 

operating throughout Regional Queensland. 

Information was gathered through seven regional 

workshops, interviews with founders and from 

manual research using data from online media. 

The report found an estimated 450 people who 

are working in and building scalable technology 

startups. The report identifies $10.4 million in 

funding over 5 years to 12 regionally based 

startups, resulting in a funding per capita of 

$1.15. 

MARKET / PRODUCT FOCUS 

Of these 83 startups, a wide range of market 

focus was evident, with particular regional 

clusters beginning to emerge in agriculture, 

tourism and professional services. Product and 

technology types were diverse, ranging from 

Internet of Things sensors to online meetings to 

eLearning platforms. 

ESTABLISHED TECHNOLOGY 

This report also identified 36 established 

technology companies that are operating in the 

regions. Whilst these are outside the age range 

of the scope for this report, a number of these 

companies have developed industry leading 

software, have large established client bases and 

are important local employers. Harnessing the 

experience of these organisations is important 

for the development of the regional ecosystem. 

REGIONAL SUMMARIES 

This report was focused around seven Regional 

Queensland ecosystems. A summary for each 

participating region is given below, and a more 

detailed write up provided within this report. 

Toowoomba 

Toowoomba’s startup ecosystem has started to 

take shape, stemming from several community 

driven initiatives. Toowoomba is also home 

to a number of large established technology 

companies, particularly in the AgTech space. 

Ipswich 

Ipswich is very much in the development stages 

of a startup ecosystem, but ambitious plans to 

launch a digital incubator will see real traction in 

this region in the not too distant future. 

Bundaberg 

Bundaberg has a very small pool of startups 

and an embryonic ecosystem. However, there 

are a number of large established technology 

companies that add weight to the region’s 

technology output. 

Rockhampton 

Rockhampton also has a very small pool of 

startups. Nevertheless, there are a number 

of large established technology companies 

operating in the region, particularly in digital rail 

technology. 

Mackay 

Mackay has struggled to establish an ecosystem 

over the past few years, but a number of 

community driven initiatives are changing this 

situation. The city held its first Startup Weekend 

in October 2015. 

Townsville 

Townsville contributes the largest proportion 

of GDP out of all seven regions mapped. The 

flagship company SafetyCulture is one of 

Australia’s fastest growing tech companies and 

lends weight to the fact that startups can be 

wildly successful in regional centres. 

Cairns 

Cairns was the surprise stand out in this report. 

Cairns, per capita, has a higher startup density 

than South East Queensland, with one startup for 

every 5,300 people. 

COMPARATIVE BENCHMARKING 

Comparing these regions with nine similar sized 

regional cities in the USA and Europe that have 

developed strong technology hubs, we found 

Regional Queensland has much lower startup 

formation rates than South East Queensland and 

is far behind comparable global tech hubs. 

TALENT FLOW 

The report contains a section on talent flow, as it 

was a consistent issue raised by all participants. 

We examine where regionally educated 

individuals are currently working in technology 

across the globe. 

MEETUPS AND EVENTS 

This report found that across Regional 

Queensland there was a minimal amount of 

relevant meetups proportional to the population. 

Some regions suffer from having no technology 

specific meetup at all, and the majority of others 

have been launched in the last 12 months. A lack 

of central collaboration spaces was seen as a 

key stumbling block to regular interaction, with 

only three regions having co-working spaces in 

operation or announced. 

AGRICULTURAL TECH 

The report identified that Agricultural 

Technology (AgTech) startups are beginning 

to emerge across Regional Queensland. All 

regions showed signs of innovation in AgTech. 

As this report explains, it seems only natural 

that Regional Queensland could serve as the 

epicenter for the development of an innovation 

ecosystem and entrepreneurial economy around 

the emerging Australian AgTech sector. 

COMMUNITY INSIGHTS 

Building, attracting, and retaining talent was 

seen as a critical factor across all regions. 

Retaining a critical mass of talent is paramount 

to the growth of any regional ecosystem. Other 

identified issues were a lack of networking and 

collaboration, access to co-working spaces, 

access to funding and raising awareness of the 

sector and startups in general. 

CONCLUSION 

The early stage technology sector in Regional 

Queensland is in its infancy with a few 

breakout successes that have managed to 

overcome regional isolation and sparse support. 

Nevertheless, the region has a promising level 

of engagement in some of the most innovative 

new technologies coming to market, such as 

autonomous vehicles, drones, advanced internet 

connected sensors and advanced robotics, for 

use in industrial and agricultural markets. Being 

located in rich agricultural land, startups can 

and are developing innovative solutions for a 

trillion-dollar market. 

THE BOUNDLSS TEAM. 

6

ABOUT 

PROJECT AIMS 

This project aims to benchmark and quantify the 

ecosystems around early stage high growth digital 

technology companies (referred to in this report 

as startups for short) across Regional Queensland. 

The report aims to measure Regional Queensland’s 

comparative strengths, and identify critical issues 

within each ecosystem. This project is the first of 

its kind in regional Australia. 

SCOPE 

This report maps the primary people (founders, 

angels and other participants), organisations 

(startups, venture capital firms, co-working 

spaces, incubators and government agencies), 

groups (angel and community groups) and events 

(awards, conferences, and programs) involved in or 

supporting early-stage technology startups across 

Regional Queensland. 

For the purpose of this project, Regional 

Queensland (RQ) is defined as the following seven 

regions: 

• Cairns 

• Townsville 

• Mackay / Whitsunday 

• Central Queensland (Rockhampton and 

Gladstone) 

• Wide Bay Burnett (Bundaberg region) 

• Darling Downs (Toowoomba region) 

• Ipswich 

The report only includes those companies and 

people that have made a tangible contribution to 

the development of regional high growth startups 

– whether that be through mentoring, sponsorship, 

investment, grants or space, etc. A separate report 

mapping the South East Queensland startup 

ecosystem was made publicly available in October 

2014. 

METHODOLOGY 

The report was compiled in partnership with the 

Department of Science, Information Technology 

and Innovation (DSITI), Toowoomba Regional 

Council, Ipswich City Council, Bundaberg Regional 

Council, Rockhampton Regional Council, Mackay 

Regional Council, Townsville City Council and 

Cairns Regional Council. 

Information was gathered through seven regional 

workshops with over 100 participants and from 

interviews with 35 people across the regions. 

Information on people, events and companies 

was also gathered using data from online 

platforms including LinkedIn, AngelList, ASSOB, 

CrunchBase, Gust, Twitter, Eventbrite, Kickstarter, 

Pozible and Meetup, and complemented with 

internet research. 

Combining several data sources gives a more 

comprehensive view than one in which information 

is taken from any one individual source. 

However, no research project can claim to offer 

definitive, complete coverage. The digital sector 

is, quite simply, evolving too rapidly. Whilst all 

attempts have been made to be comprehensive, 

some critical people and organisations in this 

growing sector may have been missed. 

DEFINITIONS 

Startups 

Whilst any type of early-stage business can be 

called a startup, for the purposes of this project the 

definition used by StartupAus, Google Australia 

and PwC Australia was adopted: a ‘startup’ is 

a company primarily focused on developing 

innovative digital technology and intellectual 

property (IP) with a high leverage on labour, an 

innovative scalable business model, capable of 

rapid growth, and under five and a half years in 

age. 

Digital 

The project focused on companies that create 

value primarily around digital technologies such as 

developing software products or services, scalable 

hardware based products and services such as 

drones, sensors, autonomous vehicle technology, 

Internet of Things (IoT) technology, and robotics. 

Exclusions 

Digital technologies are being deployed across all 

industries and permeate all aspects of our society. 

The reality is that a large proportion of Australian 

businesses now have digital technology as a core 

component of their business. To clarify, this report 

excludes the following: 

Consulting: The project excluded companies 

engaged with digital technology that have a 

high reliance on manual labour and produce 

little to no IP of their own, such as digital design 

studios, digital marketing, software development 

houses and computer consulting companies. 

Technology support, networking, and computer 

repair businesses were also excluded. Similarly 

excluded were any other organisations providing 

IP development as a service purely for other firms. 

However, many companies build potentially 

scalable digital products (e.g. iPhone apps) 

alongside their consulting services, in which case 

they have been included. 

Established Technology: the report excludes 

digital technology companies established prior to 

2009 from the definition of a ‘startup’. However, 

in some cases the report mentions companies, 

investment figures or entity numbers for more 

mature digital technology companies. In these 

cases, the report refers to these as Established, 

Mature or Later stage digital technology 

companies. 

Tech Companies 

Data that encapsulates both startups and 

established technology companies is referred to as 

digital technology companies, or Tech Companies 

for short. 

Funding & Investment 

The report captures information on the money 

raised by established technology companies 

and startups to fund company and product 

development. Startups secure funding in multiple 

ways: private investment, government grants, 

crowdfunding, public investment, prizes and loans. 

The report did not analyse money flowing out of 

the state into startups in other states or countries. 

When the report refers to Funding, Investment or 

Matched Funding it means: 

Funding: the report means all types of funding 

including private investment, government 

grants, matched funding, crowdfunding, public 

investment, prizes and loans. This definition 

excludes the Tax Office’s R&D Tax Incentive. 

Investment: the report means private or public 

equity investment in a company in exchange for 

shares in the company, including convertible notes, 

options and other financial tools for purchasing 

shares. 

Matched-Funding: a large portion of startup 

funding in Queensland came from the Australian 

Government’s Commercialisation Australia (CA) 

grant program, established in 2009. By matched 

funding the report refers to the portion provided 

by the applicant, and the portion provided by the 

government is referred to as the government grant. 

Currencies 

All currencies used within this report are in $AUD 

unless otherwise stated. 

STEM Qualifications 

For the purpose of this analysis, Science, 

Technology, Engineering & Mathematics 

(STEM) qualifications refer to any non-school 

qualifications at the Postgraduate degree level, 

Master degree level, Graduate diploma and 

Graduate certificate level and Bachelor degree 

level in any of the following fields: 

• Natural & Physical Sciences, 

• Information Technology, 

• Engineering & Related Technologies, 

• Agriculture, Environmental & Related 

Studies, and 

• Mathematics. 

7

CONTEXT 

Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no 

vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular 

media owner, creates no content. Alibaba, the 

most valuable retailer, has no inventory. And 

Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation 

provider, owns no real estate. 1 - Tom Goodwin, 

SVP Strategy & Innovation, Havas Media 

For Regional Queensland to grow a vibrant startup 

ecosystem it is essential to create an environment 

that is conducive to creating and retaining 

startups on local soil. Twenty to thirty years ago, 

almost all tech startups were created in startup 

ecosystems like Silicon Valley. Today, technology 

entrepreneurship is a global phenomenon, with 

startups rapidly emerging all around the world in 

both major cities and regional centres. 2 

The democratisation of entrepreneurship has 

created plentiful opportunity for any region 

with the right characteristics to create its own 

sustainable tech ecosystem. 

Technology is no longer a vertical industry, as its 

been understood by everyone for four decades. 

Technology is now a horizontal, enabling force 

throughout the whole economy. 3 - John Battelle 

ECONOMIC GROWTH 

There is no question that software is eating the 

world, as Marc Andreessen famously wrote. 4 

Software is now core to producing just about every 

good or service we consume. It’s embedded in 

almost every commercial process, and it’s shifting 

the balance of power in a range of industries. 

Information era businesses have become the 

dominant source of economic growth, significantly 

automating or altering much of the industrial and 

service businesses of the previous economic era. 

In the USA, three technology companies (Apple, 

Facebook & Google) contribute $1.3T to GDP 

– higher than the value of the entire ASX. As the 

saying goes: “The future is already here, it’s just 

not evenly distributed.” 5 

By providing a baseline of data this report aims 

to play a role in the creation of more diversified, 

competitive and healthy regional economic bases 

that includes technology entrepreneurs. 

At least in the United States, net job growth 

comes from startup companies, especially the 

kind that explode from a few employees to several 

thousand. In technology, those winners have a 

way of producing more winners. The process 

reaches critical mass in the web of intertwined 

companies, resources, advantages, ideas, talent, 

opportunity, and serendipity that defines a 

technology cluster. 6 Antonio Regalado, MIT 

ECONOMIC IMPACT OF TECH 

The economic contribution of the internet and 

digital technologies can be difficult to estimate, 

particularly given the changes generated by digital 

disruption within Australian businesses across 

a variety of industries. In Deloitte’s report The 

Connected Continent II: How digital technology 

is transforming the Australian economy (2015), 

the digital economy in Australia was estimated to 

have contributed $78.8 billion to GDP in 2013–14, 

representing 5.1% of total Australian GDP. 7 

In our previous report we estimated that the 

economic impact of digital technology on 

Queensland’s economy in 2025 would be in the 

order of $96 billion per annum or roughly 24% of 

the state’s projected $396 billion economy. 

According to IBIS World’s white-paper, A 

Snapshot of Australia’s Digital Future to 2050, 15 

different industry sub-sectors face extinction due to 

factors such as size, international competitiveness, 

the potential for displacement, and technology. 8 

For example, within Australia, Uber has created 

thousands of low-paying jobs for drivers, whilst 

capturing 10% of the taxi market. In the USA, 

Uber has created over 300,000 jobs for drivers, 

plus thousands more high-value jobs, and a 

company worth $USD 50 billion which will in 

time spawn hundreds of new startup founders and 

investors. 

Netflix officially launched its Australian service 

in March 2015, and is seen as the leader in the 

streaming category, with an estimated 40% market 

share. Curiously, Netflix is building its presence in 

Australia with no local employees and is paying 

no tax. 

REGIONAL GROWTH 

Looking back over Regional Queensland’s past, 

the vast majority of regional growth strategies 

have focused on attracting established companies 

looking to expand or open new premises. While 

it is certainly important for regions to attract 

established businesses, those deals typically create 

a small finite number of jobs. 

What isn’t evident in most regional growth 

strategies is the organic growth of an 

entrepreneurial tech cluster. However, sowing the 

seeds of entrepreneurship can lead to a more rapid 

and sustainable job growth strategy for the region. 

For example, in Queensland it is estimated 

that approximately 88% of the 90,000 jobs in 

agriculture are regionally based. These jobs and 

the economic contribution they provide are the 

backbone of many rural and regional communities 

in Queensland. One in seven Queenslanders 

are either partially or entirely supported by the 

Agriculture sector. 

AGTECH 

Globally, agriculture is in the middle of a digital 

revolution. The benefits of converging the digital 

and physical worlds are too valuable to ignore 

for Regional Queensland. Its proximity to the 

rapidly expanding Asian middle class offers a 

startling opportunity for the region to develop a 

local industry around the emerging global AgTech 

market. 

CLUSTERS 

A regional technology cluster represents a 

geographic concentration of interconnected 

companies and institutions in a particular field. 

Vibrant industry clusters and ecosystems 

are critical for increasing the productivity of 

companies, driving innovation, stimulating new 

business creation and breeding scalable highgrowth 

companies. 

The factors that contribute to a flourishing 

technology ecosystem have been well defined 

by researchers, policy makers and entrepreneurs: 

An entrepreneurial culture with a large 

number of active participants; mentoring from 

experienced entrepreneurs; a supportive regulatory 

environment; a culture of collaboration and 

networking; a steady flow of local university talent; 

visible successes and role models; risk tolerance; 

easy access to capital; government policy with 

a long-term focus; and access to good technical 

skills. 9 

Many of these factors are cultural, rather than 

structural, and in many ways a strong culture 

comes prior to structural changes (e.g. greater 

access to capital or supportive regulation). 

According to PwC’s The Startup Economy: 

“Culture is the key to accelerating the growth 

of a tech community. In the 1970s the tech 

communities of Silicon Valley and the area 

around MIT... were similar in size. But by the 

1990s Silicon Valley was dominant. The accepted 

explanation for the difference in growth rates is 

the open and collaborative culture of the Valley. 

This same culture is what is driving growth in 

both Boulder Colorado and Israel.” 10 

While it hasn’t yet been proven if a thriving 

ecosystem improves the success rates of each 

startup individually, it does act as a giant factory, 

producing large numbers of startups. Produce 

enough startups and in principle, many of them 

are likely to be successful. Several of them even 

wildly successful. 11 

Clusters also directly support new business 

formation. Porter argues that working in a cluster 

allows individuals to more easily identify gaps 

in the current market offerings, enables efficient 

access to talent, institutions, partners, etc., and a 

home-grown exit market (i.e. established members 

of the cluster are the likely acquirer). 12 

Regional tech clusters can impact the trajectory of 

growth in the region and: 

• Slow and even reverse migration of tech talent 

out of the region/state; 

• Grow successful local tech companies to 

become primary job creators; 

• Recycle the wealth that is created by reinvesting 

in the region, versus transferring 

wealth to major cities; and 

• Help local successful entrepreneurial and 

technical talent stay local. 

8

THIS REPORT ESTIMATES THE 

POTENTIAL ECONOMIC IMPACT OF 

DISRUPTIVE DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES 

ON REGIONAL QUEENSLAND’S 

ECONOMY IN 2025 COULD BE 

OVER ~$34 BILLION PER ANNUM, 

APPROXIMATELY 25% OF GROSS 

REGIONAL PRODUCT.

FUND FLOW 

ORGANISATION 

SafetyCulture 

JobFit Systems Intl 

JESI Management 

MandraIT 

CatchLog Trading 

Trinity Software 


Business Ready Tool 

Why Not Tours 

Shed Project 

AM Shelfie 


TOTAL RAISED 

REGION AMOUNT RAISED 

Townsville $5,700,000 

Mackay $900,000 

Townsville $900,000 

Calliope $830,080 

Cairns $745,198 

Cairns $601,000 

Mackay $500,000 


Cairns $20,000 

Toowoomba $20,000 


Cairns $20,000 

$10,356,278 

YEARS 

2013, 2014 

2012 

2013, 2015 

2012 

2011 

2012 

2013, 2014 

2012 

2014 

2015 

2015 

2015 

FUNDING SOURCE 

CA, Blackbird, Angels 

CA, Unknown 

CA, Unknown 

CA, Unknown 

CA, Unknown 

CA. Unknown 

Not disclosed 

CA, Unknown 

ilab 

ilab 

ilab 

ilab 

TOTAL FUNDING RAISED – ALL TECH 

$10.4M 

Based on total funding raised over five 

and a half years in Regional Queensland. 

FUNDING PER CAPITA – ALL TECH 

$1.15 

Average fund pool per year divided by 

Regional Queensland’s population. 

VENTURE CAPITAL PER CAPITA 

Silicon Valley 

Israel 

USA 

Switzerland 

Norway 

Melbourne Cup Bets 

Australian Bio-tech 

Sweden 

Finland 

Denmark 

France 

Britain 

2012 Aus Olympic Team 

Ireland 

Netherlands 

Belgium 

New Zealand 

Austria 

Perth (incl govt) 

South East Queensland 

Australia 

South East Queensland (Excl Govt) 

Perth (excl Govt) 

Regional Queensland 

Regional Queensland (Excl Govt) 

14 15 16 

$4,241 

$183 

$81 

$74 

$54 

$52 

$44 

$40 

$28 

$16 

$15 

$15 

$14 

$14 

$14 

$12 

$11 

$8 

$6 

$5 

$4 

$4 

$3 

$1.2 

$0.8 

The report’s funding data covers the January 

2010 to July 2015 period and includes all 

digital technology companies in RQ with 

publicly available information. It includes both 

investments and government grants (where no 

equity was exchanged). 

This report identified 12 digital technology 

companies that secured funding, raising a total 

of $10.4 million, which gives an average of $2.1 

million per year, or $1.15 per capita. 

SafetyCulture (Townsville) alone contributed 

more than 55% of the total funding raised in RQ. 

TOTAL FUNDING BY REGION 

Gold Coast 

Brisbane 

Townsville 

Sunshine Coast 

Mackay 

Cairns 

Other QLD Region 

Toowoomba 

Ipswich 

Bundaberg 

Rockhampton 

TOTAL FUNDING BY LEAD FUND TYPE 

Venture Capital 

Government Fund (CA) * 

Angel Group 

Unkown (Matched Funding) 

Accelearator 

$69M 

$45M 

$6.7M 

$5.3M 

$1.4M 

$1.4M 

$83K 

$20K 

$3.8M 

$3.5M 

$1.9M 

$1.6M 

$80K 

Funding levels within RQ are well below the 

norms across Australia for startup investment 

- between $4 to $6 per capita per year. 

Furthermore, they are critically below global 

startup investment rates which range between $30 

to over $3,000 per capita per year. 

While only 14% of startups in Regional 

Queensland raised money, the remaining 

71 startups will have required bootstrapped 

investment. We estimate that roughly $20 million 

in bootstrapped investment has been provided 

by founders, family and friends to get these 

remaining startups up and running - based on an 

average investment of $250,000 per startup. The 

actual figure is most probably higher than stated. 

$0 

$0 

$0 

TOTAL RAISED BY YEAR 

$745,198 

$2,431,080 

$4,200,000 

$2,420,000 

$560,000 

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 

When examining the major sources of funding, 

government funding comes out as one of the 

largest. Government funding is almost entirely 

made up of funding from the now defunct 

Commercialisation Australia (CA) program, ~$3.5 

million or 33% of total funding, which attracted 

matched funding of $2.2 million (21% of all 

funding) from angels and VCs. It is noteworthy 

how effective CA was in attracting capital into 

the sector. The second largest funding source is 

individual angels - $2.4 million or 23% of all 

funding. 

ilab, an accelerator, has funded four regional 

startups to participate in its germinate accelerator 

program. Whilst the dollar amounts are low 

($80,000), they provide an important service in 

incubation and exposure to further capital. 

The Advance Queensland 13 announcements in 

July 2015 were warmly received by regional 

startup participants. With $76 million aimed at 

encouraging a new wave of startups, supporting 

proof-of-concept projects, and attracting coinvestment 

through the Business Development 

Fund, it is promising to see $24 million directly 

earmarked for Startup Queensland, to directly 

increase startup formation and attraction. 

10

“ 

UNLIKE RESOURCES, 

CREATIVITY IS NON-DEPLETABLE. 

NOR DOES IT DEGRADE THE 

ENVIRONMENT. IT THEREFORE 

UNLOCKS OPPORTUNITIES FOR 

SUSTAINABLE GROWTH.” 

PARK GEUN-HYE, 2013 

SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT

STARTUP ORGANISATIONS 

COMPANIES 

Startup companies founded after 2010, along 

with key support organisations based in 

Regional Queensland. (Multiple) indicates 

that the organisation operates across regional 

borders and in some cases companies are located 

outside Regional Queensland but have actively 

contributed to the development of the local 

ecosystem. 

STARTUPS 

101 Business Group (productivity) 

(Rockhampton) 

2bit Studios (games) (Cairns) 

3D Industries (3D printing) (Toowoomba) 

A Few Extra Bucks (marketplace) (Bundaberg) 

AgriLabour (marketplace) (Toowoomba) 

Airmap3D (drones + GIS) (Mackay) 

AM Shelfie (3D printing) (Townsville) 

Stealth Startup (communication) (Ipswich) 

AUFO (drones + GIS) (Cairns) 

BajTech (3D printing) (Townsville) 

BetsWithFriends (mobile app) (Cairns) 

BitPlex (Productivity) (Rockhampton) 

Caked On (other) (Bundaberg) 

Carbon Link (hardware) (Rockhampton) 

CatchLog (infrastructure) (Cairns) 

Clinical Hub (infrastructure) (Ipswich) 

Comit Platforms (mobile app) (Townsville) 

Didgigo (content creation) (Cairns) 

DrinkTracker (mobile app) (Cairns) 

Droner (drones) (Cairns) 

Dynamic Conversations (education) (Cairns) 

Economy Saver (marketplace) (Gladstone) 

Eduhealth Plus (hardware) (Ipswich) 

EnviroSource (marketplace) (Rockhampton) 

Experimental Unicorns (marketplace) 

(Townsville) 

Farmacist (marketplace) (Mackay) 

Focuss (other) (Cairns) 

GamePlan (productivity) (Rockhampton) 

Gilmour Space Corp (infrastructure) (Bundaberg) 

Global Store Solutions (marketplace) 

(Toowoomba) 

HelloClaims (insurance) (Cairns) 

Hummingbird (drones) (Toowoomba) 

I Want that Course (marketplace) (Cairns) 

iAMConnected (collaboration) (Cairns) 

Inspection Apps (mobile app) (Cairns) 

InstaConnect (hardware) (Cairns) 

INTERACTin (communication) (Gladstone) 

Intritec (desktop app) (Bundaberg) 

JESI (location) (Townsville) 

Job Fit Systems (customer relationship) (Mackay) 

Kadence Group (collaboration) (Mackay) 

KixFit (mobile app) (Toowoomba) 

Konveen (communication) (Cairns) 

MandraIT (hardware + web) (Calliope) 

Mogtastic (game) (Cairns) 

My Footy Boots (marketplace) (Cairns) 

My Water Filter (ecommerce) (Ipswich) 

NQ UAV (electronics) (Townsville) 

Nupath (education) (Cairns) 

OrbStudio (game) (Cairns) 

OTrain (education) (Toowoomba) 

Oz Apps (mobile app) (Townsville) 

PakYak (transportation) (Cairns) 

Precision Terrain Solutions (electronics) 

(Toowoomba) 

Procedures Online (content creation) (Mackay) 

QIT Plus (big data) (Mackay) 

Relocations2go (desktop app) (Cairns) 

Rent Resume (customer relationship) 

(Toowoomba) 

SafetyCulture (mobile app) (Townsville) 

Sakure (desktop app) (Cairns) 

Sales VA (marketplace) (Toowoomba) 

Sam the Waiter (other) (Cairns) 

Scripti (productivity) (Toowoomba) 

Second to none Nutrition (ecommerce) 

(Townsville) 

ShareStuff (marketplace) (Cairns) 

ShedProject (infrastructure) (Toowoomba) 

Site Specific Software Solutions (mobile app) 

(Toowoomba) 

Skydronics (drones) (Townsville) 

SmartHR Solutions (education) (Mackay) 

Snipe (productivity) (Cairns) 

Strictly Service (marketplace) (Mackay) 

Swarm Farm Robotics (robotics) (Rockhampton) 

TenderHound (collaboration) (Cairns) 

ThermaCulture (hardware) (Cairns) 

Thought Select (mobile app) (Cairns) 

Tourback (other) (Ipswich) 

UAView (drones) (Cairns) 

Upson Downs (drones) (Rockhampton) 

Voista (mobile app) (Cairns) 

Why Not Tours (recommendations) (Cairns) 

WotsLocal (marketplace) (Townsville) 

Wow Factor (video) (Townsville) 

XY Mapping (drones) (Fraser Coast) 

OTHER TECHNOLOGY COMPANIES 

4TEL (big data) (Rockhampton) 

Acubis (infrastructure) (Mackay) 

AgData (analytics) (Toowoomba) 

AgTech Toowoomba (hardware) (Toowoomba) 

Almost Anything (software) (Rockhampton) 

Beeline Technologies (software) (Toowoomba) 

Best Practice Software (infrastructure) 

(Bundaberg) 

BigMate (infrastructure) (Mackay) 

BizSpark (Support) (Multiple) 

Bold Hues (software) (Cairns) 

Circuit Wiz (hardware) (Mackay) 

Code Valley (other) (Townsville) 

Conetix Web Hosting (hosting) (Ipswich) 

D2K (other) (Bundaberg) 

DEC-MECH (infrastructure) (Townsville) 

DHM Software (software) (Toowoomba) 

Eden Tech (software) (Toowoomba) 

ESRI (big data) (Cairns) 

FarmscanAg (hardware) (Toowoomba) 

Fierce Ventures (software) (Townsville) 

Hortus (hardware) (Bundaberg) 

HoverCam (drones) (Cairns) 

IBM (software) (Townsville) 

Indigo Web (software) (Toowoomba) 

Insyte Solutions (software) (Rockhampton) 

IT Connexions (software) (Townsville) 

Koolivoo (content creation) (Cairns) 

LogiCamms (electronics) (Mackay) 

Microair (electronics) (Bundaberg) 

Minstaff Survey Pty Ltd (drones) (Toowoomba) 

NFA (infrastructure) (Townsville) 

Northrup Grummond (hardware) (Ipswich) 

Oper8 Springfield (software) (Ipswich) 

Phoenix (software) (Toowoomba) 

PiDataConsulting (software) (Cairns) 

Polaris Data Centre (hosting) (Ipswich) 

Precedence (software) (Cairns) 

Precision Agriculture (customer relationship) 

(Toowoomba) 

Rail Innovation Australia (big data) 

(Rockhampton) 

Real Time Instruments (hardware) (Mackay) 

ResPax (big data) (Cairns) 

Scan2Convert (productivity) (Bundaberg) 

Strategenics (big data) (Toowoomba) 

The Bullion Group (other) (Mackay) 

TOL Aerospace (aerospace) (Ipswich) 

tourstogo.com (software) (Cairns) 

WebTraf (hosting) (Bundaberg) 

INCUBATION 

BlueChilli (seed accelerator) (Sydney) 

ilab (seed accelerator) (Brisbane) 

QUT Creative Enterprise Australia (Incubation) 

(Brisbane) 

FUNDING 

Auswide Bank (bank) (Bundaberg) 

Blackbird Ventures (vc) (Sydney) 

Commercialisation Australia (Govt Grant) 

(Ipswich) 

Future Now (vc) (Townsville) 

Go fund me (crowdfunding) (Mackay) 

Iceberg Innovation (vc) (Cairns) 

Kickstarter (crowdfunding) (Multiple) 

NAB Business Banking (bank) (Bundaberg) 

12

Pozible (crowdfunding) (Toowoomba) 

Sister City Partners (vc) (Townsville) 

Techfundr (crowdfunding) (Bundaberg) 

TNQ20 (award) (Cairns) 

CO-WORKING & HACKERSPACES 

Canvas Co-Working (co-working) (Toowoomba) 

Hackerspace Toowoomba (Hackerspace) 

Hacking and Coding Club JCU (Hackerspace) 

(Cairns) 

Mackay Maker Space (Hackerspace) (Mackay) 

Firestation101 Digital Incubator (Ipswich) 

theSpace (co-working) (Cairns) 

MEETUPS & EVENTS a 

ACRV Robotics Seminar (event) (Mackay) 

AGRI Innovation Conference (event) (Mackay) 

Agriculture Futures Conference (event) (Mackay) 

Australian Computer Society (meetup) 

(Rockhampton) 

Bundaberg Business Expo (event) 

Bundaberg Digital Boardroom (meetup) 

Bundaberg Digital Enterprise Program (event) 

Cairns Startup & Entrepreneurs Meetup (meetup) 

CoCollaborate (event) (Mackay) 

Codeathon (event) (Townsville) 

CoderDojo (event) (Ipswich) 

Crypto Party (event) (Cairns) 

Digital Business Week (event) (Bundaberg) 

Digital World Futures (event) (Toowoomba) 

Dive into digital (event) (Cairns) 

Emerging Entrepreneurs (event) (Cairns) 

FunGIS (event) (Cairns) 

GovHack (event) (Ipswich) 

GovHack FNQ (event) (Cairns) 

ICT Network Meeting (meetup) (Rockhampton) 

Ideas after dark (event) (Cairns) 

ilab Regional Roadshow (event) (Mackay) 

Innovation Awards (event) (Cairns) 

Innovation Festival (event) (Rockhampton) 

Innovations Expo (event) (Townsville) 

Ipswich Digital Expo (event) (Ipswich) 

JCU Robo Club (meetup) (Townsville) 

Mackay IT Network (meetup) (Mackay) 

MakerSpace (event) (Ipswich) 

Meetup Mackay Maker Space (meetup) (Mackay) 

Meetup Mackay Start Up (meetup) (Mackay) 

Mentor Blaze (event) (Multiple) 

Moodle Meet (event) (Bundaberg) 

NQ IT Conference (event) (Townsville) 

Pitch night (meetup) (Cairns) 

a 

Note many of these groups and events are not directly 

focused on startups, but rather support activities around 

digital technology. They are included as an indication 

of the level of interest in digital technology, and are 

often feeders to people taking the leap into joining or 

launching their own startup 

Robocup (event) (Multiple) 

Robogals (event) (Multiple) 

Rowes Bay Sensory Sprint Day (Townsville) 

Silicon Beach Cairns (meetup) (Cairns) 

Silicon Coast Extracurricular Code School (event) 

(Bundaberg) 

Software Carpentry (event) (Cairns) 

Startup Apprentice (event) (Townsville) 

Startup Basecamp (event) (Cairns) 

Startup Ipswich Meetup (meetup) (Ipswich) 

Startup Lab (event) (Cairns) 

Startup Weekend (event) (Multiple) 

Tablelands Innovation Expo (event) (Cairns) 

TEDX Events (event) (Bundaberg) 

TEDX Rockhampton (event) (Rockhampton) 

Toowoomba IT Community Group (event) 

Toowoomba Startup Group (meetup) 

Townsville ICT Business Network (meetup) 

Townsville Linux Users Group (meetup) 

Townsville Smart City Collaborative Workshops 

(event) 

Townsville Startup Meetup (meetup) (Townsville) 

Tropical Innovation Forum (event) (Cairns) 

TSBE Events (event) (Toowoomba) 

Young ICT Explorers (event) (Townsville) 

Young Professionals Mackay (meetup) (Mackay) 

EDUCATION & SUPPORT 

1300WebPro (support) (Toowoomba) 

Aus. Industry (Govt) (Multiple) 

Biztopia (support) (Ipswich) 

Bundaberg Regional Council (Govt) (Bundaberg) 

Burnett Heads Business Group (support) 

(Bundaberg) 

Cairns Regional Council (Govt) (Cairns) 

Capricorn Enterprise (support) (Rockhampton) 

Capricorn ICT Network (support) (Rockhampton) 

Central Queensland University (University) 

(Multiple) 

ClubTT (support) (Cairns) 

Datazell Systems (Govt) (Rockhampton) 

Department of State Development (Govt) 

(Multiple) 

Digital Cairns (support) (Cairns) 

Department of Science, Information Technology, 

and Innovation (Govt) (Multiple) 

e-flux (support) (Bundaberg) 

Entrepreneurs Association (support) 

(Toowoomba) 

Fox & Buoy Marketing (support) (Mackay) 

Grains Research Development Centre (Govt) 

(Toowoomba) 

Green Valley Digital (support) (Bundaberg) 

Hurlock’s IP Group (support) (Townsville) 

iAssist (support) (Rockhampton) 

Inventions Pathways (support) (Townsville) 

Ipswich City Council (Govt) (Ipswich) 

James Cook University (University) (Multiple) 

Mackay Creatives (support) (Mackay) 

Mackay Regional Council (Govt) (Mackay) 

Managed Solutions (support) (Ipswich) 

Micomm (support) (Rockhampton) 

NBN (support) (Multiple) 

Pioneer Valley Business Group (support) 

(Mackay) 

Queensland University of Technology 

(University) (Brisbane) 

Rail Manufacturing CRC (support) 

(Rockhampton) 

Regional Development Australia (Govt) 

(Multiple) 

Resource Industry Network (support) (Mackay) 

Roboclub JCU (education) (Cairns) 

Rockhampton Regional Council (Govt) 

(Rockhampton) 

Smart City College (education) (Bundaberg) 

Social Motion (support) (Mackay) 

Splash Ads (support) (Bundaberg) 

Startup Mackay (support) (Mackay) 

Startup Toowoomba (support) (Toowoomba) 

Startup Townsville (support) (Townsville) 

TAFE S.W. (education) (Toowoomba) 

TJ Micro (support) (Cairns) 

Toowoomba Regional Council (Govt) 

Townsville City Council (Govt) (Townsville) 

UniSA (University) (Adelaide) 

University of Queensland (Brisbane) 

UTAS (university) (Hobart) 

Wide Bay Kids Community Inc. (education) 

(Bundaberg) 

Wide Reach Social Media (support) (Bundaberg) 

13

REGIONAL SHOWCASE 

The map below shows an overview of all tech startups located in Regional Queensland. They have been positioned based on the latitude and longitude of their 

headquarters, and are sized by current staff level estimates owing to a lack of market cap data. 

Cairns 

Staff Size 

30-50 

11-30 

5-10 

2-5 

1 

Townsville 

Mackay 

Rockhampton 

Emerald 

Gladstone 

Calliope 

Bundaberg 

Hervey Bay 

Toowoomba 

Ipswich 

14

REGIONAL COMPARISON 

The table below offers benchmarked summary statistics for each of the seven regions participating in this report. 

REGION 

NO. 


NO. 

ESTABLISHED 

TECH 

TOTAL 

FUNDING 

COWORKING 

SPACES 

TOTAL 

EMPLOYED IN 


POPULATION 

STARTUP 

DENSITY a 

Toowoomba 

12 

6 

$20K 

1 

60+ 

162K 

1/16K 

Ipswich 

5 

6 

$0 

1 b 

20+ 

190K 

1/38K 

Bundaberg 

4 

6 

$0 

- 

15+ 

95K 

1/24K 

Rockhampton 

7 

2 

$0 

- 

15+ 

85K 

1/12K 

Mackay 

8 

6 

$1.4M 

- 

20+ 

123K 

1/15K 

Townsville 

12 

4 

$6.7M 

- 

80+ 

190K 

1/16K 

Cairns 

31 

6 

$1.4M 

1 

120+ 

159K 

1/5K 

Regional 

Queensland 

Summary* 

83 

36 

$10.4M 

3 

~450 

1.8M 

1/20K 

*Number of Regional Queensland Startups is greater than the total of the seven regions (79) as we identified several startups just outside the regions. 

a 

Startup Density refers to the number of people per startup. Boulder, Colorado for example, has a Startup Density of 1 startup per 235 people. 

b 

The Ipswich Fire Station101 Digital Incubator was announced in November 2015 and is not yet open. 

15

TOOWOOMBA 

OStaff 

OGroup Mgmt 

Toowoomba startups [white], established tech 

companies [yellow] and related companies 

[pink], along with their founders and employees 

[red]. Links show professional relationships 

via Linkedin. 

William McHugh 


Shane Aldridge 


Working Holidays Down Under 

Department of Agriculture 

and Fisheries (Queensland) 

IT Works 

Site Specific 

Software Solutions 

solve gmbh, Switzerland 

Shane Ridley 

Brendan McCann 

Ben Blanch 

viana provoft 

Mark Venz 

Migration 

Outsource 

Personnel 

Rabobank 

Toowoomba Regional Council 

Timothy Duffield 

Easternwell Group 

Otrain 

Grand Domain 

RollCall Global 

CPE Rural 

Joan Callan 

Brendan Skerman 

Geoff Tyrrell 

NTT DATA 

Business 

Solutions 

Jazzmin Donald 


Andreas Bollinger 

Royal Sunday 

International AG, 

Switzerland 

Diamond Recruitment 

Insight Informatics 

Carl Baxter 

Unisys Australia 

John Bowden 

Murray Grey Beef 

Cattle Society Ltd 


Temando 

Nick Darvey 

Lance Skerman 

Nathan Ashton 

Toby O'Brien 

Jacinta Crothers 

Education Queensland 

Ambush Security Services 

Brisbane 

City Council 

Grundys Agtronics 

Queensland Health 

FarmscanAG 

Chris Mills 

Pawel Pohorski 

Mark Rohde 

Strategenics 

Gen3Media 

Kerrie-Lyn Rae 

AgData Australia 

Strategic Airlines 

Greg Skerman 

Francis Gacenga 

The Pipeline Authority Heidi 

Dargusch 

Christian Outreach 

College Toowoomba 

Amber Group 

Thales 

Liam Dawson 

Michael Peterson 

Alison Bengough 

Sam Faulkner 

Nathan Ashton 

Lincoln Hahn 

AngloGold Ashanti 

Ajilon 

Officeworks 

Dave Lewis 

Evolution Mining 

3D Mine 

Surveying 

International 

Kagara Limited 

Bechtel 

Corporation 

Mark Jocumsen 

Smorgon Steel 

PricewaterhouseCoopers 

Pratical Computer Services 

Contract Software 

Development 

Auran Start 


Golf Computer Systems 

Civica Limited 

Australian Steel Institute 

JTA Australia 

Tri-Soft 

Cascade Australia 

Minstaff Survey 

Simon Dennis 

Lucas Flumm 

Department of Communities, 

Child Safety and Disability 

Services (Qld) 

Procare 

Science Foundation Ireland 

Thiess 

Matt Williams 

Ezzy Haensch 

Goldfields 

Anglo American 

FKG Civil Contractors 

Accenture 

Coopers & Lybrand 

Greg Stamper 

Long Shadows 

Jake Laing 



Faeka El Sayed 

Scripti 

LKA Consulting 

Xstrata Zinc 

CBH Resources 

Startup 

Toowoomba 

Natasha Wells 

Leanne Griffin Engagement 

Multicultural 

Development 

Association 

BSI Learning 

Toowoomba 

Fleet Direct 

Parnngurr 

Aboriginal 

Corporation 

Len Patti Motors 

OAQ Group 

Newlands Civil 

Construction 

Site Specific 

Software Solutions 

Kempsey Sheds 

and Carports 

Cirrosonic 

Barry Knights 

Genesis Entertainment 


Austrek Air Charter 

Kix Fit 


Noel Kelly 

Mike 

Wagstaff 

Shed Products Direct 

CGI Australia 

Lush Hair and Beauty 

Armstrong Auto Group 

Shedproject 

Redjet Aviation 

Noel Kelly 

Grace Halligan 



Toowoomba Holden 

Hummingbird 

"Steel Sheds in Australia" 

online magazine 

Wagstaff Group 

The VTS IT Group 

Genesis 

Investments 

Group 


Darren Smith 

Precision Terrain 

Brown Managing 

Solutions 

Rent Resume 

Laura Fealy 

Gavin Henningsen 

National Australia Bank 


DEEDI 

Queensland Fire 

and Rescue Service 

Precision 

Agriculture 

Sales VA 

Joy Taylor 


Emma Monro 

Bank of Queensland 

Annie McKeiver 

Hudson 

Casey Brown 

James Deck 

Tim Neale 

Peta Neale 

Emma Monro 

SALESVA 

Startup 

SalesVA is a one-year-old productivity startup. They provide an online 

productivity tool that enables sales professionals to cut Customer 

Relationship Management (CRM) administration time, enabling sales 

teams to be more productive. A team of virtual CRM assistants handles 

the necessary administrative requirements, provide post appointment 

follow up assistance and send training podcasts following each 

appointment. SalesVA integrates with all major CRM packages. 

OTRAIN 

Startup 

oTrain is a four-year-old online training startup. They provide the 

infrastructure and backend support to enable people to build and 

create and maintain an online training presence. With five products, 

10 staff and a growing global client list, oTrain is on track to disrupt 

global training. 

16

TOOWOOMBA 


12 

3D Industries (3D Printing) 

AgriLabour (marketplace) 

Global Store Solutions (marketplace) 

Hummingbird (drones) 

KixFit (mobile app) 

oTrain (education) 

Precision Terrain Solutions (AgTech) 

Rent Resume (rental) 

SalesVA (productivity) 

Scripti (education) 

ShedProject (marketplace) 

Site Specific Software Solutions (mobile app) 

POPULATION 

GROSS REGIONAL PRODUCT TOTAL FUNDING 

3.4% of Queensland 57 2.8% of Queensland 50 0.2% of Regional Queensland 

162K $8.1B $20K 

STARTUPS BY MARKET FOCUS: 

TOP 5 MARKETS 

Agriculture 


Construction 

Manufacturing 

Information Media 

Other 

TECH ECOSYSTEM SUMMARY 

As Queensland’s largest inland city, Toowoomba 

is the hub of the fertile Darling Downs region 

that has resulted in a city with extensive 

manufacturing, education, health, retail and 

professional services. Toowoomba offers easy 

access to Brisbane and the Gold and Sunshine 

Coasts. The recent opening of the Brisbane West 

Wellcamp Airport is the first major greenfield 

public airport development in Australia since 

Melbourne Airport opened in 1970. It is also the 

only privately funded major airport in the country. 

Established technology companies and 

supporting entities that play an important role 

in the Toowoomba ecosystem include; Precision 

Agriculture (AgTech), Strategenics (Big Data), 

ilab (Incubator), FarmscanAg (AgTech), and 

AgData (Australia’s largest agricultural software 

company). Harnessing the experience of these 

established organisations to grow and expand 

the ecosystem is a natural path. Developing a 

strong agricultural base is also a natural path for 

Toowoomba to develop regional expertise. 

ISSUES TOP 5 

Collaboration & Networking 

Infrastructure 

Funding 

Raise Awareness 

Education 

31% 

31% 

13% 

13% 

13% 

Still in its relative tech ecosystem infancy, a 

number of grass roots community driven activities 

have boosted community engagement and 

participation throughout the startup ecosystem. 

With the Canvas co-working space opening in 

August 2015, a local Hackerspace opened in 

2013, having held the first Startup Weekend in 

2014, GovHack program, and the regular Startup 

Toowoomba organised tech specific meetups, 

the outlook is bright if current initiatives are 

maintained and supported by all members of the 

tech community. 

Toowoomba has the added benefit of having 

the headquarters of the University of Southern 

Queensland, resulting in strong STEM talent flow 

into the region. Its relative proximity to Brisbane 

was identified as a core enabler for future growth. 

The following technology related events and 

meetups were identified, and are presented 

according to their importance to the ecosystem: 

Toowoomba Startup Group Open, Toowoomba 

Startup Group Meetup, Startup Weekend GovHack 

and AgWorld. 

ISSUES AND ACTIONS 

Toowoomba participants clearly identified that the 

lack of consistency with the National Broadband 

Network (NBN) was a major inhibitor to growth 

with sporadic rollout missing key sectors of the 

region. The lack of an established Angel network 

in the region meant founders had to look to 

Brisbane for funding. Participants also identified 

issues with attracting talent to move. 

ACTIONS TOP 5 

Hub / Coworking Space 


Govt Incentive - Accelerators 

Highlight Success Stories 

Education Program 

38% 

19% 

19% 

13% 

6% 

It is estimated that the 12 startups operating out 

of Toowoomba were employing 60+ people. 

A selection of notable persons identified are as 

follows; David Masefield (Founder, Co-Working, 

Meetup), Leanne Griffin (meetup), Shane 

Ridley (Founder), Chris Mills (Established Tech 

Founder), Emma Monro (Founder), Joy Taylor 

(Co-Working), Tim Neale (Established Tech 

Founder) and Natasha Wells (Founder). 

17

IPSWICH 

Ipswich startups [yellow], established 

tech companies [white], and related 

companies [pink], along with their 

founders and employees [blue]. 

Links show professional 

relationships via Linkedin. 

NextEd 

Paul Pisasale 

Australian Army 



Jamin Andrews 

Tim Butler 




CurvyDames 


Paul Wyatt 


Hawaiki of Oceania 

Peta Ellis 


Anna Daniel 


Lisa New 

Tourback 



ClinicalHub 

Chris Jenkins 

Raytheon 

Ian Irving 



Thales 




Andrew Whannell 

FIRESTATION101 DIGITAL INCUBATOR 

Incubator 

EDUHEALTH PLUS 

Startup 

To provide a platform for the future, Ipswich City Council (ICC) 

is delivering Australia’s first fully funded start-up incubator and 

accelerator. ICC is currently building the FireStation101 venue in the 

Ipswich CBD and has started engaging the start-up community in 

preparation for a March 2016 launch. The hub is seen as the key step 

in the digital transformation of Ipswich & the Western Corridor, and 

aims to catalyse the formation of tech startups in Ipswich and assist 

with the development of a robust local ecoystem. 

EduHealth Plus is a for-profit social enterprise that is dedicated to 

delivering innovative evidence-based preventative health interventions 

and better solutions to social problems and unmet community needs. 

EduHealth Plus released the worlds first nutrition pedometer in spring 

of 2015 and has secured a pending patent for the hardware. 

18

IPSWICH 


5 

Clinical Hub (health app) 

EduHealth+ (wearable + big data) 

MyWaterFilter (marketplace) 

Tourback (unknown) 

1 x Stealth Startup (not disclosed) 

POPULATION 

GROSS REGIONAL PRODUCT 

TOTAL FUNDING 

4.0% of Queensland 57 2.5% of Queensland 51 0% of Regional Queensland 

190K $7.1B $0K 


TOP 4 MARKETS 

Health Care 

Communication 

Retail Trade 

Entertainment 


Ipswich is one of the fastest growing cities 

in Australia, with population growth rates 

(23% since 2007) outpacing the majority of 

Queensland. Recently Ipswich was named as one 

of the Top 7 most intelligent global communities 

for 2015 by the Intelligent Community Forum 

(ICF) in New York 17 , in part due to its digital 

training programs in the community and its 

acceleration of the NBN rollout. 

However, the startup ecosystem in Ipswich is still 

at its very beginning, with a number of initiatives 

recently announced seeking to change this 

situation. Ambitious plans to build a new Digital 

Incubator modelled on the well known Chicago 

entrepreneurial hub 1871, have recently been 

announced with strong industry and government 

support. Proactive support from the Ipswich City 

Council in facilitating this project represents 

a bold move to claim a piece of Queensland’s 

digital future. 

While Ipswich is well connected to Brisbane, 

the local university’s strong and growing 

reputation in technology needs to translate into 

attracting established talent to stay in the region. 

Masterplanned communities like Springfield 

Lakes have been ambitiously designed to 

facilitate the capture of young technologically 

savvy individuals to the region. An established 

technology base of aerospace companies offers 

distinct possibilities, yet no aerospace startups 

were identified in our research. This is possibly 

due to the relationships required to engage with 

the Department of Defence (RAAF Amberley). 

Harnessing this local source of talent is a vital 

opportunity for Ipswich to develop a robust tech 

ecosystem. 

It is estimated that Startups operating out of 

Ipswich were employing over 20 people in 

total. A selection of notable persons identified 

in a centrality ranking are as follows; Matthew 

Schultz (Local Govt), Paul Pisasale (Mayor), 

Peta Ellis (meetup), Anna Daniels (Founder), 

David McCallum (Founder), Andrew Whannell 

(Founder), Simon Victory (Founder) and Jamin 

Andrews (Founder). 

Ipswich has a lack of tech related meetups, with 

its proximity to Brisbane being both a help and 

a hindrance in the matter. Despite still being in 

its infancy, the Startup Ipswich Meetup group 

already has more than 45 members. For future 

growth it is important to leverage this and 

continue to support and facilitate its continuation. 

It is noted that Ipswich’s close proximity to 

Brisbane may influence the data collected, as 

there is evidence of Ipswich residents who are 

founders or involved in startups based in Brisbane 

and other parts of South East Queensland. 

Supporting entities that play an important role 

in the Ipswich ecosystem include; Polaris Data 

Centre, Conetix Web Hosting, Ipswich City 

Council and University of Southern Queensland 

(USQ). USQ campuses in Ipswich and Springfield 

provide a large flow of talent into the region. 

Harnessing this and convincing talent to stay and 

found companies was viewed as a major issue 

facing the growth of the local ecosystem. 

ISSUES AND ACTIONS 

Ipswich participants identified that attracting and 

retaining local STEM talent was a priority issue 

hampering the ecosystem owing to the proximity 

to Brisbane. A lack of clear pathways for local 

startup funding was evident. The lack of local 

mentors in the area for tech startups was also seen 

as an inhibiting factor. 

ISSUES TOP 5 

Talent & Skills 


Funding 



ACTIONS TOP 5 



Govt Provide Supportive Role 

Local Angel / VC Group 

Brand / Culture 

33% 

19% 

19% 

14% 

5% 

33% 

24% 

14% 

10% 

10% 

The opening of the Ipswich Fire Station101 

digital incubator was viewed as vital to the 

establishment of the ecosystem that would assist 

with networking, funding, collaboration and 

identification. The continuation of Ipswich’s 

community education programs was also seen to 

help boost talent inflow to the region and start to 

increase the rate of entrepreneurship in the area. 

19

BUNDABERG 

Bundaberg startups [pink], established 

tech companies [light blue], and 

related companies [red], along with 

their founders and employees [blue]. 

Links show professional relationships 

via Linkedin. 

Greenwood Signs 

Michael O'Brien Catering 


Pro-Cam Post 

Jay Daniells 

The Reporter 

Jay Daniells Web 

Gunther Village 

Diggy 

O'Neil Software 


Synerty Jabiru 

Microair 

David Withers 

QBuild Burnett Office 

Bundaberg South Early Learning Centre 

Growcom 

Global Fresh Connect 

amajuba 

CropTech 

Hybrid Synergy Production Systems 

Nuffield Farming Scholarships Trust 

Villarica 


Saipem 


Jack Milbank 

Wiley-VCH 

Nur Dean 

AHA Viticulture 

Rebecca Doe 

Sharon Tolley 

University of Erlangen 

Anthony Dove 

Hortus 

Microair Avionics 

Deep Woods Estate 

Brendan Macpherson 

Eddy Dunn 

Val Burbano 

Jamie Zapp 

National Centre for Rural Greenhouse Gas Research 

Brittany Duncan 

New England Weeds Authority 

Jeanette Nock 

Dr. Melinda McHenry 

Steven Greenslade 

Bundaberg Region Rising Foundation 

University of New England 

Architectural Models 

William Durnford 

iTEL Community Telco 

City of Ipswich 

GHD 


Tony Pisani 

Unisys Australia 

Matthew Whitehead 

Business Bundaberg 


ManpowerGroup 

Alexander Dooley 

HCN - (Health Communication Network) 

Riverina Stockfeeds 

Mitchell Grotherr 

Mark Briggs 

Data#3 

Tammy Street 

Bank of Queensland 

Craig Hodges 

The BPA Group 

Daniel Reeves 



Neil McPhillips 



Engineers Without Borders Australia 

John Russell 

Australian Centre for Sustainable Catchments, USQ 

Jordan Maultby 

Faculty of Engineering and Surveying, USQ 

Australian Digital Futures Institute, USQ 


SynerGeTech 

Phibak Versatiles 

Burnett Shire Council 

Wide Bay Australia 

Buzz Broadband 

Century Yuasa Batteries 

Hewlett Packard 

EDS Australia 

Suncorp 

Chris Batchler 


FNQ Security 

Bradley Thomas 

Salmat 

Shane Hannant 

St Luke's Anglican School 

Clint Lester 

D2K 

Dale Foster 

Divi Resorts 

Kevin Rasmussen 

Conrad Jupiters 

Phil Baker 

Intritec 

Webtraf.. 

Pyefinch Software.. 

Telstra Business Center 

SP Exports 

Stanzah IT 

Jeffrey Smidt 



Yale Morgan 

Kate McCloskey 

Tiran Irani 

Matthew Drane 

Cameron Ellacott 

Aeon IT 

e-flux 

Caked On 

Gymfinity Gymnastics 

Adam Gilmour 

Joshua Hicks 

WebTraf 


David Finnish 

Paul Fox 

John McLean 

IVF Bundaberg 

Friendly Society Private Hospital 

QI Limited 

SP Exports 

Scan2Convert 

A Few Extra Bucks 

Innov8 

Shalom College 

Simon de Bomford 


James Gilmour 

INTRITEC 

Startup 

Intritec is a software development company that has been providing 

customised filemaker solutions for businesses for 5 years. Intritec has 

developed a number of flagship products such as Packit, a customised 

management system for large fruit and vegetable processing factories 

and TrackEd, an application built specifically for schools to help 

collate and track student progress and provide software to help schools 

make use of big data. Intritec specialises in innovative systems that 

bridge the divide between traditional logistical problems and modern 

mobile based solutions. 

BEST PRACTICE SOFTWARE 

Established Technology Company 

Best Practice Software is an established technology company 

employing over 85 people with 50 staff at its headquarters in 

Bundaberg, and other staff located in Sydney, Brisbane and Hamilton 

(NZ). It develops, markets and supports quality software products for 

Australasian medical practices. 

Bp Clinical is an SQL application that is designed to improve 

efficiencies within the medical practice. Bp Management is a billing 

and appointment book module that syncs with the Clinical software 

application. Bp SMS automates doctors appointment reminders. 

20

BUNDABERG 


4 

A Few Extra Bucks (marketplace) 

Caked On (marketplace) 

Gilmour Space Corp (aerospace) 

Intritec (software) 

POPULATION 


TOTAL FUNDING 


95K $4.4B $0K 


TOP 4 MARKETS 

Agriculture 

Accommodation & Food 

Transport 

Education 


Bundaberg is situated approximately four hours 

drive or a 45-minute flight north of Brisbane. 

Major industry clusters include healthcare, 

agriculture, construction and manufacturing, 

along with major campuses of Central 

Queensland University and Institute of Technical 

and Further Education (TAFE). The city’s 

population is approximately 100,000 people. 

The Bundaberg startup ecosystem is at an 

embryonic stage. As of July 2015, there are 

no startup specific meetups. Previous efforts 

to launch a Bundaberg technology expo were 

merged to a wider business expo in light of low 

demand. The Bundaberg Digital Boardroom, and 

supporting “Switched on Bundaberg” initiative, 

provide a forum for businesses to highlight the 

importance of high quality broadband access and 

promoting digital productivity throughout the 

region. Bundaberg Regional Council has also 

been proactive in driving digital engagement and 

in hosting numerous technology related events 

and forums. 

These initiatives have not had a particular focus 

on promoting the regional startup culture, and 

there is currently no central space available for 

startups to co-work, network and collaborate. 

Of pressing concern is that of Central 

Queensland University closing its ICT course in 

Bundaberg. Research suggests that almost every 

successful tech cluster has a local technical 

university to organically generate and retain 

talent within the region. 18 It is extremely difficult 

to import enough talent to fuel a rapidly growing 

tech cluster. 


of Bundaberg were employing 15+ people. 

A selection of notable persons identified in a 

centrality ranking are as follows; Phil Baker 

(Founder), Andrew Beckenhauer (Local Govt), 

Matthew Drane (Founder), Jack Millbank 

(Established AgTech), Frank Pyefinch 

(Established Founder), Ann Moffat (Education), 

and Ben Taylor (Education). 

There is a strong base of established technology 

companies operating out of the Bundaberg 

region. 

Best Practice Software, founded by Frank 

Pyefinch is one of Australia’s largest medical 

software organisations with over 50 employees 

alone in Bundaberg. Hortus, founded by 

Jack Millbank, is an innovative AgTech 

company employing over 25 people in the 

region. Matthew Drane is an accomplished 

serial entrepreneur, and his businesses in the 

technology industry based in Bundaberg have 

created an estimated 100+ jobs. 

Other supporting entities include Wide Bay 

Volunteers (Education), Bundaberg Regional 

Council (Local Govt), AusIndustry (Federal 

Govt), WebTraf (Software), and Central 

Queensland University. 

ISSUES & ACTIONS 

Bundaberg participants identified that raising 

awareness of technology startups was a 

critical factor to increase participation in the 

startup sector. It was perceived that a lack of 

understanding of technology in the region was 

driving talent away. The low number of students 

studying technology related subjects in the 

region, combined with the pull of mature startup 

ecosystems in major cities, presents a challenge 

for retaining regional talent. Participants 

identified the lack of local STEM talent as a 

critical issue preventing the establishment of a 

ISSUES TOP 5 


Education 


Funding 


ACTIONS TOP 5 

Govt Incentive - Infrastructure 


Highlight Success Stories 

Form Leadership Group 


22% 

20% 

18% 

18% 

12% 

24% 

13% 

13% 

11% 

11% 

strong startup ecosystem. Poor NBN coverage 

was also impacting the speed of uptake of new 

technology and therefore turning potential 

entrepreneurs away. 

Participants suggested that highlighting the 

success stories of established tech companies, in 

conjunction with a collaborative, entrepreneurial 

culture, would drive significant interest in the 

region and the startup sector. A central resource 

for funding options for tech companies was 

seen as a quick win that would bring immediate 

value. 

21

ROCKHAMPTON 

Rockhampton startups and thier founders 

[yellow], established tech companies 

[white], and related companies [blue], 

along with their founders and employees 

[red]. Links show relationships via 

Linkedin. 

Derel Wust 

4tel 

WR Grace 


Carbon Link 

Resource Consulting Services 

North Rockhampton State High School 

Education Queensland 

Kerr Solutions 

Matthew Bright 

Callan Kucharski 

Tanya Spence 

Jordan Brown 

Mango 4 Office Technology 

Jason Iassist- 

Tammy Knobel 

Coles 

Sam Beahan 

Gemcom Software 

International 

Royal Melbourne Institute 

of Technology 

Department Education 

and Training Queensland 

Colleen Cooling 

Data#3 

iAssist 

Ian Weigh Toyota 

Mark Clifford 

BitPlex 


Flomat Pty Ltd 

Pointon and Howard Racing 

University of Agricultural 

Science, Bangalore, India 

Nanjappa Ashwath 

University of the Sunshine Coast 

CQ Region DETE 

Androgogic 

PeopleSoft Wiki 

Lincoln University New Zealand 

Jason Spence 

NSW Department of 

Education and Communities 

Phil Martin 

IT Consultancy 


Atlas Copco 

CSIRO 

Swanwick Murray Roche 

Jason Cooper 

Flexco 

BMA 

Fiji Sugar Corporation Ltd 

Qld Chapter of SAGE-AU 

Canonical Ltd. 

Debian 

Plugged In Software 


Ronald Kumar 

Australasia Scales 

CQ University 

CQ University 

Queensland Ambulance Service 

Stanwell Corporation Limited 

BHP Australia Coal 

Rockhampton 

Regional 

Council 

Dialog 


Colin Greensill and Associates 

Prue Howard 

Craig Stewart 

Davina Roberts 


Colin Greensill 

Cindy Van De Wetering 

Fiona Marshall 

Praj Basnet 

Dave Swain 

Simon Attwell 

I-view 

Jeni Richardson 

Gerard Ilott 

David Patterson 

HeartKids QLD 

SPARQ Solutions 

Peter Vanheck 

Consulting One 

CQUniversity English Language Centre 

Katherine Christopher 

EnviroSource 

Ecosure 


Proposal Catalyst 

ETSA Utilities 

GamePlan 

QAL 

Insyte Solutions 

YourTutor 

MineSched Software 

International 

Centre for Railway Engineering 

Peter Pledger 


Colin Cole 

QR 

CRC for Rail Innovation 

HUMBUG 

Department of Primary Industries & Fisheries 

Agrifood Skills International Fellowship 

Farmers Centre 

ABB Industry 

St Ursula's College 

Linux.conf.au 2002 

Queensland Police Service 

YouthInvest 

Australian Institute for Commercialisation 

Canonical 

Brad Marshall 

Helen Newell 

Mackenzie Hansler 

Chemarkets Limited 

St Ursula's College 

APN News & Media 

Joyful Communications 

Department of Employment, 

Economic Development and Innovation 

WIN Corporation 

Sarah-Joy Pierce 

Kylie Radel PhD 

Stage & Audio 

exceler8 

Generate PR 

Peter Wolfs 

Roy Pidgeon 


IBM 

Queensland University 

of Technology 

Kieren Jamieson 

EDS 

Defence Science and 

Technology Organisation 


Curtin University of Technology 


Cindy Wittmann 

Chris Harris 

Bruce Young 

AFL Capricornia 

Umpires Association 

Ian Devenish 


Katrina Mitchener 

Department of 

Education and Training 

Harris Financial Planning 

C.T. Harris and Company 

Ergon Energy 

Peter Milani 

CQ TAFE 


Upson Downs 

Imaging Services 


Oaky North 

Mick Scott 

Andrew Bate 

SwarmFarm 

Robotics 

SWARMFARM ROBOTICS 

Startup 

Innovative grain and cattle farmer Andrew Bate is passionate 

about developing robotic farming technology that ensures future 

generations of farmers have a vibrant, economic, and sustainable 

future in the cropping industry. Mr. Bate’s AgBot 19 development 

company, SwarmFarm Robotics has partnered with the Queensland 

University of Technology and the University of Sydney’s Australian 

Centre for Field Robotics to develop swarms of agbots conducting 

plant and soil maintenance and improvement tasks such as bug and 

weed removal, at any hour of the day or night and in any weather 

conditions. 

CARBON LINK 

Startup 

Carbon Link enables farmers to put carbon on their bottom line and 

improve sustainability. Carbon Link has completed the first large 

scale accurate measurement of soil carbon in the world, down to 

one metre. This Internet of Things sensor technology is 100 times 

more accurate than conventional methods. Carbon Link is a leader 

in carbon farming markets providing; sensor technology to measure 

carbon stocks; training and guidance to implement practices that 

restore the landscape and store carbon; and support with implementing 

carbon trading. 

22

ROCKHAMPTON 


7 

101 Business group (Software) 

BitPlex (Productivity) 

Carbon Link (AgTech Sensors) 

EnviroSource (Marketplace) 

GamePlan (Productivity) 

Swarm Farm Robotics (Robotics) 

Upson Downs (Drones) 

POPULATION 


TOTAL FUNDING 


85K $7.1B $0K 


TOP 4 MARKETS 

Professional Services 

Agriculture 

Mining & Resources 

Arts & Recreation 


Rockhampton hosts a significant number of 

government, community and major business 

administrative offices for Central Queensland. 

Rockhampton is often referred to as the beef 

capital of Australia. Rockhampton has the added 

benefit of having the headquarters of the Central 

Queensland University (CQU), resulting in 

strong STEM talent flow into the region. The 

CQU School of Engineering and Technology has 

over 90 staff and nearly 1,000 students currently 

enrolled. 

The Rockhampton Startup ecosystem is at an 

embryonic stage. As of July 2015 there are no 

startup specific meetups. A wider ICT group 

does have informal meetings, but this lacks 

a startup specific focus. Rockhampton has a 

small but dispersed group of tech startups, 

with little interaction between them. There is 

no central space available to co-work, network 

and collaborate however the local council has 

established an innovative library space that can be 

further utilised. 

There is a small network of angel investors with 

an interest to invest in local tech talent, but they 

lack the formal structure to facilitate this. They 

also raised the issue of not enough dealflow to 

warrant local investment. 


of Rockhampton were employing 15+ people. 


centrality ranking are as follows; Terry McCosker 

(Founder), Derel Wurst (Established Founder) 

Andrew Bate (Founder), Richard Chappell 

(Founder), Mick Scott (Founder), Chris Harris 

(angel), Jason Foss (Support) and Christine Bell 

(Founder). 

There is a base of established technology 

companies operating out of the Rockhampton 

region. 4Tel founded by Derel Wurst, specialises 

in the fields of train control systems, large radio 

and satellite systems, SCADA networks, IP 

networking, and software for real-time command 

and control networks. Insyte Solutions develops 

industry leading software for rail innovation 

across Australia. Rail Innovation Australia 

is commercialising new technologies and 

educational solutions for the railway industry via 

customer-driven cooperative business ventures. 

A number of other professional web design and 

marketing agencies are indirectly contributing to 

the ecosystem. 

With Rockhampton being the beef capital of 

Australia, it was surprising not to find any 

software related to the beef industry, however, 

outside the immediate region, MandraIT in 

Calliope, Queensland developed iHerd, a 

livestock management app with over 40,000 

global users. 


Participants identified STEM talent flow leaving 

the region to seek opportunity in capital cities 

as a major issue. Participants identified a lack 

of networking and collaboration as being major 

hurdles for an ecosystem to take root. The lack of 

NBN was a large impediment, with some areas 

lacking basic ADSL2 services. A common theme 

was a lack of local government support for the 

sector. It was perceived that the local government 

needed to do more to facilitate networking events, 

yet global comparisons point to community 

driven models as those with the most success. 

ISSUES TOP 5 



Funding 



ACTIONS TOP 5 


Skills Directory 

Communication Network 


Govt Incentive - Infrastructure 

22% 

19% 

15% 

11% 

11% 

43% 

24% 

14% 

14% 

5% 

Participants expressed the most interest in the 

creation of a local angel group to connect angel 

investors to entrepreneurs. The generation of a 

local tech directory to better discover local talent 

was seen as a vital initiative to boost connectivity, 

and a quick win that would drive immediate 

value. 

23

MACKAY 

Mackay startups [yellow], established 

tech companies [white], and related 

companies [pink], along with their 

founders and employees [blue]. Links 

show professional relationships via 

Linkedin. 

Alan Jones 

Gareth Zillmann 

Gareth Zillmann 


ZONTA WOMEN 

IN BUSINESS 

Norske Skog - Tasman Pulp and Paper 

Tait Electronics 

Electrical Drawing Service 

Peter Watson 

Sampath Howpe Liyanage 

Repco 

LogiCamms 

Hamish McAlpine 

Paterson Flood Engineers 

Central Queensland 

Quantity Surveying 

SEOS Displays 

Wilde and Woolard 

Gavin Liston 

ABB Industry 

Dennis Murphy 

South Eastern Electricity Board 

Margot Reeves 

Queensland Rail 

Downer 

Samuel Moohin 

Rio Tinto 

Cell Engineering 

Stephen Gard 

Kelly Egan 

Synengco 

Jaime Rea 

Cairns Base Hospital 

Peter Goodworth 

John Vella 

Stewart McKinnon 

Taffy's Typing Service 

Realtime 

Group Ltd 

Greg Thompson 

Darren Thompson 

CJD Equipment 

Workpac Industrial 

Princess Alexandra Hospital 

Rio Tinto Coal Australia 

Ian Broadfoot 

Mack Permanent 

Building Society 

Paul Edwards 

Stephen Clarkson 

Nathan Payne 

Bronwyn Grannall 

Whitsunday Software 

Department of Industry, 

Tourism and Resources 

TEAM Engineering Services 

Greg Thompson 

Pioneer Permanent 

Building Society 

Intov8 

John Tindale 

Chris Bradly 

Jade McAuley 

Peter Everitt 

iScape 

Aiden Payne 

CQ TAFE 

Nebo News 

Jan Teale 

Justin Bachmann 

redhotblue 

BigMate 

X-Yachts Australia 

Louise Clare 

2MT Mining Products 

CQ Rescue 

Nielsen TAM 

Annette Camilleri 

Jody-lee Euler 


Stephen Vassallo 

Regional Development 

Australia Mackay 

Whitsunday Inc. 

G&S Engineering Services 

RCS 

Reece Ramsay 

McKays Solicitors 

Mackay Permanent Building Society 

Graham Smith 

CORE Magazine 

Mater Foundation 

Nortel Networks 

Brian Tulloch 

NEPEAN Power 

Glen Barnard 

Annabel Dolphin 

Sharon Messer 

Tim Stevenson 

Alastair Carnell 

Joel Wright 

Mark Lalor 

McGair Enterprises 

Austbelt 

R & J McTaggart & Co 

Silcar Telepower 

QR 

Big Wheels 

Clinton Evans 

WorleyParsons 

Matthew McKenzie 

Brad McKinlay 

Andrew Saxelby 

Hills Fruit & Vege 

Acubis 

Mike Nyakureba 

Aaron Pirie 

Andrew Clews 

Telstra Business Centre 

Kadence Group 

BHP - Groote Eylandt Mining Company - NT 

John Markley 

Vinay Kumar 

Ergon Energy 

Eungella Carriers 


Tony Crowley 

Angurugu Community Government Council 

Sunstate Garages and Sheds 

Independent Agricultural Resources 

Mervyn Archer 

Flor Hanly & Associates 

Mark Ellwood 

Farmacist 

Geoff Fleming 

Bryan Lavarack 

Mackay Sugar 

Steve McFarlane 

Patrick Cunningham 

Kevin Moore 

Nicholas Flor 

Smart HR 

Solutions 

Jodie Stanley 

Fired Up Central 

CQQS 

Get It Done 

Mercedes Benz | 

Daimler Chrysler 

Cook This 


Foodco 

Shaun Young 

Steve Dansie 

Daniel Leppien 

Startup Mackay 

Cape York Air Services 

Co-Collaborate 

Darren Cooke 

Bowen Basin Coal Mines, 

Ports & Construction 

Flightship Ground Effect 

Subway 

Grant Broadcasting 

Justine Price 

Southern Cross Austereo 

MI Power QLD Pty Ltd 

Joe Zarb 

CONSYS Engineering 

Peabody Energy 


WDM communications 

Steven Cheyne 

Shaun Abbott 

Transfield Services 

Mick Storch 

Orion Ag 

ST Olive & Sons 

The Bullion Group 

Hamiltech 


WMC Fertilizers 

Neill Thompson 

Thiess Degremont 

Gippsland Water 

John Holland 

BHP Billiton 

Michelle Elvy 

Gippsland Water 

REB Engineering ELMS 

Highlands Machinery 

Jessica Frater 

Conservation Volunteers Australia 

Jenny Legge 

GEMYDU 

Brett Fratus 

Bill Corbett 

Chandler Macleod Group 

BMA 

Mackay Christian College 

Westpac 

Omya 

Regional Social Development Centre 

Mortgage House Mackay 

BUSY At Work 

Pioneer Valley Country Music Assoc. Inc 

Matt Ewing 

QIT Plus 

Chris Madsen 

Don Neal 

Janet Cawte 

Airmap3D 

Circuit Wiz 


Yvonne Mc Keown 

Real Time Instruments 

JL Rehab & Consulting 

Garry France 

STRICTLY SERVICE 

Startup 

Strictly Service helps people connect with trusted mechanics and 

compare the price of car services online. It connects car owners 

to multiple vehicle service workshops simultaneously, enabling 

workshops to display accurate real time pricing and availability 

for 1000’s of vehicles, and giving car owners the ability to receive 

quotes or book a service from multiple preferred workshops 

knowing the service requirements, service duration, service price and 

workshop availability. 

JOBFIT SYSTEMS 

Startup 

JobFit Systems developed an online database that objectively 

compares worker capabilities to job demands. It assists employers, 

health providers and consultants make decisions about job 

placement, suitable duties, programs, health surveillance and risk 

management strategies. A recipient of Commercialisation Australia 

funding in 2012, and Queensland Government Business & Industry 

Transformation Incentive Funding, the startup’s standardised tools 

and processes aim to provide a ‘one-stop-shop’ for the holistic 

management of a worker’s health and wellness at their place of work. 

24

MACKAY 


8 

Airmap3D (drones) 

Farmacist (marketplace) 

Job Fit Systems (software) 

Kadence Group (collaboration) 

Procedures Online & 4P Systems (productivity) 

QIT Plus (big data) 

SmartHR Solutions (education) 

Strictly Service (marketplace) 

POPULATION 


2.6% of Queensland 57 3.1% of Queensland 54 1.4% of Regional Queensland 

123K $8.7B $1.4M 


TOP 5 MARKETS 

Public Administraiton 

Agriculture 


Mining & Energy 


Other 


Mackay is widely recognised as the Sugar Capital 

of Australia, producing a third of all sugar in 

Australia. Mackay is also the gateway to the 

Bowen Basin coal mining reserves of Central 

Queensland. It is the single largest coal reserve 

in Australia, with 34 operational coal mines 

extracting more than 100 million tonnes annually. 

With the recent (2015) launch of a community 

group Startup Mackay; the town held its first 

Startup Weekend in October 2015 and ilab’s 

Mentor Blaze 20 in September 2015, the ecosystem 

is beginning to take root. Regular meetups have 

been lacking in the past, but a series of regular 

tech specific networking sessions have been 

run throughout 2015. The Mackay IT Network 

also organises regular meetups but these lack a 

specific startup focus. A lack of a shared space or 

Coworking hub means people are dispersed across 

the city and meetups don’t yet have a set venue. 

It is estimated that startups operating out of 

Mackay were employing 20+ people. A selection 

of notable persons identified in a centrality 

ranking are as follows; Jodie Stanley (Startup 

Mackay), Dennis Murphy (Startup Mackay), 

Darren Cooke (Founder), Chris Madsen 

(Founder), John Williams (State Govt), Jenny 

Legge (Founder), Nicholas Flor (Founder), Ben 

Wearmouth (Support) and Mick Storch (Founder). 




Startup Mackay Meetup, ilab roadshow, AGRI 

innovation conference and Mackay Maker Space 

Meetup. 


A major issue highlighted by participants was 

the lack of established networks, mentors and 

educators to help build the ecosystem from the 

ground up. Participants stated that the lack of 

a collaborative space to work from and hold 

central events had resulted in a number of silos 

developing. A lack of available local talent was 

also seen as a hurdle for growing large local 

startups without having to move to a capital city, 

and this was compounded by the mining industry 

drawing talent away from local startups. 

Participants highlighted a major desired action 

was the set up of a local hub in the CBD to enable 

collaboration and networking. The identification 

of a local angel investor network was also seen as 

a priority action to localise investments. Securing 

a Startup Weekend and Mentor Blaze was seen as 

a core enabler to the establishment of a grassroots 

ecosystem. 

ISSUES TOP 5 





Funding 

ACTIONS TOP 5 



Startup Apprentice 


Communication Hub 

23% 

23% 

20% 

17% 

10% 

30% 

23% 

20% 

10% 

10% 

Established technology companies and supporting 

entities that play an important role in the Mackay 

Ecosystem include; Big Mate (GPS), Acubis 

(Wireless), LogiCamms, Circuit Wiz (software), 

Real Time Instruments (sensors), Central 

Queensland University (education) and Resource 

Industry Network (support). 

25

TOWNSVILLE 

Townsville startups [pink], 

established tech companies [white], 

and related companies [yellow], 

along with their founders and 

employees [red or light blue]. Links 

show professional relationships via 

Linkedin. 

Richard Sazima 

JESI 

NQ Innovate 

Solidfacts NQ 

David Cole 

eMerge Learning Productions 


JB Hifi 

Pacific Integrated 

Project Delivery Pty Ltd 

NQ UAV 

Ashley Walker 

Jimmy's PTY LTD 

Target 

DEC-MECH 

Albright & Wilson (Surfactants) 

Manufacturing Dynamics 

Pascoe's 

Natures' Organics 

MAVLAB P/L 

Trace Scientific 

QMI Solutions 

Creative Industries Faculty 

Joanne Walter 

Kelly Services 


Joe Hoolahan 

Australian Army 

SKILLED Group 

David Cole 

Applied Chemicals (Australia) 

Industry Capability Network - Queensland 

Kathy Wilson Consulting 

Puma Energy 

Department of Science, 


and Innovation 

Woolworths 

Schmidt + Clemens GmbH + Co. KG 

Kyam 


Australian Festival 

of Chamber Music 

McDonald's 

Corporation 

John Williams 

North Queensland Cowboys 

Patrick Latter 

TrenchNorth 

PJ & EM Latter 

Blake Pelling 

SafetyCulture 

Country Craft Junction 

Luke Anear 

Dick Smith Electronics 

WMC Resources 

Mojito Solutions 


Telstra Business Centre 

616 Digital LLC 

(Pokie Magic) 

Mark Robinson 

Qld Health 

MYER 

Alexander 

Dept of Justice and Scott 

Attorney general 

Talk to the Mac 

Hatch 

Townsville ICT 

Chris Woods 

Business Network 

Osmotion 

Oracle 

Tec-NQ 

Websense 

BMC Software 

SaferData 


Apress 

Peter Ridd 

Oz Apps 

Crowe Howarth 

NFA 

GSK 

Hayman Island 

Helireef Whitsunday 

Australian Computer Society Tropic Tech 


Aurecon 

Hamilton Island Air 

Chris Brown 

Skydronics 

Lindsay Ward 

Dylan Furnell 


Bonnell Technology 

Stuart King 

Carpentaria Gold Ravenswood 

TechCompServices 

Anthony Wilson 

South32 Cannington Mine 

BHPB Cannington Mine 

Australian Institute 

of Marine Science 

Greg Bruce 

Ian Atkinson 

mildsurprise.com 

Parasyn Controls 

Proccess Control Engineers 

Grant Bajema 

Townsville 

Enterprise 

eResearch 

JCU 

David Beitey 

Experimental 

Unicorns 

Code Valley 

Ergon Energy 

Mining & Civil 

Recruitment 

yRepublic 

Bronwyn Voyce Consulting 

BAE Systems 

Comit Pty Ltd 

My Little Genius 

Bronwyn Voyce 

Pointons Lawyers 

Grants Enterprises 

BajTech 

Process Control 

Engineers 

Unity Finn 

Russell Savage 

Noel Lovisa 

Taste Paradise Tropical 

North Queensland 

Comit 

Aden Tranter 

CB Programming 

Wow Factor 

Sister City Partners Limited 

RPL Solutions 

Second to 

None Nutrition 


WorldVentures 

Townsville Cleveland 

Detention Center 

Lilone Photography 

Williams Graham 

Carman Lawyers 

JESI 

Startup 

JESI is a web based multi-platform journey management software 

solution that enables organisations to control the risks associated 

with a mobile workforce. JESI incorporates automated reminders and 

emergency alerts, all from the convenience of your mobile and other 

telecommunication devices. 

JESI provides peace of mind that if emergency assistance is required, 

an incident response team would be alerted in a short period of time. 

JESI has a rapidly growing team, with four staff in Townsville, one 

in Houston and a team of three in Brisbane. 

NQ UAV 

Startup 

NQ UAV is Townsville’s first drone business. They provide 

complete service for companies, research bodies or government 

organisations wishing to utilise unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). 

NQ UAV provides all the necessary project management, approvals, 

pilots, craft and data processing for either simple or complex UAV 

applications. NQ UAV offers drone development services to cover 

everything from research, sourcing, procurement, modification 

and integration of unmanned systems for new and innovative UAV 

applications. This includes after-market upgrades and modifications 

as well as building spares and/or replacements. 

26

TOWNSVILLE 


12 

AM Shelfie (3D Printing) 

BajTech (3D Printing) 

Comit Platforms (Mobile App) 

Experimental Unicorns (Software) 

JESI (Mobile App) 

NQ UAV (Drones) 

OzApps (Mobile App) 

SafetyCulture (Mobile App) 

Second to none Nutrition (eCommerce) 

Skydronics (Drones) 

WotsLocal (Marketplace) 

Wow Factor (Mobile App) 

POPULATION 



192K $11.5B $6.7M 


TOP 5 MARKETS 


Safety 

Manufacturing 

Agriculture 


Other 


Townsville hosts a significant number of 

government, community and major business 

offices, and its economy has displayed strong and 

stable performance over the past decade. It has 

a diverse industry base in which no one sector 

contributes more than 17.6% to GRP. 

Still in its relative infancy, a number of 

community driven activities have boosted 

community engagement and participation 

throughout the startup ecosystem. Townsville 

Startups Meetup has over 130 members, and 

have run 10 events over the past year, including 

a Startup Weekend, a Mentor Blaze session, 

and guest talks from Steve Baxter (River City 

Labs) and Wayne Gerard (Red Eye Apps). 

Townsville has the added benefit of having the 

headquarters of James Cook University (JCU), 

the second oldest university in Queensland 

and recognised in the top 4% of universities 

worldwide. In particular, the eResearch Centre 

is leading the way in mining open tropical 

data, web collaboration, sensor networking, 

high performance computing, and software 

development. 

It is estimated that the 12 startups operating 

out of Townsville were employing 80+ people. 


centrality ranking are as follows; Luke Anear 

(Founder), Joe Hoolahan (Founder), John 

Williams (State Govt) Ian Atkinson (University), 

Richard Sazima (meetup), Stuart King (Founder), 

David Beitey (Founder), David Cole (Founder), 

Greg Bruce (Local Govt) and Jayant Varma 

(Founder). 


entities that play an important role in the 

Townsville ecosystem include; Code Valley 

(Established Tech), Sister City Partners (Funding), 

DEC-MECH (Established Tech), Blackbird 

Ventures (Funding), NFA Innovation (Established 

Tech), Department of Science, Information 

Technology and Innovation (State Govt), 

Townsville ICT Business Network (Support), 

James Cook University (Education), CSIRO 

(Support) and Startup Townsville (Support). 




Townsville Startup Meetup, Startup Weekend, 

Mentor Blaze, RoboCup, Townsville ICT 

Business Network, NQ IT Conference and Startup 

Apprentice. 


Townsville participants expressed a major issue 

with the lack of funding options available in the 

local area, with the majority of funding coming 

from major cities. Access to talent was a large 

impediment to the growth of the ecosystem, 

with talent attraction proving especially difficult. 

Increasing collaboration and networking was 

especially hard without a central venue for the 

startup community to co-exist. The poor local 

perception of technology and lack of education 

of the community was seen as a hurdle to future 

success. 

Participants outlined that the NBN rollout was a 

critical factor to the success of local companies, 

and being one of the first regional cities to get 

NBN coverage was a drawcard for tech talent. 

The creation of a local angel network was seen as 

key to increase the number of tech startups in the 

region. The identification and opening of a 

co-working hub was a vital action that was needed 

to build the ecosystem. 

ISSUES TOP 5 


Funding 



Culture 

ACTIONS TOP 5 






23% 

23% 

18% 

18% 

18% 

33% 

24% 

22% 

18% 

4% 

27

CAIRNS 

Cairns startups [white], established 

tech companies [pink], related 

companies [red], along with 

their founders and employees 

[blue]. Links show professional 

relationships via Linkedin. 

Dean Matejcek 

Chris McKinley 

Sheridan Lindée 

Julia Stark 

Nathan Brittain 

Abhi Beckert 

Precedence 


Michael Abdoo 

Joyce Mar 

Benjamin Norris 

Kaj Haffenden 

Rebecca Silcock 

APRA Amcos 

Nicky Jurd 

2bit Studios 

Thomas Wright 

Adam Young 

Leonie O'Connor 

Sam Dorahy 

Sidney de Vries 

Tyson Clarke 

Voista 

Andrew Joy 

Why Not Tours 

Matthew Joy 

Andrew Bills 

Droner 

Tom Watson 

Insta Connect 

Snipe 

Andrew Johnston 

HoverCam 

Elise Warring 

Ji Shen 

tourstogo.com 


Focuss 

Symon Pritchett 

Kristie Partington 

ESRI 

Didgigo 

Robert Buhrke 

Emmy Kerrigan 

Luke Bermingham 

Andrew Hayes 

Renee Cassels 


Bets With 

Friends 

John Mlikota 

The Australian Small 

Scale Offerings Board 

Brett Bundock 

Dynamic 

Conversations 

Matt McKinley 

Shilpa Pahuja 

John Hamilton 

Cairns Regional 

Investment Group 

Carol Hautot 

Koolivoo 

Adam Williams 

The Ultimate To Do List 

Chris McKinley 

Glen Rice 

Sam Leo 

Anthony Dukes 

Sakure 

TenderHound 

Werner Sandner 

Dieter Bohm 

Thought Select 

Krystal King 

Mr Cameron Jeffrey 

Jane Polak Scowcroft 

CatchLog 

Roy Wybrow 

Adam Wolfs 

Stefan Aeberhard 

Leah Stevenson 

Jo Jones Laifoo 

Jessica Conway 


Gray Bowen 

Nick Loukas 

Anthony Mirotsos 

Jess Rea 

Mark Glann 

Tim Osmond 

Morag Goodinson 

Rhonda Arndt 

Brad McCulloch 

inCapital 

Damian Zammit 

Troy Haines 

iAMConnected 


Zach Lockhard 

Dani Brewster 

Varun Chauhan 

Christine Reizner 

Mark Matthews 

Advance Cairns 

SamTheWaiter 

Jordan Murphy 

UAView 

Quentin Miller 

Emma Geerlings 

Peppi Iovannella 

Lee Bain 

Takor Group 

Alistair Hart 

Kim Kelly 

Dale Edney 


Isabelle Fabio 

Mogtastic 

Emma Walker 

Pete Burns 

I Want that Course 

Daniel Lundh 

OrbStudio 

Matt Hanson 


Karen Ross 

Cassie Horsley 

Elliot Strickland 

My Footy 

Boots 


Layla Valinoti 

Todd Evans 

Erick Zegeer 

Rebecca Moss 

Richard Burns 

Lynne-Maree 

Fitzpatrick 

Inspection 

Apps 

HelloClaims 

Stevie Rollinson 

MyPool Inspection 


ShareStuff 

George Corea 

Jillian Dean 

ResPax 

Simon Frost 

Simon lenoir 

Darren Barden 

nupath 

Konveen 


Kelly Maclellan 

AUFO 

Hongbin Liu 

Natalie Kerslake 


George Chandeep Corea 

Brian Dean 

Cassie Horsley 

Sally Vaughan 

INSPECTION APPS 

Startup 

KONVEEN 

Startup 

Inspection Apps is a Multi-Award winning software product that 

provides a software solution for business, government, councils, 

real estate, building inspectors, mining, OH&S inspectors and many 

more. 

Inspection Apps provides cloud-based inspection management 

software, which replicates paper-based checklists, and helps users to 

use iPhones, iPads or iPad Minis to record inspection data, capture 

defects and take photographs. Inspection Apps allows users to have 

multiple inspection types within the one app, and each inspection 

type can have a unique combination of checklist questions. 

Konveen is an enterprise meeting platform that brings consistency 

and structure to the way organisations plan and document their 

meetings. Konveen aims to prevent unproductive meetings by helping 

employees achieve their goals sooner by giving them the framework 

to run better meetings. Konveen offers a consistent and measurable 

approach to running and recording meetings, leading to less wasted 

time, and actionable insights into the cost and outcomes of meetings. 

Konveen was a recipient of funding from Cairns Regional Council as 

winners of a pitch competition in 2014. 

28

CAIRNS 


31 

2 bit Studios (Game Studio) 

AUFO (Drones) 

Bets With Friends (Mobile App) 

Catch Log Trading (Analytics) 

Didgigo (Content Creation) 

Drink Tracker (Mobile App) 

Droner (Drones) 

Dynamic Conversations (Marketplace) 

Focuss (unknown) 

HelloClaims (Insurance) 

I Want That Course (Marketplace) 

iAMConnected (Collaboration) 

Inspection Apps (Mobile App) 

InstaConnect (IOT) 

Konveen (Communication) 

Mogtastic (Game Studio) 

My Footy Boots (Marketplace) 

Nupath (Education) 

Orb Studio (Game Studio) 

Pak Yak (Mobile App) 

Relocations to Go (Marketplace) 

Sakure (Desktop App) 

Sam the Waiter (Mobile App) 

ShareStuff (Marketplace) 

Snipe (Productivity) 

TenderHound (Collaboration) 

ThermaCulture (IOT) 

ThoughtSelect (Mobile App) 

UAVIEW (Drones) 

Voista (Software) 

Why Not Tours (Marketplace) 

POPULATION 


3.4% of Queensland 57 2.7% of Queensland 56 13% Regional Queensland 

159K $7.6B $1.4M 


TOP 5 MARKETS 

Professional Services 

Agriculture 


Tourism 


Other 


Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef are a 

unique environment, renowned nationally and 

internationally as a premier tourism destination. 

The region attracts more than 2 million domestic 

and international visitors each year, contributing 

over $2.6 billion dollars to the local economy. As 

a result, Cairns has a large transient population 

that adds to the complexity of the establishment 

of a robust tech ecosystem. 

Cairns is emerging as a strong digital technology 

hub. Cairns has a higher density of startups per 

capita than South East Queensland. Yet local 

startups haven’t raised anywhere near as much 

money. Most technology startups are based out 

of the CBD, and a number benefit from support 

from centres like theSpace co-working hub. The 

startup scene in Cairns spans multiple sectors, 

including education and agriculture. A number 

of tourism and construction startups exist in 

Cairns, alongside a growing professional services 

sector. The Cairns Regional Investment Group is 

currently developing a network of angel investors 

with a focus on Cairns and regional opportunities. 

It is estimated that the 31 startups operating out of 

Cairns were employing 120+ people. A selection 

of notable persons identified in a centrality 

ranking are as follows; Troy Haines (Coworking), 

Damian Zammit (Coworking), Steven Hambleton 

(Founder), Andrew Joy (Founder), Daniel Lundh 

(Founder), Nathaniel Armer (Founder), John 

Milkota (Funding), Matthew Hanson (Founder), 

Daryl Postgate (Founder), Matt McKinley 

(Founder), Robert Buhrke (Funding) and Roy 

Wybrow (University). 


entities that play an important role in the Cairns 

ecosystem include; ResPax (Software), Koolivoo 

(Software), Iceberg Innovation (Funding), Cairns 

Regional Investment Group (Funding), James 

Cook University (Education), Digital Cairns 

(Support), Dive into Digital (Support) and 

PiDataConsulting (App Development). 




Cairns Startup & Entrepreneurs Meetup, Startup 

Weekend, Mentor Blaze, Dive into Digital, Startup 

Lab, Silicon Beach Cairns, Pitch Night and 

FunGIS. 


Cairns participants expressed a major issue with 

the lack of a large physical space being a hurdle 

for startups, in addition to a low risk appetite 

among entrepreneurs, legislators and investors. 

The attraction of talent to the region was also seen 

as a problem, and retaining talent in an area with 

a large transient population was seen as a major 

barrier to the growth of the ecosystem. 

Participants suggested that the development of 

a local tech campus including coworking spaces 

supported by levels of government would provide 

the infrastructure needed to firmly establish a 

robust tech ecosystem. The Cairns Innovation 

Centre, announced in July 2015 and expected to 

launch in 2017 could address some of these needs. 

Engaging early with local graduate software 

developers was seen as a way to retain local 

talent. A highly innovative solution was to enter 

into negotiation with one of Cairns’ seven global 

sister cities for a seamless flow of tech talent. 

ISSUES TOP 5 


Culture 



Funding 

ACTIONS TOP 5 



Startup Apprentice 

Govt Provide Supportive Role 


29% 

29% 

16% 

11% 

10% 

25% 

21.67% 

16.67% 

13.33% 

10% 

29

COMPANY STAGES 

Tallinn, Estonia 

South East Queensland 

Regional Queensland 

This diagram compares the progressive 

distribution of startups by estimated staff 

size between Regional Queensland, South 

East Queensland (as of 2014) and Tallinn, 

Estonia (home of Skype). The diagram shows 

people ‘interested’ in entrepreneurship, those 

that actually found Startups, and through to 

growing and mature technology companies. 

Developing high growth technology 

companies is a high risk endeavour with only 

a small proportion of companies achieving 

the growth required to move to the next stage. 

Approximately 90% of bootstrapped or angelfunded 

companies fail, and between 30% to 

40% of venture backed companies fail. Even 

fewer technology companies grow beyond 

$1 billion in revenue, or reach a $1 billion 

21 22 

valuation - less than 0.1% for either. 

431 

220 

65 

SEED STAGE 


Staff size 

1-5 

154 

30 

11 

EARLY STAGE 


Staff size 

5-30 

23 

15 

1 

GROWTH STAGE 

TECH CO 

Staff size 

30-100 

3 

1 

0 

LATER STAGE 

TECH CO 

Staff size 

100-500 

2 

1 

0 

UNICORNS 

Staff size 

500+ 

2bit Studios 

oTrain 

SafetyCulture 

1500 

1000 

400 

POTENTIAL FOUNDERS 

20% 

Portion of people interested in 

entrepreneurship who start a company. 

30

ANGEL & STARTUP DENSITY 

Source: AngelList, CrunchBase and Boundlss research. Note smaller ratios are better. 

CITY (POPULATION) 

Boulder Colorado (105,000) 

Bend, Oregon (79,000) 

Burlington, Vermont (43,000) 

Tallinn, Estonia (400,000) 

Lehi, Utah (49,000) 

Brighton, UK (155,000) 

Cairns (158,000) 

ANGEL DENSITY 

STARTUP DENSITY 

This diagram examines Startup Density (the 

number of people in a region per startup), and 

Angel Density (the number of people in a region 

per angel investor). Note that smaller ratios 

are better, such as Bend Oregon which has 

approximately 1 angel investor per 5,000 people, 

compared to the Regional Queensland Average 

which is approximately 1 angel investor per 

150,000 people. The diagram compares the seven 

regions in this report with nine comparatively sized 

regional cities in the US and Europe that have 

developed strong technology hubs. 

In 2015, entrepreneurs in smaller cities across 

the world have plenty of opportunity thanks 

to advances in technology that weren’t readily 

available five years ago. The proliferation of 

open-source tools and cloud computing has made 

it possible to start a fast-growth company from 

virtually anywhere. In todays economy, innovation 

is critical and operating within a cluster shortens 

the time required to identify, resource, and realise 

areas of need and opportunity. 23 

Eindhoven, Netherlands (216,000) 

Oulu, Finland (190,000) 

Reykjavik, Iceland (400,000) 

SEQ Average (2,500,000) 

RQ Average (1,006,000) 

Rockhampton (85,000) 

Toowoomba (162,000) 

Mackay (123,000) 

Townsville (192,000) 

Bundaberg (94,000) 

Ipswich (190,000) 

200K 175K 125K 100K 75K 25K 0 5K 10K 15K 20K 25K 30K 35K 40K 

Number of people per angel investor 

Number of people per startup 

31

GLOBAL COMPARISONS 

TALLINN, ESTONIA 

Population: 400,000 

OULU, FINLAND 


ACTIVE USERS 

300M+ 

RAISED 

$10.2M 

VALUATION 

$1B+ 

RAISED 

$17.5M 

EMPLOYEES 

96 

INSTALLS 

400M+ 

Estonia is the 132nd smallest country in the 

world by land mass yet it produces more 

startups per head of population than any other 

country in Europe. It has a population the size 

of Copenhagen but has one of the world’s most 

advanced e-governments. 24 

Within Estonia all children are taught to code 

until 16. In 2000, its government deemed internet 

access a basic human right and free Wi-Fi became 

the norm throughout the land. 

It was the first country to offer voting for general 

elections online and most Estonians file their 

taxes within minutes on their mobile phones. 

Their health records are stored in a digital cloud. 

Estonia is said to have the world’s most digitised 

government. 25 

In August 2003, six people from Estonia, Sweden 

and Denmark launched a new product in Tallinn. 

On its first day, 10,000 people downloaded it. A 

few months later, it had a million users. Ten years 

later, it is used by 300 million people around the 

world. The product is called Skype. 

It is difficult to overestimate the snowball effect 

Skype has had on Tallinn. “You need a local 

success story to legitimise creating startups as a 

viable business,” said Taavet Hinrikus, founder of 

TransferWise, a currency-exchange service. 26 

Skype also provided many young Estonian 

programmers and software developers with share 

options from the start — which meant that when 

Skype was sold to eBay in 2005 for $USD 2.5 

billion, many gained seed capital to start on their 

own companies. According to Sten Tamkivi, early 

employee with Skype, 36 people from Skype have 

since founded their own business since leaving the 

company 26 , most notable TransferWise, currently 

valued at over $USD 1 billion. 

Oulu was selected in the list of Fortune’s ‘7 Best 

New Global Cities for Startups’ in 2012. The 

Oulu region creates the most innovations per 

capita in Finland based on statistics from the 

Foundation for Finnish Inventions. 27 

In total, there are about 400 internationally 

scalable startup-companies founded in the Oulu 

region. The years 1995-2010 were extremely 

successful for sowing the seeds of a startup 

ecosystem in Oulu as Nokia invested heavily into 

the region through R&D investments to create a 

truly world-class engineering talent pool. 28 

32

BOULDER, COLORADO 


BEND, OREGON 


EINDHOVEN, NETHERLANDS 


RAISED 

$4.7M 

RAISED 

$91M 

GLOBAL PROGRAMS 

11 

INVESTMENTS 

497+ 

RAISED 

$24M 

RAISED 

$20M 

RAISED 

$110M 

Well known as a global tech hub, in 2010, 

Boulder had six times more high-tech startups 

per capita than the nation’s average, according 

to an August 2013 study by the Kauffman 

Foundation and twice as many per capita as 

runner-up San Jose-Sunnyvale in California. 29 

This vibrant culture has given Boulder a 

prosperous economy. Without the help of oil, 

natural gas, or any monolithic industry, Boulder 

ranks among the top 20 most productive metro 

areas in the USA in terms of GDP. It is the home 

to three startup incubators including Techstars, 

and a healthy angel investor and venture capital 

community. 30 

A real world example of kickstarting a cluster 

is underway in Bend, Oregon. Dino Vendetti, a 

former Bay Partners general partner (a venture 

capital firm), moved up to Bend on a mission to 

consciously engineer an entrepreneurial cluster in 

a regional city to spur economic development and 

job creation. 

Steve Blank eloquently summarises 

Dino’s strategy to encourage and engineer 

entrepreneurial density. 18 

• Leverage the local university to produce 

STEM talent and in particular computer 

science 

• Lobby for direct flights to major markets 

• Develop local early stage risk capital 

• Invest in connection via local entrepreneur 

events and startup schools 

• Harness local business community support 

Eindhoven is hands-down the most inventive city 

in the world based on one of the most commonly 

used metrics for mapping the geography of 

innovation- “patent intensity.” 

Eindhoven produces patents at the rate of 22 for 

every 10,000 residents, which far outpaces the 

second place for most inventive city, San Diego 

(8.9 patents per 10,000 residents). 31 

Its High Tech Campus houses more than 10,000 

researchers, developers, and engineers from 

around 125 companies, all working to develop 

new technologies and products. Its most popular 

startup accelerator, the Startupbootcamp, is 

the biggest in Europe with a fund size of €100 

million. 31 

33

STEM TALENT FLOW 

A continued theme arising from regional workshops and interviews was the issue of talent flow: talent acquisition, talent retention and talent inflow (rated as 

the number one issue in four of the seven regions). 

TALENT RETENTION & ACQUISITION 

Regional Queensland is currently suffering from 

a chicken and egg challenge. Without a critical 

mass of established and startup technology 

companies, there is little draw for talent to 

move there, and without enough talent moving 

into the region, it is hard to build scalable tech 

companies. 

Research suggests that almost every successful 

global tech cluster has a local technical 

university. 18 This provides a continued source of 

local technical talent and research. It’s extremely 

difficult to import enough talent to fuel a rapidly 

growing tech cluster, so a university is critical to 

organically generate and retain talent within the 

region. STEM degrees are particularly critical as 

they train the pool of technical talent needed to 

drive the formation of local technology clusters. 

Queensland holds roughly 20% of the jobs in 

Australia, but only 13% (12,000) of the Software 

and Applications Programmers, with 40% 

(35,000) of Australia’s programming talent being 

found in New South Wales. There are currently 

88,200 Software and Applications Programmers 

employed across Australia. 32 

Internationally, the Australian Consulate-General 

in San Francisco has estimated that more than 

22,000 Australians are currently working in tech 

centres along the west coast of the US. 33 

Whilst this figure can be portrayed as alarming 

and severely impacting the growth of the local 

tech ecosystems, it is worth noting that the 

exodus of Australian tech talent is also being 

trained and learning from some of the best 

organisations and entrepreneurs globally. 

The key is to get them to eventually return and 

start businesses in Australia. 

Attracting talent to move back into the region 

after a time away may represent the very best 

chance of building a sustainable regional startup 

ecosystem. 

UNIVERSITY TALENT 

Based on 2014 figures on all students at 

higher education institutions, Queensland has 

approximately 50,000 students studying a STEM 

degree, 18% of the Australian STEM student 

numbers (consistent with Queensland’s portion 

of the Australian population). 

Of these 50,000 Queensland students, the three 

major regional Universities * , had 15,256 (29%) 

students enrolled in STEM degrees, or 5% of 

Australia’s STEM total in 2014. 

Drilling down further, these same three 

universities produce roughly 40% of 

Queensland’s ICT graduates, 32% of 

Engineering graduates and 22% of Natural and 

Physical Science graduates. 34 

Yet the figures do not add up when we compare 

startup formation rates, venture capital fund 

flow, and total number employed in the industry. 

While STEM graduates from RQ universities 

are high compared to national figures, this 

has not led to a comparably high number of 

technology companies being formed. This leads 

to the assumption that local STEM graduates are 

leaving Regional Queensland for capital cities 

or are international students returning home. 

The analysis of the location of STEM graduates 

on page 36 of the report seems to support this 

assumption. 

* 

The three major regional universities are: 

James Cook University (JCU) 

Central Queensland University (CQU) 

University of Southern Queensland (USQ) 

STEM 

The importance of STEM disciplines for the 

future economic and social well-being of 

Regional Queensland cannot be underestimated. 

International research indicates that 75% of the 

fastest growing occupations require STEM skills 

and knowledge and yet, Australia trains fewer 

people with IT skills today than it did 10 years 

ago. IT enrolments have dropped about 55% in 

that time. 35 

The 2011 Australian Census reported that 

47% of all workers who studied information 

technology courses work in other occupations. 

These span a range of positions including 

advertisers, marketers, engineers, accountants, 

bookkeepers and other professionals. 36 

Modelling by PwC shows that if Australia were 

to develop a STEM workforce in line with other 

leading STEM countries, it would generate, in 

present value terms, an additional $57.4 billion 

in GDP over the next 20 years. 37 

STATE PORTIONS OF AUS STEM STUDENTS 

Victoria 

New South Wales 

Queensland 

Western Australia 

South Australia 

Australian Capital Territory 

Tasmania 

Northern Territory 

29% 

29% 

18% 

12% 

6% 

3% 

2% 

1% 

RQ UNI. PORTION OF ALL QLD’S CURRENT STEM STUDENTS 

Central 

Queensland 

University 

James Cook 

University 

University of 

Southern 

Queensland 

0% 5% 10% 15% 

20% 

Engineering & Related Technologies 


Agriculture, Environmental & Related Studies 

Natural & Physical Sciences 

34

“ STARTUPS BEGET STARTUPS. 

PEOPLE WHO WORK FOR 

STARTUPS START THEIR OWN. 

PEOPLE WHO GET RICH FROM 

STARTUPS FUND NEW ONES. 

I SUSPECT THIS KIND OF ORGANIC 

GROWTH IS THE ONLY WAY 

TO PRODUCE A STARTUP HUB, 

BECAUSE IT’S THE ONLY WAY 

TO GROW THE EXPERTISE YOU 

NEED.” 38 

PAUL GRAHAM 

FOUNDER, YCOMBINATOR

STEM TALENT FLOW MAP 

To track the flow of technology talent 

leaving Regional Queensland, we used 

Linkedin to identify the current location 

of individuals that had studied a STEM 

degree at one of the three regional 

universities in Queensland. 

36

STEM Graduates From 

James Cook University (~8k) 

University of Central Queensland (~4k) 

University of Southern Queensland (~2k) 

37

MEETUPS & EVENTS 

Meetups 

Events 

25 

20 

15 

10 

5 

0 

Cairns Townsville Mackay Rockhampton Bundaberg Ipswich 

Toowoomba 

MEETUP GROUPS 

16+ 

Estimated number of regular 

startup related Meetup Groups. 

STARTUP WEEKENDS 

6Number of Startup Weekends 

across Regional Queensland. 

EVENTS 

55+ 

Estimated number of startup 

related events per annum. 

Meetup Groups & Community Events 

Our research identifed approximately 16 

meetup or community groups across Regional 

Queensland related to startups, technology and 

entrepreneurship. These are informal groups that 

generally meet on a monthly basis. By way of 

comparison we identified a total of 110 startup 

related meetup groups in South East Queensland 

in the 2009 to 2014 period. 

A common theme emanating from participants 

in the project was that a lack of networking and 

collaboration opportunities was a major inhibitor 

to the growth of a local ecosystem, with many 

silos developing as a result. 

Any regional entrepreneurial community 

must be active and involved in supporting the 

growth of new startups in the region. Part of 

this activity must include events geared towards 

entrepreneurial education to help build local 

entrepreneurial expertise. 

Local events like ilab’s Mentor Blaze and Startup 

Weekend help train and motivate entrepreneurs. 

Other important community events, including 

networking sessions, informal meetups, and 

events like Hackathons and RoboCups help 

entrepreneurs connect with each other and 

develop new collaborations. 


Toowoomba, Cairns, Tablelands, Townsville 

Startup Weekends are 54-hour events where 

tech talent come together to share ideas, form 

teams, build products and launch startups. Startup 

Weekends have been held in Toowoomba, 

Townsville, Cairns (x2), Atherton Tablelands 

(Cairns) and Mackay. 

Startup Weekends were perceived by participants 

involved in this project as critical events to help 

establish and build tech ecosystems. 

“The amount of interest that’s been generated 

as a result of just doing that one weekend is 

astounding. There’s a lot more people who 

are now interested in tapping into it, not just 

from a startup perspective, but also from the 

business development and the mentoring and the 

investment side of the ecosystem.” 

John Williams, DSITI, Townsville 

Rowes Bay Sensory Sprint Day 

Townsville 

The Rowes Bay Sensor Network Sprint sees four 

teams tackle separate physical environments at 

the Rowes Bay Sustainability Education Centre. 

The JCU Robo Club teamed up with JCU 

eResearch and the Townsville City Council to 

form this challenge. 

Four teams are assigned a separate environment, 

with each expected to develop an Internet 

of Things (IoT) solution to monitor that 

environment. Teams must develop a solution that 

gathers data, pushes it to the web, processes it, 

and aesthetically displays the results to a web 

page, all within one day. 

38

CENTRALITY 

PEOPLE 

30 Most Central People Ranked by > 

ORGANISATIONS & EVENTS 

30 Most Central Organisations & Events Ranked by > 

Rank Votes Eigenvector Votes Eigenvector 

1 Chris Harris (Rockhampton) John Williams theSpace (Cairns) Code Valley 

2 Luke Anear (Townsville) Roy Wybrow CQU (Rockhampton) SafetyCulture 

3 Joe Hoolahan (Townsville) Andrew Joy JCU (Townsville) IBM Australia 

4 Andrew Beckenhauer (Bundaberg) Ian Atkinson Best Practice Software (Bundaberg) 2bit Studios 

5 Richard Chappell (Rockhampton) Anna Daniel Fire Station101 (Ipswich) Osmotion 

6 Neil McPhillips (Bundaberg) Derel Wust Sister City Partners (Townsville) JESI 

7 Warwick Powell (Brisbane) Alistair Hart 2bit Studios (Cairns) I Want that Course 

8 Matthew Schultz (Ipswich) Chris Woods Carbon Link (Rockhampton) CatchLog 

9 David Masefield (Toowoomba) Greg Bruce Iceberg Innovation (Cairns) Experimental Unicorns 

10 Greg Bruce (Townsville) Benjamin Taylor Microair (Bundaberg) Oz Apps 

11 Damian Zammit (Cairns) Bronwyn Voyce Wide Bay Volunteers (Bundaberg) SaferData 

12 Ben Taylor (Bundaberg) Russell Savage iLab (Brisbane) LogiCamms 

13 Frank Pyefinch (Bundaberg) Christine Bell Koolivoo (Cairns) ESRI 

14 Jason Foss (Rockhampton) Blake Pelling BigMate (Mackay) D2K 

15 John McClean (Bundaberg) Luke Anear Gilmour Space Corp (Bundaberg) Thales 

16 Steve Baxter (Brisbane) Mark Matthews Kadence Group (Mackay) Strategenics 

17 Dale Edney (Cairns) Stephen Dummett Startup Toowoomba (Toowoomba) Raytheon 

18 Darren Cooke (Mackay) Kristy Gostelow Startup Townsville (Townsville) Department of Health 

19 Daryl Postgate (Cairns) Joe Hoolahan Dive into Digital (Cairns) ThomsonAdsett 

21 Jack Millbank (Bundaberg) Damian Zammit Commercialisation Australia Best Practice Software 

21 Paul Pisasale (Ipswich) Leanne Griffin Inspection Apps (Cairns) Minstaff Survey 

22 Robert Buhrke (Cairns) Ricardo (Richard) Sazima Konveen (Cairns) Koolivoo 

23 Russell Savage (Townsville) Matthew Schultz SafetyCulture (Townsville) 4tel 

24 Steven Hambleton (Cairns) Darryl Postgate JESI (Townsville) BigMate 

25 Troy Haines (Cairns) Terry McCosker River City Labs (Brisbane) AgData Australia 

26 David Cole (Townsville) Paul Wyatt MacDonnells Law (Cairns) Hortus 

27 Ian Atkinson (Townsville) Dennis Murphy Startup Mackay (Mackay) Acubis 

28 Jodie Stanley (Mackay) John Mlikota Future Now (Townsville) Agri Labour Australia 

29 Leanne Griffin (Toowoomba) Chris Mills ThermaCulture (Cairns) Polaris Data Centre 

30 Richard Sazima (Townsville) Joy Taylor Strictly Service (Mackay) Microair 

METHODOLOGY 

Network centrality is a measure of the density 

of a person or organisation’s interconnectedness 

with a network and its relationships. It is a strong 

factor in entrepreneurial success. 

As part of the project, we held seven workshops, 

one in each region, with 100+ key members of 

the ecosystem. Participants were asked to map 

the local community and vote on the key people, 

organisations and events in the ecosystem. The 

two columns above, labelled Votes, display the 

community votes ranked accordingly across the 

seven regions. 

In addition, the relationships between people 

within the startup ecosystem on LinkedIn were 

aggregated and analysed using an algorithm to 

calculate a network centrality score for all the 

nodes in the network. There are several measures 

of centrality. This report uses a common measure 

of network centrality - Eigenvector - to identify 

the top 30 people and organisations. 

39

MARKET FOCUS 

TARGET MARKET OF STARTUPS COMPARED TO TOP 20 QUEENSLAND INDUSTRIES 

Construction 

Mining 

Ownership of Dwellings 

Health Care and Social Assistance 

Manufacturing 

Finance and Insurance Services 

Public Adminstration and Safety 

Professional, Scientific and Technical Services 

Transport, Postal and Warehousing 

Retail Trade 

Education and Training 

Wholesale Trade 

Electricity, Gas, Water and Waste Services 

Rental and Real Estate Services 

Agriculture 

Administrative Services 

Accommodation and Food Services 

Other Services 

Communication 

Art and Recreational Services 

14% 

12% 10% 8% 6% 4% 2% 

0 

2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 

Percentage of Startups 

targeting industry 2015 

Approx. Percentage of Qld GSP 

from industry 2013-2014 39 

40

TECHNOLOGY STRENGTHS 

NUMBER OF 

STARTUPS BY TARGET 

MARKET AND 

PRODUCT TYPE 

AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY, FISHING AND HUNTING 

INFORMATION MEDIA AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS 

ARTS AND RECREATION SERVICES 

EDUCATION AND TRAINING 

ENTERTAINMENT, TOURISM & SPORT 

PROFESSIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL SERVICES 

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND SAFETY 

RETAIL TRADE 

COMMUNICATION 

marketplace 2 3 1 1 1 3 1 1 13 15% 

mobile app 1 2 3 2 1 1 10 12% 

drones + gis 4 1 2 1 8 10% 

hardware + web 4 1 1 6 7% 

desktop app 2 1 1 4 5% 

infrastructure 1 1 1 1 1 5 6% 

other 1 1 2 4 5% 

3D printing 3 3 4% 

collaboration 1 2 3 4% 

communication 3 3 4% 

content creation 1 1 1 3 4% 

education 2 2 4 5% 

game 2 1 3 4% 

productivity 1 1 2 1 5 6% 

customer relationship 1 1 2 2% 

ecommerce 1 1 2 2% 

big data 1 1 1% 

electronics 1 1 1% 

location 1 1 1% 

recommendations 1 1 1% 

transportation 1 1 1% 

video 1 1 1% 

CONSTRUCTION 

MANUFACTURING 

ACCOMMODATION AND FOOD SERVICES 

ADMINISTRATIVE AND SUPPORT SERVICES 

ENERGY, MINING & RESOURCES 

HEALTH CARE AND SOCIAL ASSISTANCE 

TRANSPORT, POSTAL AND WAREHOUSING 

FINANCE AND INSURANCE SERVICES 

HEALTH & MEDICAL 

INFRASTRUCTURE & BUILDING 

RENTAL, HIRING AND REAL ESTATE SERVICES 

TOTAL (COUNT) 

TOTAL (%) 

TOTAL (Count) 13 8 8 7 5 8 5 5 4 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 2 

Total (%) 15% 10% 10% 8% 6% 10% 6% 6% 5% 4% 4% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2% 1% 1% 1% 2% 

41

SPOTLIGHT - AGTECH 

NO. AGTECH STARTUPS 

19+ 

Queensland’s Agriculture Sector 

Queensland’s agriculture, fisheries and forestry 

industries have an estimated production value of 

$14.7 billion, Queensland’s second biggest export 

earner. The sector directly employs over 90,000 

people and earns over $8.9 billion in exports. 40 

More than 90% of Queensland’s footprint is under 

some form of primary production. 

In Queensland, it is estimated that approximately 

88% of the jobs in agriculture and 53% of the 

jobs in food processing industries are regionally 

based. These jobs and the economic contribution 

they provide are the backbone of many rural and 

regional communities in Queensland. An estimated 

320,000 Queenslanders are employed across the 

whole food supply chain. This means that one in 

seven Queenslanders are either partially or entirely 

supported by the Agriculture sector. 41 

QLD AG EXPORTS BREAKDOWN 

Livestock 

products 5% 

Total 

slaughterings 

46% 

Other 1% 

Peanuts & oil seeds 0% 

Unless agriculture providers have a distinct 

export focus, a national problem is that there is 

very limited scope for growth. The population 

of Australia simply doesn’t support exponential 

growth - Jack Millbank, CEO, Hortus 

INCREASING DEMAND 

The global population is projected to reach 9 

billion by 2050. The increase in demand for 

agricultural produce is expected to rise by 70%, 

with the majority of this coming from the emerging 

middle class in Asia. Current growth rates in 

agriculture are simply not sufficient to meet these 

challenges. 39 

CEREAL CROP PRODUCTION (tonnes) 

Source: Farming First Green Economy 41 

5bn 

4bn 

3bn 

2bn 

1bn 

Oceania 

Europe 

Sugar cane 11% 

Cereals for grain 7% 

Fruit & nuts 10% 

Vegetables 9% 

Cotton 7% 

Crops for hay 1% 

Nurseries, flowers & turf 3% 

Asia 

Latin America 

predicted 

1961 70 80 90 2000 09 2050 

North America 

Africa 

NO. AGTECH COMPANIES 

29+ 

Digital Farms & Funding 

Agriculture is in the middle of a digital revolution. 

The benefits of converging the digital and physical 

worlds are too valuable to ignore. In the not-sodistant 

future, constant connection between people, 

companies and products, in real-time, will be the 

norm. 42 

A rising tide of Australian and international reports 

have identified advances in agricultural technology 

as the key to long-term productivity gains. 

According to AgFunder’s AgTech Investing report, 

2014 AgTech funding had a record breaking 

year in the USA with $USD 2.36 billion raised 

across 264 financing deals. 43 This figure surpassed 

well-known sectors like fintech ($2.1 billion) 

and cleantech ($2 billion) and was 40% higher 

than the entire Australian venture and private 

equity investments over the same period across all 

industries. 2015 funding is expected to be $USD 

4.1 billion. 

GLOBAL AGTECH FUNDING 2010-2015 

Source: AgFunder Mid Year Report 44 $4.1 

Funding ($USD billions) 

Projected Funding 

$2.4 

$0.4 

$0.5 

$0.5 

$0.9 

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 

From precision agriculture to biotech and drones, 

venture capitalists are actively investing in 

companies set on revolutionising how we grow, 

produce, and distribute food around the world. 43 

Source: AgFunder Mid Year Report 44 

United States 

Israel 

China 

India 

United Kingdom 

Canada 

Sweden 

France 

Germany 

Switzerland 

$1028M 

$510M 

$155M 

$111M 

$85M 

$35M 

$27M 

$24M 

$23M 

$22M 

Notably absent from the AgFunder’s data is 

Australia. AgFunder states that “whilst Australia 

has a large agriculture industry, we are not seeing 

much AgTech activity at all.” 42 

NO. QLD FARMS 

28,000+ 

Queensland’s AgTech 

Regional Queensland has developed worldclass 

AgTech research capabilities with its 

universities and city-level clusters of agricultural 

expertise, such as robotics in Toowoomba, beef in 

Rockhampton or sugar in Mackay. 

Given the overall entrepreneurial AgTech activity 

in the region and the large number of significant 

multinational players, Regional Queensland can be 

a powerful influence in driving the growth of an 

Australian AgTech ecosystem and is ideally placed 

to supply growing demand and contribute to global 

food security. 

QLD AG TECH TYPES 

Drones 

Sensors 

Big Data 

Robotics 

Labour Hire 

Across Regional Queensland, advances in drones, 

robotics, and the Internet of Things, are helping 

regional entrepreneurs establish innovative new 

companies. Cloud computing and big data analysis 

are being utilised to help make sense of the vast 

amounts of agricultural data now able to be 

collected by these sensors. 

Organisations such as CSIRO and James Cook 

University are running a Digital Homestead 44 

project near Townsville that aims to evaluate 

and demonstrate technologies that enable better 

decision making on farms, leading to improved 

productivity and profitability. 

Nevertheless, there does not exist a strong 

regional AgTech identity. Various regions claim 

sole ownership of the “regional” or “tropical” 

identity and competition between regions and a 

narrowness of vision (only looking within the 

immediate region’s borders for beneficial economic 

opportunities) prevent larger inter-regional 

projects. Regional collaboration is needed to build 

a truly global AgTech brand. 

It is interesting to note that Sydney based 

accelerator BlueChilli is partnering with Westpac 

to encourage local entrepreneurs to develop new 

ideas and solutions for the agricultural sector, 

awarding $40,000 to the entrepreneur who 

develops the “most useful and innovative” digital 

solution for the bank’s agribusiness customers. 

Whilst this program is open to all Australians, there 

is no such program in Queensland. 45 

12 

8 

5 

1 

1 

42

PRECISION FARMING 

Precision agriculture is broadly defined as the group of hardware and software technologies that help 

farmers improve decision-making with data-driven analytics, including drones, robots and sensors. 35 

According to a report from the Boston Consulting Group, the use of precision farming technology will 

be the major trend reshaping farming worldwide by 2030. Precision farming uses data at the level of the 

square meter or decimeter, or even of a single plant, to optimise the consumption of inputs and make 

adjustments to accommodate variable characteristics within and among fields. Its spread will be enabled 

by the increased use of sensors, software and wireless connectivity on farming implements. 47 

GLOBAL AGTECH FUNDING 2014 

$2.36B 

PRECISIONAG STARTUP FUNDING 2014 

$276M 

RQ DRONE COMPANIES 

12+ 

DRONES 

A growing ecosystem of Regional Queensland 

drone operators is already catering to a long 

list of clients in agriculture, land management, 

energy, and construction. Commercial drones 

have leapt far ahead of regulators and are already 

entrenched in a handful of massive industries. 

Many are small private companies and startups 

— although some large companies are beginning 

to invest in drone technology too. 

QLD SHARE OF DRONE CERTIFICATES 

WA - 15% 

VIC - 22% 

TAS - 2% 

SA- 5% 

There are currently 269 registered UAS 

(Unmanned Aerial Service) Operator Certificate 

Holders in Australia, with 72 (27%) registered 

across Queensland. Drone Technology is now 

proliferating at an extraordinary rate, with 

capability and performance doubling every 

18 months, and price continuing to plummet. 

Nevertheless, to become a CASA (Civil Aviation 

Safety Authority) certified holder, the approvals 

process can take months and costs thousands of 

dollars, with applicants required to complete about 

90% of a conventional private pilot’s course. 

CASE STUDY: DESERT CHANNELS 

ACT - 2% 

NSW - 26% 

NT - 1% 

QLD - 27% 

Desert Channels Queensland has begun using an 

unmanned drone helicopter to control the spread 

of weeds in western Queensland. The drone is 

vital in the battle to manage massive prickly 

acacia infestations in areas of Queensland 

that have previously been inaccessible, as it 

can deploy more weed spray and pellets on an 

affected area in five hours than a landholder 

could in five days. 

RQ ROBOTIC COMPANIES 

1+ 

ROBOTICS 

The global agricultural industry is quickly moving 

towards full automation. Agricultural robots 

automate business processes, meet stringent 

hygiene and safety regulations, work 24 hours 

a day, and relieve human workers of physically 

arduous tasks. Robotics and automation can play 

a significant role in Regional Queensland meeting 

projected 2040 agricultural production needs. 

WinterGreen research in a 2014 report, projects the 

global agricultural robot market size to grow from 

$817 million in 2013 to $16.3 billion by 2020. 48 

PROJECTED GROWTH AGROBOTIC MARKET 

$18B 

$16B 

$14B 

$12B 

$10B 

$8B 

$6B 

$4B 

$2B 

0 

2013 

2014 

2015 

2016 

2017 

2018 

2019 

A few local initiatives are integrating robotics into 

the Regional Queensland ecosystem. The JCU 

Robotics club organises regular meetups, and 

events like RoboCup and Robogals are leading the 

way in driving up local interest. 

“Now, the faraway labourer – or intelligent 

machine – is available for hire and may be 

better endowed than the local labourer in skill or 

price or speed of work, or with the efficiency of 

organisation, or whatever is required to win the 

customer.” - McKinsey Compete to Prosper 49 

CASE STUDY: SWARMFARM ROBOTICS 

2020 

Andrew Bate’s AgBot 19 development company, 

SwarmFarm Robotics, in partnership with QUT 

has developed the AgBot, a light-weight, driverless 

buggy that can self navigate around a 4000-hectare 

wheat farm using low-cost sensors, eradicating 

small weeds and causing minimal damage to soil. 

RQ IOT COMPANIES 

13+ 

INTERNET OF THINGS 

More and more Regional Queensland organisations 

are building hardware and web based platforms for 

farmers to optimise resource management. 

Despite global investor interest in agriculture 

technology, it’s a little known fact that farming has 

been, and continues to be, among the most fertile 

laboratories for Internet of Things (IoT) innovation 

and large-scale adoption. 42 

The rise of sensor based technology is promising 

and represents an innovative way for Regional 

Queensland to become a global IP leader. 

Soil carbon sensors, soil sensors and analytics 

that help make sense of the sheer vastness of data 

generated by these systems are strong emerging 

regional themes, with IP being held in the region, 

and sold across Australia. 

CASE STUDY: THERMACULTURE 

ThermaCulture is a Cairns based solar energy 

based system that assists agricultural growers to 

achieve optimal growing conditions using soil 

temperature regulation. 

ThermaCulture was established in 2015. 

ThermaCulture uses sensors and electronic devices 

to regulate temperatures of the subsoil region of 

horticultural crops to improve crop viability as well 

as provide a reduced chemical method to combat 

soil-borne pests. It also has the ability to encourage 

crop production in non-traditional regions, and to 

diversify crops in normally crop specific areas. 

43

SPOTLIGHT - SAFETYCULTURE 

SHARED AUDIT TEMPLATES 

54,000+ 

EMPLOYEES 

48 

TOTAL FUNDING 

$5.7M 

COUNTRIES ACTIVE 

209+ 

DAILY INSPECTIONS 

32,000+ 

GLOBAL USERS 

500,000+ 

ABOUT SAFETY CULTURE 

SafetyCulture is a software development company 

founded in Townsville. In 2011 the company 

noticed the penetration of smartphones in everyday 

life. From that point on Luke Anear, CEO started 

testing and developing solutions for safety in 

the workplace, based around a smartphone app 

platform. The result was iAuditor, the most used 

safety audit app in the world. 

The team has now grown to 48 employees. 

Over half of those are engineers, supported by a 

customer support team, a marketing & PR team 

and a design & user experience team, with offices 

in Townsville, Sydney and Kansas. 

Safety Culture took home the 2015 Best 

Regional Startup Gong at the national 

StartupSmart awards. The annual awards 

recognise the most innovative and fastest 

growing technology businesses in Australia. 

SafetyCulture was initially funded in 2013 by 

Blackbird Ventures and Commercialisation 

Australia. A second funding round saw Scott 

Farquhar, Co-Founder of Atlassian invest in 2014. 

SafetyCulture’s biggest market is the US with 

28.5% of its users based there, followed by the UK 

with 26%. 

John Bruce-Smith, Atlassian’s former chief 

financial officer, is now CFO on a part-time basis 

at SafetyCulture. Atlassian’s fourth employee 

Anton Mazkovoi has joined to head up the Sydney 

team as VP of Engineering, bringing a wealth of 

experience from building one of Australia’s most 

successful tech companies to SafetyCulture. 

SafetyCulture now has 500,000+ users, and 

has racked up over 12 million inspections in 80 

countries. 

ABOUT IAUDITOR 

In 2012, SafetyCulture released iAuditor, the 

world’s most used app for conducting safety 

inspections, and in 2014 iAuditor won the 

international Tabby Awards for best Data 

Collection App, and best Business App. iAuditor 

is used in 209 countries and is part of the 

SafetyCulture safety and quality management 

system. 

iAuditor builds checklists, conducts inspections 

and files reports from a mobile phone or tablet. 

The app transforms a typically paper based 

industry to a digital one, where individuals can do 

7-8 times the inspections they used to. Checklists 

can easily be created with drag and drop editing 

interface or they can download one of 50,000 

templates from the public library. 

The iAuditor community now creates, curates and manages the 

world’s largest collection of inspection checklists. 

Using the iAuditor app, a US company with 8,000 

wind turbines saves over $USD 1 million a year 

in inspection costs. 

iAuditor was recently promoted across Apple 

globally and listed in the Next-Gen Apps section 

of the App Store. It was the main image on the 

iPhone apps for business page on Apple.com 

and listed on the iPad apps for business page 

alongside the likes of Evernote and Box. 

Luke Anear, CEO 

As SafetyCulture’s Chief executive officer, 

Luke Anear is responsible for the day to day 

management of SafetyCulture. He works closely 

with the software engineering teams and drives 

product innovation. Luke was a worker’s 

compensation investigator and practice manager 

in Sydney until 2002. 

LUKE ON TOWNSVILLE 

SafetyCulture is a shining beacon for regional 

technology startups. CEO Luke Anear offers the 

following insights from a recent interview: 

“Only three years ago it was “We don’t know 

if we can do this from Townsville. Maybe we’re 

going to have to go to Sydney, or Silicon Valley.” 

Now, I know the answer to that. We can do it from 

here. We have.” 

Scaling a global business quickly brings its 

own challenges. Luke offers some insights into 

growing his regional team. 

“We’re bringing in engineers from Italy, or 

France, or Sweden and paying for their visas and 

helping them with accommodation. Townsville, 

being a regional city has lower accommodation 

costs, so that’s something that we can help with, 

but it also has a great lifestyle and climate, so 

we promote the tropical lifestyle and attract 

people to it, so I think it’s about using some of 

those advantages as incentives and using them as 

strengths” 

Luke outlined how important the National 

Broadband Network was to technology companies 

based in Townsville. 

“To be able to get the high speed internet, where 

you can build a business is a huge asset to 

Townsville, and I think going forward it means 

that they’ve got the infrastructure there to be 

able to build companies and tech businesses 

that can reach the world and are not limited by 

bandwidth.” 

As SafetyCulture began to rapidly grow Luke 

found they needed people with specific key skills 

that were challenging to find in, or attract to, 

Townsville. This led SafetyCulture to expand its 

offices to Sydney and Kansas. 

“As we needed more senior people who had 

families, who were a bit older and had stronger 

roots in bigger markets like Sydney, you then 

started to realise it was getting harder to attract 

those senior people and that’s why we then started 

on the Sydney team.” 

44

“ ONLY THREE YEARS AGO IT WAS 

‘WE DON’T KNOW IF WE CAN DO 

THIS FROM TOWNSVILLE. MAYBE 

WE’RE GOING TO HAVE TO GO TO 

SYDNEY, OR SILICON VALLEY.’ 

NOW, I KNOW THE ANSWER TO 

THAT. WE CAN DO IT FROM HERE. 

WE HAVE.” 

LUKE ANEAR 

CEO, SAFETYCULTURE

COMMUNITY INSIGHTS 

As part of the project, seven regional workshops 

with 100 participants and 30 interviews 

were held with key members of each regional 

ecosystem. Participants were asked to discuss, 

identify and vote on “which issues were critical to 

the growth of the regions startup ecosystem”, and 

discuss the actions which would address these 

challenges. Votes are weighted proportionately by 

the relative sizes of each region’s population. The 

top seven issues in order of total weighted votes 

from all regions were: 

TOP COMMUNITY ISSUES: 

RANKED BY WEIGHTED VOTES 




Funding 


Culture 

Education 

TALENT AND SKILLS 

19% 

18% 

16% 

16% 

15% 

10% 

5% 

Building, attracting, and retaining talent was 

seen as a critical factor across all regions. 

Participants in the Ipswich workshop (33% of 

all votes), Rockhampton (22%) and Townsville 

(23%) viewed this as the priority issue facing the 

development of a robust local ecosystem. 

The region’s ‘brain drain’ is a pressing factor 

that surfaced continuously. Retaining a critical 

mass of talent is of paramount importance to the 

growth of a regional ecosystem. 

Whilst this report does not seek to provide 

solutions to population growth and greater 

regional development, it is clear that some 

regions have incredibly thin STEM talent bases, 

with the vast majority of local graduates moving 

away from the region in search of better job 

opportunities. 

Participants in Cairns and Townsville mentioned 

that attracting talent to the region was 

increasingly becoming a problem and the wage 

gap for software engineers in the regions was also 

a large barrier to recruitment. Rarely were we 

presented with the idea of talent outflow being a 

positive occurrence, even if that talent was able 

to move back at a later date. 

COLLABORATIVE NETWORKS 

Collaboration and networking was the second 

highest issue raised. Participants in Toowoomba 

(33%), Mackay (23%) and Rockhampton (19%) 

viewed this as a priority issue. 

Increasing the breadth and depth of collaboration, 

identifying local mentors, creating local skills 

directories and providing financial support from 

both state and local government for key nodes 

was seen as vital to the continued growth of the 

ecosystem. Establishing both physical and digital 

hubs was seen as critical in most regions. Startup 

Toowoomba, Startup Townsville, theSpace 

Cairns, Mentor Blaze and Startup Weekend 

events are superb examples of networks that 

bring the local community together. 

INFRASTRUCTURE 

For participants within the Cairns (29%), 

Toowoomba (31%) and Mackay (23%) regions, 

the most critical infrastructure issue was access to 

physical space and the isolation that this results 

in. 

With only Cairns and Toowoomba having opened 

up co-working spaces, participants in other 

regions lacked a central location to work, meet 

and network. The sporadic rollout of the NBN 

was seen as another central issue, with many 

regions having NBN coverage in residential areas 

but not in the CBD. Nevertheless, participants 

in Townsville rated the NBN as being the core 

enabler to the growth of their startups. 

FUNDING INNOVATION 

Across all regions, access to early-stage funding 

ranked as a critical challenge for startups. The 

shortage of funding was particularly pronounced 

at the angel and early seed investment stage. 

Participants in Townsville (23%), Ipswich (19%) 

and Bundaberg (18%) rated this as a high barrier 

to growth. The lack of formal angel investment 

groups across the regions has led to the vast 

majority of startups bootstrapping growth. 

Analysis from AngelList, the world’s leading 

angel investment platform returned no active 

investors in each region, and very few were 

identified in our workshop interviews. Significant 

efforts are needed to form local investment 

groups, starting initially with informal group 

meetups to educate angels on the benefits of 

scalable tech companies. 

RAISE AWARENESS 

The fifth priority issue identified across all 

regions was that of raising community awareness 

of the tech industry. For regional ecosystems to 

develop and contribute to regional GDP, there 

needs to be greater effort to build awareness of 

what startups are and how they differ from small 

business. 

Participants in Bundaberg (22%), Townsville 

(18%) and Toowoomba (13%) viewed this as a 

priority issue. Raising awareness was also seen 

as a critical factor in attracting investment from 

local high net worths, of which very few had any 

understanding of technology. Participants also 

identified celebrating the success of local startups 

as a key issue for the growth of the startup 

ecosystem, and leveraging local influencers and 

media to spread success stories and generate 

community understanding and awareness of local 

tech innovation. 

CULTURE 

Participants from all regions said a culture of 

entrepreneurship and innovation needs to be 

developed within each local ecosystem if we are 

to create globally-relevant technology companies. 

Specific cultural themes that inhibited innovative 

entrepreneurship included; lack of an appetite 

for risk; entrepreneurial spirit; global ambition; 

resistance to change; business confidence; 

and, investor understanding of the impacts of 

technology. 

While developing a culture of entrepreneurship 

and innovation comes in highly on the ranking, 

in many ways it underpins the challenges faced 

within all the other issues discussed. 

EDUCATION 

Across all seven regions, education was seen as 

vital to creating strong ecosystems. Increasing 

regional participation in STEM courses was 

seen as a urgent issue. Bundaberg in particular 

was faced with the problem of having no local 

graduates in ICT after Central Queensland 

University dropped the degree from the local 

campus. Participants highlighted the lack of 

suitably educated and experienced entrepreneurs 

in the local region, whilst a strong theme was 

the lack of coding courses in the current school 

curriculum. Events like RoboCup and Startup 

Weekend EDU (Cairns) are trying to bridge 

this gap. Workshop and interview participants 

across all regions lamented the low and declining 

number of Computer Science graduates and 

identified this as a critical long-term challenge. 

Access to mentors with experience building 

global technology companies was also a 

particular challenge. 

46

TOP SEVEN COMMUNITY ISSUES BY REGION 

Community Issues 

Ranking by 

Weighted Votes 

Toowoomba Ipswich Bundaberg Rockhampton Mackay Townsville Cairns Weighted Votes 

Sum 

Talent & Skills 1 0% 33% 12% 22% 20% 23% 16% 19% 

Collaboration 

& Networking 

2 31% 19% 10% 19% 23% 18% 5% 18% 

Infrastructure 3 31% 5% 18% 11% 23% 0% 29% 16% 

Funding 4 13% 19% 18% 15% 10% 23% 10% 16% 

Raise 

Awareness 

5 13% 14% 22% 11% 17% 18% 11% 15% 

Culture 6 0% 5% 0% 11% 0% 18% 29% 10% 

Education 7 13% 0% 20% 4% 7% 0% 0% 5% 

Total 100% 95% 100% 93% 100% 100% 100% 98% 

TOP FOURTEEN COMMUNITY ACTIONS BY REGION 

Community Actions 

Hub / Coworking 

Space 

Local Angel / 

VC Group 

Ranking by 

Weighted Votes 

Toowoomba Ipswich Bundaberg Rockhampton Mackay Townsville Cairns Weighted Votes 

1 38% 33% 0% 0% 23% 24% 25% 24% 

2 6% 10% 4% 14% 30% 33% 0% 14% 

Education Program 3 6% 24% 13% 0% 0% 22% 10% 12% 

Brand / Culture 4 0% 10% 9% 0% 7% 18% 22% 10% 

Collaboration & 

Networking 

Govt Provide 

Supportive Role 

5 19% 0% 11% 43% 10% 4% 0% 10% 

6 0% 14% 4% 0% 0% 0% 13% 5% 

Startup Apprentice 7 0% 0% 0% 0% 20% 0% 17% 5% 

Skills Directory 8 0% 0% 9% 24% 0% 0% 5% 4% 

Highlight Success 

Stories 

Govt Incentive - 

Accelerators 

Govt Incentive - 


Form Leadership 

Group 

Communication 

Network 

Communication 

Hub 

9 13% 0% 13% 0% 0% 0% 0% 3% 

10 19% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 3% 

11 0% 0% 24% 5% 0% 0% 0% 3% 

12 0% 0% 11% 0% 0% 0% 8% 2% 

13 0% 5% 2% 14% 0% 0% 0% 2% 

14 0% 0% 0% 0% 10% 0% 0% 1% 

Total All 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 

Total Top 14 100% 95% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 99% 

47

THANK YOU 

WORKSHOPS 

Thankyou to the following people 

for generously providing their 

time to attend the community 

workshops: 

Aaron Young 

Abiy Feleke 

Adam Young 

Adrien Lang 

Amanda Spelta 

Amy Turnball 


Andrew Bridges 

Andrew Joy 

Andrew Kliese 

Ann Moffatt 

Anna Daniels 

Ben Taylor 

Ben Wearmouth 

Bill Hopton 

Blake Pelling 

Bronwyn Voyce 

Cameron Bisley 

Carmel Humphries 

Chris Bonanno 


Chris Harris 

Chris Keegan 

Chris Mills 


Christine Doan 

Col Greensill 

Colin Cole 

Colin Strydom 

Colleen Cooling 

Craig Thamm 

Dale Edney 

Dale Holliss 

Damien Zammit 

Dan Willersdorf 

Daniel Lundh 

Daniel Reeves 

Dannielle Walz 

Darren Cooke 

Darryl Posgate 

David Beitey 

David Cole 

David Finnis 

David Fredericks 


David McCalllum 

David Newby 

Deborah Mead 

Debra Howe 

Deirdre Comerford 

Dennis Murphy 

Derel Wust 

Diana Johnston 

Dieter Bohm 

Donna Kellion 

Donna Patane 

Dr Terry McCosker 

Dylan Furnell 

Dzemal Solo 

Edwina Pettiford 

Elliot Strickland 

Elvire Callaghan 

Fiona Bishop-Vuibeqa 

Fiona Bowden 

Fred Goodwin 

Garry Watkins 

Gemma Ruge 

Geoff Farr 

Geoff Fleming 

Geoff Higgins 

Grace Keogh 

Graham Keidge 

Helen Caruso 

Helen Newell 

Ian Atkinson 

Ian Devenish 

Jack Milbank 

Jamie Armer 

Jane Scowcroft 

Jane Whyte 

Jarryd Townson 

Jason Ephraims 

Jason Foss 

Jason Krenske 

Jason Ramm 

Jason Rickert 

Jason Rozycki 

Jason Spence 

Jay Daniells 

Jayne Thorpe 

Jo Luck 

Joanne Hall 

Jodie Stanley 

Joe Hoolahan 

John Mlikota 

John Williams 

Jordan Murphy 

Joy Taylor 

Karl Sheedy 

Kay Strong 

Kellie Bowie 

Kieren Jamieson 

Kim Kelly 

Komal Bandi 


Krystal King 

Kurt Alexander 

Kurt Pudniks 

Kylie Jackson 

Kylie Radel 

Lassara Reinke 

Laura Fealy 

Leah Harris 


Leanne Rudd 

Lee Rowlands 

Lindon Lawn 

Lisa Christensen 

Lisa New 

Luke Brunsman 

Madonna Iliffe 

Mark Lalor 

Mark Matthews 

mark Robinson 

Mark Thomas 

Marlies Hobbs 

Matt Daniels 

Matt Drane 

Matt Hanson 

Matt McKinley 

Matt Templeton 


Michael Jones 

Michael Kaddatz 

Michael Kurkowski 

Michael McGrath 

Michelle Hoban 

Mick Storch 

Mike Goebel 

Nanjappa Ashwath 

Naomi Brownless 

Natasha Wells 


Neil McPhillips 

Nick Bennett 


Nicole Rankin 

Nigel Wadsworth 

Nikki Wright 

Noel Kelly 

Nola Pontifex 


Patrick Logue 

Paul Fagg 

Paul Stewart 

Paul Wyatt 

Penny Hall 

Peter Bender 

Peter Hockings 

Peter Peterson 

Peter Wilson 

Petros Khalesirad 

Phil Baker 

Phil Brown 

Pierre Viljoen 

Prashant Murphy 



Rick Palmer 

Rob Doyle 

Robert Buhrke 

Rod Ainsworth 

Rod Sercombe 

Rose Swadling 

Rowena Hardy 

Roy Pidgeon 

Roy Wybrow 

Russell Savage 

Samuel Costin 

Samuel Pavin 

Sarah Palmer 

Sarah-Joy Pierce 

Scott Allcott 

Shaminda de Silva 

Shane Hannant 

Shane Ridley 

Shelley Pisani 

Simone Dakin 

Stephen Cheng 

Stephen Clarkson 

Stephen Dumment 

Stephen Moore 

Stephen Schmidt 

Steve Howard 

Steve Knight 


Stuart Elkins 

Stuart King 

Susan Milner 

Suzi Carson 

Symon Pritchett 

Tazman Schmidt 

Teona Cousin 

Terry Hurlock 

Thomas Block 

Tia Lea Austin 

Tim Butler 

Tim Neale 

Tim Stevenson 

Tracie Regan 

Trish Mears 

Troy Haines 

Troy Pettiford 

Wayne Stanley 

Yale Morgan 

INTERVIEWS 

Thank you to the following people 

for generously providing their time 

to be interviewed for this report: 

Andrew Bate 

Andrew Bekenhauer 

Casey Brown 

Chris Harris 

Chris Mills 

Damian Zammit, 

Daniel Reeves 

Darren Cooke 

Daryl Postgate 



Dennis Murphy 

Dr Terry McCosker 

Garry Ellis 

Ian Atkinson 

Jack Millbank 

Jason Foss 

Joe Hoolaran 

Johhny Cheng 

John Williams 


Luke Anear 

Mark Matthews 

Mat Drane 

Matt Hanson 

Matt McKinley 


Mick Storch 

Paul Wyatt 

Phil Baker 

Richard Chappel 

Roy Wybrow 

Shane Ridley 


Stuart King 

Troy Haines 

48

“ 

TECHNOLOGY IS NO LONGER A VERTICAL 

INDUSTRY, AS ITS BEEN UNDERSTOOD 

BY EVERYONE FOR FOUR DECADES. 

TECHNOLOGY IS NOW A HORIZONTAL, 

ENABLING FORCE THROUGHOUT THE 

WHOLE ECONOMY.” 3 

JOHN BATTELLE 

THE ECONOMIST 

49

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57. Popilation numbers were sourced from the the relevant local council. 

50


Jay Daniells 


Diggy 


Michael Waters 


Peta Neale 

David Withers 

Thales 



Matt McKinley 

Microair 

Minstaff Survey Pty Ltd 

Procedures Online 

Precision Agriculture 


BigMate 

Tim Neale 




Queensland Fire and Rescue Service 

Peta Jamieson 

Stephen Moore 

Chris Jenkins 

Graham Smith 

BMA 

HelloClaims 

UAView 

Jabiru 

Mick Storch 

Garry France 

Rodney Stiff 



Inspection Apps 

Chris Mills 

Peter Byrne 

Real Time Instruments Tony Crowley 

DEC-MECH 


Shane Ridley 

Matt Hanson 

ResPax 

Ashley Walker 



Strategenics 

Glenn Skerman 

Snipe 

PakYak 

Otrain 

Greg Skerman 

Farmacist 

AgData 

Neil McPhillips Kadence Group 

Junta Simon lenoir 

AUFO 


AgData Australia MyPool Inspection 

BetsWithFriends Andrew Bills 

Unisys 



NQ UAV 

Mark Matthews 

George Corea 

David Cole 

Australian Digital Futures Institute 


Stephen Baxter 

Almost Anything 

ShareStuff 

Wishbone Communications 

Peta Ellis 

Westpac 

John Thornely 

hello claims 

Paul Pisasale 

Richard Sazima Australian Army Queensland Health 

Startup Townsville 




NQ Innovate 


Make it Strategic 

RiverPitch 

500 Startups 


Solidfacts NQ Victor Attwood Joe Hoolahan 

Sandra Harding 

Digital Physics 

Helen Farley 

Glen Rice 




JESI 

Darren Cooke 

Kurt Pudniks 

Thought Select Andrew Whannell 



Startup Cairns 

LogiCamms 

Jesse Gileppa Code Valley 

GHD 

Helen Newell 

Daniel Peacock 

Alan Jones 


Alan Brown 

ABB Industry 


Startup Mackay David Finnish 


Peter Watson 

Damian Zammit 

Ergon Energy 




David Morrison 


Oz Apps 


Dennis Murphy 


Townsville ICT Business Network 

Jodie Stanley 


Mick Scott 

Damian Zammit 

ASSOB 

Sally Kift 

Upson Downs Imaging Services 

Chris Cocklin 

Unity Finn 

iAMConnected 

Troy Haines 

Wow Factor 

FNQ Apartments 


Osmotion 


David Beitey 


Narain Ramakrishnan 

Hummingbird 

David Henry 

Terry Kearney 


Experimental 

Unicorns 


John Williams 

SaferData 




Andrew Joy 

2bit Studios 

Roy Pidgeon 

QR 

CSIRO Hilary Winchester 

SafetyCulture 

Adam Young 

Ian Devenish 

CatchLog 

Ecosure 

Robert Buhrke 


EnviroSource 

Intritec 


Phil Baker 


Dieter Bohm 

TedX Rockhampton 

Dave Swain 

Robert Buhrke 

iMeasure 

Peter Milani 

Tony Best 

Andrew Bate 

Brett Bundock 

HoverCam 

Joanna Batstone 

SwarmFarm Robotics 

Kerry Purcell 

Ji Shen 

Glen Garner 

ESRI 

Konveen 

Nicholas Flor 

Emma Monro 


Sales VA 

IBM Australia 

Shedproject 

Joy Taylor 

Kix Fit 


Smart HR Solutions 

emailancer Aden Tranter 

TAFE QLD 


Chris Brown 

John Mlikota 

WR Grace 

David Newby 

inCapital 

Carbon Link 

Insight Creative 

Dr Larry Marshall 

Luke Anear 

D2K 

Insite SJC 


Comit 

Mr Craig Roy 

Happy Healthy Kidz Australia 

Startup Toowoomba 


Skydronics 


Eat Smart B Active 

Innov8 



Matthew Drane 

Jenny Legge 

QIT Plus 

Mark Venz 


Caked On 

Mitch Miller 

Scan2Convert 




Adam Gilmour 

Grant Bajema 


BajTech 

Martin Oates 

Craig Hodges 

James Gilmour 


Stuart King 

Hortus 

QLD Emergency Medicine Research Foundation 

Chris Madsen 

Jason Spence 

Jack Milbank 

Nicky Jurd 

Tyson Clarke 

Lisa van den Berg 


ClinicalHub 

iAssist 

Precedence 


Tradiesweb Focuss WebTraf 

Voista 


Kaj Haffenden 

Elise Wyandra Warring 


Queensland Property Advice 



Symon Pritchett Jeffrey Smidt 


tourstogo.com 

Dale Edney 

Natasha Wells Patrick Latter 

Tourback 

Don Neal 


Anna Daniel 

Vivia 

Koolivoo 

Didgigo 

SamTheWaiter 


CurvyDames 

Casey Brown 


Precision Terrain Solutions 

NFA 

Circuit Wiz 

Aaron Pirie 

Carol Hautot 

My Footy Boots 

Scripti 




Raytheon 


Greg Stamper 

Acubis 

Why Not Tours 

Sam Leo 

Droner 


Matt Ewing 

Sakure 

BitPlex 

Insta Connect Elliot Strickland 

Airmap3D 

yRepublic 


Barry Knights 

Phil Martin 

Anthony Dukes 

Mogtastic 

nupath 

Bronwyn Voyce 

Inmarketing 

GamePlan Global Solutions 




Taste Paradise Tropical North Queensland 

Daniel Lundh 

Adam Williams 

CloudSpark 

Second to none Nutrition 

Ian Irving 

Jamie Armer 

OrbStudio 

TenderHound 

4tel 


John McLean 

Darren Smith 


Rent Resume 

Greg Bruce 

A Few Extra Bucks

THE QUEENSLAND GOVERNMENT IS 

INVESTING, THROUGH THE ADVANCE 

QUEENSLAND INITIATIVE, 

$180 MILLION OVER FOUR YEARS TO 

CREATE THE KNOWLEDGE BASED 

JOBS OF THE FUTURE. 

52

“ UNLESS AGRICULTURE PROVIDERS 

HAVE A DISTINCT EXPORT FOCUS, A 

NATIONAL PROBLEM IS THAT THERE 

IS VERY LIMITED SCOPE FOR GROWTH. 

THE POPULATION OF AUSTRALIA 

SIMPLY DOESN’T SUPPORT 

EXPONENTIAL GROWTH.” 

JACK MILLBANK 

CEO, HORTUS 

53

n boundlss 

AUTHORS 

Nick Markham, Mike Kruger and Jonah 

Cacioppe from Boundlss. Produced for and in 

partnership with the Queensland Department of 

Science, Information Technology & Innovation; 

the Toowoomba Regional Council; Ipswich 

City Council; Bundaberg Regional Council; 

Rockhampton Regional Council Mackay Regional 

Council; Townsville City Council and the Cairns 

Regional Council. For a copy of the report visit: 

www.boundlss.com/rq

STARTUP ECOSYSTEM REPORT

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