STARTUP ECOSYSTEM PRELIMINARY REPORT

STAGE 2: GROUPS, HUBS & PROGRAMS
ROBOGALS
6,813+
Number of attendees over two and half years
Robogals is a global not-for-profit that aims to
encourage more young women into studying
engineering and maths based sciences at a tertiary
level. Robogals was started by 2012 Young
Australian of the Year Winner Marita Cheng
in 2008 at the University of Melbourne. The
organisation has grown into five regions (Asia
Pacific, North America and Europe, Middle East
and Africa) and 30 chapters across the world.
Robogals main activity is running free robotics
and engineering workshops for female primary
and secondary students in order to educate them
on what engineering is and what the possibilities
are. Since 2008 Robogals has globally taught and
inspired over 30,000 girls to pursue careers in
engineering.
CISCO GLOBAL IOE INNOVATION CENTRE
$35M
2015 Investment in Cisco IoE Centre
In July 2015, Cisco established the Cisco Internet
of Everything (IoE) Innovation Centre, Australia,
in Perth and Sydney – its 8th open innovation
hub worldwide, citing Australia as an emerging
hub for global start-ups, innovation, and the
global knowledge economy. Based at Curtin
University, the Centre aims to develop projects
with technology partners, startups and industry
experts using cloud, analytics, cyber security
and IoT network platforms to build potentially
disruptive solutions in the partners’ core areas of
strength: resources, agriculture, astronomy and
smart campus. The Centre links to Cisco’s global
IoE Centre network, and will expand to include
CSIRO and other industry partners and focus
areas in the future.
JUST START IT
2,000+
School students engaged in 2015
Recognising that entrepreneurial development
can start young, the Just Start IT program was
founded by Lainey Weiser in 2014 to teach
high school students the skills to develop their
own tech startups. Run as an 18 week mentorled
program at high schools in Perth and now
across Australia, it has engaged 2000+ students
across 42 schools in 2015, has been endorsed
by the WA Certificate of Education as a Personal
Development Program, and counts 5 points
towards the TEE score. It is currently being
developed as a VET program for Cert I, II and III
in Business and Cert I in IT.
ARTIFACTORY
3
Mechanical Steam Ostriches built
Established in 2009 as a not for profit community
group, the Artifactory is the primary makerspace/
hackerspace in Perth. The Artifactory currently
occupies a large warehouse in Osborne Park and
shares resources such as 3D printers, laser cutters,
robotic and non-robotic tools, welders, sewing
machines, jigsaws, desks and workstations. It
has 50+ paying members and there have been
18 build your own modular synth nights, 52
NoizeMaschin experimental music nights (highest
musical voltage achieved 40,000Hz), 103 Arduino
nights, 3 mechanical steam ostriches built and one
giant robot installed.
BLOOM
25+
Student startups in 2015
Founded in 2013 by UWA student Mark Shelton,
Bloom is a student-led non-profit organisation
that encourages and supports entrepreneurial
young Western Australians, primarily university
students and recent graduates. It opened its first
co-working space, the BloomLab at St Catherine’s
College (adjacent to The University of Western
Australia) in March 2015. Since then, it has held
more than 75 events with 2,500+ attendees, and
has helped launch 25+ startups with the support
of a 50+ strong mentor network. In 2016, Bloom
plans to form new strategic alliances, including
Asia-focused partnerships and funding to expand
its programs.
SPACECUBED
650
Number of Spacecubed members
Founded in 2012 Spacecubed is a social
enterprise with the primary purpose of supporting
20,000 Western Australian Entrepreneurs by
2025. Spacecubed runs an increasing number
of inspiring and collaborative spaces including
Spacecubed, FLUX and Sync Labs. It has also
recently started supporting a series of startup
programmes and accelerators including Founder
Institute, Amcom Upstart, RAC SeedSpark
and resource focussed accelerator Unearthed.
It is a central location for over 230 startup,
entrepreneurship and social enterprise related
events in 2015 alone. Spacecubed has 700
members and estimates that over 30,000 people
have attended events since 2012. Currently
Spacecubed is working to launch FLUX, a
collaboration with Hawaiian launch another
collaboration and innovation space Perth CBD
to further support the next wave of innovation in
Western Australia.
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