Last year, the FoodTech Tasmania Program came to an exhilarating conclusion, leaving all our mentors and investors amazed. We had 10 passionate startups who took the stage and shared their creative pitches! Each founder demonstrated their commitment to revolutionise the food industry and foster a circular economy on an international scale.

Now 6 months later, we decided to check in with these startups and hear how they've been! They’re all achieving major milestones - read more below!

: Built a food transparency platform that enables elimination of food waste and allows for increased traceability throughout the entire food value chain – from farm to fork.

 Over the last 6 month TotalCtrl have recruited and onboarded a management team, kicked off their EU project with a goal of ensuring traceability from farm to fork, and closed partnerships and clients. They are now looking for one hotel chain and one restaurant chain partner outside of the Nordics to validate a fully automated inventory system in connection to the EU project.

 Makes organomineral fertiliser from the biosolids of livestock or municipal water treatment stations.

 Received first Grant Settlement disbursement of 430k EUROs for the Transform - Forest Management Project (Total Grant Size is 3.3m).

 Turns waste CO2 into high-value, low-cost proteins and additives for aquaculture, food and pet food.

 has executed an Investment and Development Agreement with NovoNutrients valued at $3mm with intention to pilot and proceed to commercial scale in Australia. 

 Generates real-time alerts and leverage Blockchain technologies to keep an electronic record of activities throughout the transportation value chain.

 Secured several contracts with big-ticket parties: such as: 

Highlyfe POC trial (Canada’s largest Swine company). 

BAADER POC trial (One of the world’s largest poultry processing machinery manufacturers). 

 Creates patent-protected, cage-free probiotic eggs that revolutionise good gut bacteria delivery through the cleanest protein available: the egg.

 Received a research grant for product and shelf stabilization and efficacy underway Summer- Fall. 

Tummi Yummi has been through two accelerators, the I-Corps Spanish Language National Science Foundation lean startup methodology and is finishing up the Social Enterprise Greenhouse accelerator in Rhode Island. 

They’re laser focused on getting to market and will fundraise as such as their shelf life study yields positive results.

 Creates sustainable and commercially viable alternatives to single-use plastic and timber products with agro-based materials.

 Signed contract with the leading box manufacturer in the UK.

 Combines in house designed robotics with the bioconversion power of insects to transform the protein landscape.

 Closed a Pre Series A round of $3M AUD, secured Joint Venture commitment with major partner, began a pilot with a major Australian Retailer, Aldi and is now site scouting for 1st commercial facility.

Trials in progress with JBS Longford (paunch waste), Huon (fish waste) and Simplot (vegetable waste).

 Designs, manufactures and deploys solar-powered cold storage solutions for fresh produce farmers, aggregators and market vendors.

 Increased total number of solar-powered cold storage solution units installed to 36. Projected to close 2023 with a total of 100 installed units serving over 5000 fresh produce farmers and retailers in East Africa.

 Develops functional chocolate with ayurvedic herbs that offers enriched health benefits.

 Selected as one of the beneficiaries of the Government of India backed Startup India Seed Fund Scheme in which Awsum will receiving a soft loan of 40 Lakh Indian Rupees (AUD 74K).

 Creates fermented fruit ingredients for consumer brands who make functional foods and beverages, supplements, and nutraceuticals.

 Have committed their 1st joint venture. Expanded production in Nova Scotia based on wild blueberry farms.

Negotiating supply arrangement with Canada’s largest fermentation research and co-manufacturing center, which would satisfy manufacturing capacity for the next 3-4 years.

It’s so inspiring to see how much can happen in just 6 months. Each of these startups have really utilised the tools they learnt from the FoodTech Program and taken the steps needed to continue growing, evolving and expanding. 

We can’t wait to see all they will continue to accomplish.

Interested in being a part of our next FoodTech cohort? 

Want to hear from previous program alumni how they are doing now? 

6 months later: Where are our FoodTech 2022 Alumni?

DeFi is an emerging financial technology based on secure distributed ledgers similar to those used by cryptocurrencies. In the rapidly evolving landscape of finance, this type of technology is revolutionising the industry.

stands at the forefront, as an innovative DeFi solution that addresses the limitations ingrained in traditional fintech. 

They are driven by their passion to demystify the complex world of decentralised finance and are determined to show how financial tools can be controlled - anytime, anywhere by users.

The Connecter is breaking the barriers of exclusion in the fintech industry. Their DeFi approach eliminates intermediaries, opening a gateway to financial services for anyone with an internet connection.

No longer confined by geographical limitations or the absence of conventional identification, unbanked or underbanked individuals now have the opportunity to get involved too.

Traditional fintech services are often limited by borders and jurisdictional restrictions. The Connecter's DeFi operates on blockchain networks, making it borderless and accessible to users globally, which eliminates the need for currency conversions.

The Connecter’s DeFi operates on blockchain technology, providing an immutable and transparent ledger of all transactions. This transparency builds trust among users as they can verify and audit transactions in real-time. 

Traditional financial services often come with high fees due to the involvement of intermediaries. Yet, The Connecter is not letting these costly constraints get in the way. Their DeFi eliminates or significantly reduces these fees by automating processes through smart contracts.

By doing this, users keep more of what they earn in their pocket, benefit from lower transaction costs, gain higher interest rates on savings, and earn more favourable lending rates compared to traditional financial institutions.

With The Connecter, users are the sole owner of their keys to their private vault. They retain 100% control over their financial assets, allowing participation in various financial activities with minimal barriers.

Recognising that more than 70% of new users face difficulties opening accounts on existing DeFi apps, The Connecter prioritises user-friendly interfaces and simplified onboarding processes. This ensures accessibility for both seasoned DeFi users and newcomers.

The Connecter also leverages machine learning to provide tailored recommendations and financial guidance, with their AI Robo Advisor. This intelligent tool provides portfolio insights, enhances user experience and lowers the barrier to entry. Using an AI Robo Advisor, The Connecter team makes the DeFi experience more intuitive and tailored to a user's needs.

Security is very important to The Connecter. To address concerns about private key and seed phase management, they have implemented Multi-Party Computation (MPC) login methods and familiar authentication options, like facial biometrics, to ensure robust yet user-friendly security.

The Connecter differentiates itself in the market by going beyond traditional DeFi platforms. With their unique point-of-sale feature, The Connecter allows users to utilise their digital assets in real-world transactions. This feature enhances the practical utility of user’s assets and provides a seamless bridge between the digital and physical worlds.

The Connecter envisions a future where decentralised finance is accessible to a global audience. Joining SBC's Sustainable Fintech Accelerator Program aligns perfectly with this vision as it will help The Connecter reach a diverse user base worldwide. 

Right now they are located in Romania, but with SBC, they now have the chance to expand to the APAC region.

With the Fintech Program, The Connecter will not only gain access to seasoned mentors who will provide insights and refine strategies but they will also connect with potential partners for investments and expert advice.

SBC’s emphasis on sustainable fintech aligns seamlessly with their commitment to creating a platform that not only drives financial innovation but also prioritises sustainability. 

As the startup continues to evolve, they will leverage the resources from SBC and use them to scale their secure, sustainable, and user-friendly DeFi services globally - steering the finance industry towards a more empowered and inclusive future.

See who else is in our Sustainable Fintech 2023 cohort 

The Connecter's DeFi Evolution: Unlocking Crypto for Everyday People

In our March Food Innovation workshops we spoke to food companies to uncover the biggest pains, challenges and opportunities they are facing to unlock growth. One pain that surfaced often was the difficulty companies have in quickly building and testing core business innovation ideas, without burning precious resources or lots of cash.

Several large Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) companies we have spoken to are generating lots of ideas, but really struggling to engage consumers to help them efficiently develop, screen them and optimise these ideas.

Most companies have an internal process of screening ideas around what they think will appeal to consumers. The shortlist is then passed on for the R&D team to bring to life. The issue is, how do we really know these are the best concepts?  If it is close to best, what are the guidelines for R&D – what brand works best, flavours, pack types, price point and product claims? Who really is the target consumer? In the wise words of Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup, the big question of our time is not “Can it be built?" but "Should it be built?”.

One way to answer this is to conduct time consuming and costly qualitative research, using 100s of original concepts and prototypes.  Sometimes, the risk and reward equation warrants this – if we are looking at high potential, high growth opportunities.  But even then, many smaller companies don’t have the resources to do this.

And here lies the challenge: How do we quickly and cost effectively de-risk our innovation funnel and prioritise what to do first and where to spend precious capital?

One Solution: Digital Minimal Viable Products (Digital MVPs)

Let’s take a look at an example: imagine that your company held a hackathon based around the challenge statement “How can we help consumers to snack healthily in the afternoon?”.  The hackathon has generated approximately 100 ideas.

When shortlisting the most compelling ideas, companies usually collate the ideas into themes. This might emerge with 20 or so themes that are crafted into concepts.  Companies then will typically conduct qualitative consumer research, using focus groups of approximately 10-12 people per session. Consumers are asked to give a view of their intent to purchase each product, what they like/dislike about its attributes and provide suggestions for improvement.

Conducting this with 20 or so ideas will be costly and time consuming, unless you are lucky enough to have access to a large panel of engaged consumers and can do this online. The other challenge with focus groups, is that you are hearing only what people rationally think of first, rather than observing actual behaviour.  Often the “what” people say and what they “do” don’t match up!

What if you could test all 20 themes by running a series of digital experiments? What if instead of reaching 50 consumers you could reach thousands?  What if you could employ experimental design to also test things like brand, flavours, pack types, price point, product claims, taking the number of ideas to 100 (or more), within the same test?  What if this showed who your most engaged consumers were and you could measure their actual purchase behaviour? All this for approximately the same cost (or cheaper) and within half the time it usually takes to conduct focus groups.

This is where growth hacking comes in. According to 

 “growth hacking” is the mindset behind finding clever, original or inventive ways in order to plant growth on a product or service, through the use of data, technology and sometimes a system’s weakness exploitation”.

Growth hacking experiments could be used for testing all 100 ideas as digital MVPs, quickly refine the funnel and find the optimum mix of features. It’s a bit like running focus groups on steroids. The experiments provide quantitative data at an earlier stage in the process and help to narrow down what physical products to build in the lab or kitchen.

Digital MVPs can also be tested in product/technology groups based on your early stage technical feasibility assessments. The results can be used to help your engineering teams build technology, then manufacturing roadmaps.

Growth hacking is just one example of the many ways a structured innovation process can speed up an organisation's innovation funnel and enhance a company’s growth.

At Startupbootcamp we teach growth hacking to the next generation of innovators, marketers and entrepreneurs through The Talent Institute (TTI), we implement it with our corporate clients, and we live it through our startup accelerator programs. If you are interested in finding out more about how you can apply growth hacking to your corporate innovation program please reach out to us.

, Consumer Science Consultant Bite Food Innovation Lab. 

FOOD INNOVATION: How to Build & Test Ideas in your Innovation Funnel

 has blurred as these two sectors increasingly intersect. 

For instance, managing finances online has become increasingly easier through mobile banking, online transactions, and robo-advisors.

We are in an age of digital transformation, where in the coming years, we may not use some of the traditional companies or resources we currently have available. 

Compared the traditional way, fintech is quick and easy. Many fintech platforms offer detailed bank data analytics, which allows banks to gain valuable customer insights, increase efficiency, and monitor transactions more effectively than they could before.

We are seeing an increase in fintech startups, booming in both Melbourne and Sydney, Australia too.

“Australia’s fintech sector has continued to mature rapidly throughout the pandemic, with record investor capital raised and an increasing number of startups moving to post-profit,” says 

With Australia's fintech sector evolving at such a remarkable pace and new fintech startups coming out almost daily, it's crucial to understand what’s pushing this transformation forward.

Fintech is making an impact through the new technologies that are reshaping the landscape—think open banking, embedded finance, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and alternative lending. Let’s take a deeper dive:

 creating a connection between technology companies, financial institutions, and their customers by allowing third-party services to access financial data. These services are helping customers solve solutions with budgeting apps, investment platforms, and even receive loans.

 involves incorporating financial services into non-financial platforms such as online showing or purchasing items through mobile apps. Embedded Finance is incorporated into many aspects of the financial industry and is continuing to grow exponentially. 

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning:

 are the two main engines behind the data-driven financial transformation. By using AI (chat to customers) and ML (interact with customers), fintech startups are using these to automate tasks such as managing client data, detecting human errors, preventing fraud, recommending new strategies, and much more. With this technology, companies are operating more efficiently and cutting down on costs. AI and ML are chatting to customers if they have any issues or questions, which in return, is increasing customer satisfaction.

 are lending models that are different from borrowing money from a bank, which are providing access to different credit. The most common forms of alternative lending would be peer to peer lending, crowdfunding, or online lending marketplaces. This trend is rapidly growing due to the fact there is an increasing demand for fast and accessible credit.

These technologies are adapting quickly into our society and making it easier to invest, receive loans, or make purchases. 

But, it is essential to create a balance between the opportunities and connivence fintech can offer while also being aware of the potential risks. For instance, when you’re sharing your data and personal information, there is a chance you could lose privacy, risk fraud, and experience discrimination from the use of data analytics.

It’s important to remember that, at the end of the day, it’s up to you on how you want to manage and invest your money. 

A well-informed approach can help you make the most of these technology advancements while also keeping your financial well-being safe.

The fintech industry is not going anywhere and will only continue to rapidly expand. According to 

 the Australia Fintech Market is predicted to reach “USD $33.99 billion by 2033 with a CAGR of 28.5%” 

So as time goes on, we must continue to adapt and stay up to date with current changes in fintech in order to empower ourselves and to contribute to the advancements in the fintech industry.

If you’d like to be a mentor and share your fintech experience, learn more 

If you’re interested in contributing to both innovation and sustainability, check out our Sustainable Fintech Fund 

The Impact of Fintech: Pros and Cons

As we finish our third week of this year’s Sports and EventTech program, we are excited to introduce another member of the 2022 cohort- 

.  We met with SparkUp Studios founders Luke Santamaria and Matt Fenby to learn about their first product, SportzFan, and their mission to optimise fan communities.

Sports fans are becoming increasingly digitally-oriented while sports teams, and their sponsors, are still using outdated methods to connect. The team at SparkUp Studios recognise this disparity and saw how it's leading to poor fan engagement. 

With that, they created their first product, SportzFan. It's a white-labelled solution for connecting with, and commercialising, a more digitally-oriented audience. SportzFan uses tokenized, play-to-earn game mechanics which motivates fans to consume the content of their favourite sports teams, and their sponsors.

In addition to engaging digitally-savvy fans, SportzFan will also bring a first-party data channel to sports teams and their sponsors. This will provide fan-behaviour data so teams and their sponsors can offer hyper-personalised consumer experiences.

As the discussion evolves, Luke and Matt shared their individual takeaways from selection day. Luke was excited about the deep industry experience across the mentors they spoke with and Matt enjoyed being asked about, and given advice on their business model. He was encouraged, as a starting point, to look into the selectivity of the teams and clubs they work with and how to grow a critical mass of fans.

SparkUp Studios is a relatively early-stage startup and its founders have three main objectives they hope to accomplish through the Startupbootcamp accelerator process. 

They want to develop a solid commercial strategy for both sports teams and their sponsors; 

They want to improve their product-market fit by refining their product; 

And they want to learn from the wide range of Startupbootcamp mentors to become investment ready.

Interested in SparkUp Studios’ vision for sports fan engagement? You can apply to become a mentor for the Sports and EventTech program 

Meet SparkUp Studios - Sports and EventTech Program 2022 Cohort

The Energy Transition requires the deployment at scale of ‘a thousand silver bullets’. Against a backdrop of a general downturn in the global tech sector, innovation towards zero carbon economies remains a must do rather than a nice to have.

Run by founders and backed by a global network of experts, mentors, investors and corporate partners, Startupbootcamp ETH Scale program is designed especially for time poor founders of energy transition and sustainability solutions

Delivered through a series of 9 interactive workshops over 4 months, with one on one follow-up sessions, ETH Scale 23 will equip founders with the focused assistance and support needed to navigate and scale during uncertain times.

Delivered online via interactive sessions with Global SMEs

No cost for selected teams to participate

Founders ready to scale and scaling energy transition and sustainability solutions

Complete the short EOI and we'll arrange a time to chat. We'll only accept teams we think we can help.

The adoption of and transition to Electric Vehicles poses several challenges to customers:
> Charging a large number of vehicles at the same time leads to high power demand and energy costs
> Unmanaged charging risks possible depleted vehicles or vehicles with insufficient range
> Every vehicle has different departure times, required energy and state-of-charges’.


Ampcontrol developed and tailored the CMS for fleet operators, enabling in-front-the-meter and behind-the-meter optimizations. Ampcontrol’s platform uses the vehicle and charging station data, such as the batteries’ state-of-charge (SoC), the site’s power capacity, and utility signals, to maximize the uptime and efficiency of the vehicle operations. Ampcontrol’s CMS tracks all vehicle and charging data, limits charger access to authorized personnel, and reduces energy and peak demand costs. These functionalities have been extensively tested with several OCPP 1.6j compliant AC and DC chargers. The web-based user interface allows remote monitoring and control of the chargers and vehicles. It displays calculated charging commands and the current state of vehicles and dispensers and enables the user to make operational settings.

Our software is easy to install, can connect to charge point and vehicle hardware, and is more scalable than existing solutions. Instead of using hardware devices, Ampcontrol uses powerful cloud-computing components.

Working with Fortune 500 companies and large fleet operators and built a team of close to 20 employees.

Ampcontrol

Preventing tripping hazards from EV cables.

A cable management product called "Ray" that protects cables, vehicles and people.

Ray protects EV cables using an adaptable, beautiful, compact and sturdy design not available in any existing solutions.

Completion of prototypes that are now a registered Australia design undergoing examination.

Chargur

Traditional approaches to carbon accounting are manual, relying on consultants and excel spreadsheets, and are thus time consuming and complicated (which helps consultants to continue justifying their services). The alternative are often basic online calculators that are based on broad assumptions and averages and can't be used for genuine carbon claims. New platforms are either expensive or focused on offsets.
Another problem facing companies is measuring scope 3 emissions, which for some businesses would include thousands of suppliers. Traditionally, this would have had to be captured via excel spreadsheets, or using broad averages.


Our mission is to make genuine and measurable climate action affordable and accessible for everyone.

We have created a beautiful, simple - but also very rigorous - platform that takes the complexity away from carbon footprinting and allows businesses to just get started on their carbon reduction journey.

We also help larger companies to effortlessly measure their supply chain by aggregating thousands of suppliers emissions into one place.

Our platform targets multiple types of users including SMEs, schools and homes. It is also:
* extremely accurate - we have spent millions of dollars creating a platform that takes into account all the nuances and complexities of rigorous carbon accounting
* engaging - designed to be used by multiple staff, who can add emissions data, manage actions or presents results throughout the year
* links staff home footprint - we are one of the only platform that has a staff home footprint calculator that we can link to business emissions
* genuine - we are promoting genuine climate action (i.e. reducing consumption), not just offsetting
* affordable - our platform is priced to allow even small organisations to get started
*Data-driven - we collect loads of climate data, which we can feed back to partners such as industry associations (i.e. Architects Declare), Local Governments and larger companies to help meet broader, community climate targets and KPIs or measure scope 3, supply chain emissions
* automated - we have automated data collection systems in place to minimise the boring and time consuming manual data entry process
* Comprehensive Carbon Footprint report - our platform automatically generates a dynamic, tailored carbon footprint for users to ensure they are being transparent about their carbon claim and status

That we have been able to successfully demonstrate that climate action CAN be done affordably! We have helped more than 200 schools, 200 businesses and 2,000 homes start to measure and reduce their footprint. AND we have saved our users more than $2 million along the way!

ClimateClever

Demand response in Commercial & Industrial applications has not been adopted because of a) deployment costs and b) complexity.

Our unique wireless solution removes the deployment cost barrier. Our expertise and time in the market (the Founders have been doing demand response since 2015) solves the complexity issue.

There are no solutions like ours in the market. The wireless nature of our system is a genuine Unique Selling Point.

Being validated by a CSIRO backed project this year was a huge achievement.

DNA Energy

The global energy systems are facing a major transformation due to technical and institutional changes and especially due to the Climate Crisis, manifested by UN’s Paris Agreement. This transformation is towards decentralized, low-carbon, and integrated local energy systems, where multitude of actors are engaged to deliver new and innovative solutions. Utilities are adapting their business models and new energy services are emerging.

At present, most of the electricity is generated through large, centralized fossil fuel-based power plants connected to transmission networks. However, in the past decade, due to the advent of affordable solar and storage technology, this have been transitioning towards a hybrid model including distributed renewable energy and storage. Decentralized energy allows people to participate actively in energy related decision-making within their locality, while supporting a democratic restructuring of energy systems, sectors, and institutions.

Morever, with growth in the electric vehicles on the road, it is expected, by 2030, global electricity demand from EVs on the road will jump from 79 TWh (2019) to almost 1,000 TWh. Assuming unmanaged charging, the share of EV charging in evening peak demand times could be as high as 4-10% in main markets. (IEA. Global EV Outlook, 2020)

However, unmanaged and unprepared utilities will face serious challenges in electricity generation, transmission and distribution resulting in expensive system upgrades (e.g., peaker plant construction, unplanned upgrades) or grid failure. The time to implement a solution that prepares utilities and power grids coupled with consumer programming or incentives promoting off-peak charging is now – before roads are flooded with EVs.

Issues and barriers

•Fragmented market: The EV charging market is fragmented, with EVSE manufacturers relying on proprietary data-collection tools (or no data collection) to service end-customers (EV owners). As a result, utilities are underserved and lack critical demand data.

•Demand diversity: Power grid capacity is sized around demand diversity. This approach controls costs by avoiding costly changes to sizing infrastructure. EVs will dramatically affect existing business and infrastructure models with changes in power quality and usage patterns that create stress on the power grid. These stresses may lead to transformer failure and costly replacements in high density neighbourhoods.

•Changing technology: EV charging’s short-term challenge is to ensure the reliability and quality of the neighbourhood grid. When long-range BEVs hit the market, they will consume more energy, have larger storage capacity, draw power at higher levels, and have less predictable usage patterns. These factors threaten to increase grid congestion and may result in unforeseen infrastructure costs. A study commissioned by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District indicates an estimated 17% (12,000) of the utility’s transformers may need replacement due to EV-related overloads, at an average estimated cost of USD$7,400 per transformer.

•Flexible load management at scale: Utilities define the fundamental frequency and voltage of the system, but the signal is dependent on the load. Even though ToU rates help shift charging hours to utilities preferred times, EV owners often schedule charging to begin the moment off-peak rates begin, resulting in sharp load ramps (or “timer peaks”). Poor load management increases transformer and substation impacts, and distortion. Optimization and management of the variable demands - frequency and volume – on the grid, while maintaining stable, consistent power quality requires understanding of demand profile and ability to influence it.

•Standardization: The landscape of protocol standards and technologies for managed charging and vehicle-to-grid is evolving rapidly. This poses challenges for utilities attempting to specify standards and build scalable systems and programs. While the need for standards is clear, the path to achieving widespread agreement on standards is not.

•Grid management systems: Currently, the ability of utilities to support coordinated EV adoption and residential EV charging management is limited by the following issues and barriers:

- No visibility into residential EV charging location
- No power quality measurement at the EVSE level
- Data, data access and smart networking are not standardized across EV charger (EVSE) models
- The market lacks EV-owner specific engagement tools
- Proprietary EV, EVSE and grid-management applications work in silos
- Lack of standardized cyber-security
- Utilities cannot easily identify EV-related grid issues.
- Utilities have difficulty managing EV charging on neighborhood distribution networks.
- Utilities cannot easily gather and analyze grid data relating to EV demand.
- Limited EV-owner participation in programs
- Poor integration and control of smart networks, behind-the-meter data and customer privacy
- It is difficult for EV owners to understand grid conditions and best practices.



Elocity recognizes that the transformation of an individual household (highest resolution level for localization) from a passive consumer to an active prosumer could foster using EVs, where the EVs have the capability of bidirectional charging, enabling V2X energy flow, where X may represent another EV, a building, or the grid. Elocity technology is analogues to NEST in the air-conditioning industry or a USB in the computer industry.

Elocity has developed a secure digital EV charging technology (HIEV) which connects the utilities, buildings, and EV drivers for grid supportive EV charging. Elocity end-to-end AI-powered solution enables utilities, buildings, and charge point operators to better manage charging demand and maintain grid resiliency while protecting customer privacy.

The HIEV technology includes:

1.A cloud application (HIEV-Cloud) integrated with buildings, homes and utilities back-office software enabling utilities to launch and manage utility driven EV charging programs.
2.A smart EV charging node (HIEV-EVPlug) which brings any make and model of EV supply equipment (EVSE) onto an interoperable and digital platform.
3.A customer engagement mobile app (HIEV-Engage App) enabling EV drivers to connect with EV chargers, buildings, and utilities; participate in managed EV charging programs; reduce charging costs.

The solution offers the following unique benefits and advancements.

•Maximized Interoperability: The Proposed solution acts as a bridge between EVSEs and utilities with its standardized open protocols and best practices to provide interoperability with all EVSE technology. It allows utilities to collect data from the widest possible number of EVSE technologies.

•Vendor Agnostic: The EVSE market is fragmented, data is siloed, and poorly integrated with utilities, smart-grid, and related technologies. Most EVSE back-end systems are proprietary and cannot integrate or scale with electric utility systems such as smart metering and grid management systems. Proposed solution works with any EVSE technology to unlock data and deliver it to utilities and EV owners.

•Utility collaboration: EV technologies typically focus on the consumer. Proposed technology is one of its kind to focus on the needs of electric utilities and provide tools related EV demand response specifically and give utilities and business owners a direct control to EV charging.

•End-to-end: Currently, EV-charging technologies are consumer, or the grid focused, without connecting consumer behaviour/demand to grid performance and power quality. Proposed product connects the consumers EV chargers, smart meters, and demand management systems of the utilities. It’s an end-to-end solution, which fills a gap in the marketplace.

•Privacy preservation and selective disclosure: EV owners are concerned about their privacy, and the data ownership, limiting their participation in EV demand management programs. The proposed project will deliver a novel privacy preservation framework based on blockchain.

•Power quality measurements: Offers the real-time power quality measurements to utilities and the customers.

EV charging demand management is an emerging field needing the technology provider to enrich and mature the technology. The market is fragmented; there are many new/unproven solutions; many companies are startups, not established and therefore, there is limited proof of ROI.

Elocity’s HIEV technology is leagues ahead of its competitors addressing three top pain points with respect to managed EV charging:
•	Novel data privacy
•	Interoperability (works with any EV charger)
•	Integration with utility and building back-end automation systems

Our innovative design and technology offer more value at a fraction of the cost.


When the supply chain was on the verge of collapse due to the COVID outbreak, we successfully demonstrated and delivered our innovative digital platform, HIEV, for utility-driven managed EV charging to local power distribution utilities across North American, Asian, and European countries. Since then, this has been reflected in the series of rolling partnerships we have formed.

Additionally, with London Hydro and with assistance from the Ontario Ministry of Energy's Smart Grid Fund, we have successfully tested our cutting-edge digital technology, HIEV, for utility-driven managed EV charging in Canada alone. The project provided technology advancements in EV charger interoperability, vehicle to grid integration and data privacy protections.

We are now working with the IESO, largest Canadian utilities Toronto Hydro and Waterloo North Hydro to implement our managed EV charging project. In India, we powered the nation's first EV charging expressway at a time when the COVID outbreak was at its peak. Since that time, we've collaborated with some of the biggest electric utilities, government organisations, auto OEMs, fleet operators, and charger OEMs worldwide, and the list keeps increasing. We are currently nearing completion on our largest pipeline agreements with two of Asia's top power corporations, among other things.

Our technology has been improved through repeated field and laboratory tests. In order to create a test bed for ongoing product improvement, we have teamed with numerous Research institutions and businesses throughout the EV charging ecosystem. With a variety of chargers and use cases, these strategic relationships aid in the development of HIEV technology. At Elocity, we believe this is just the beginning and that there is still much work to be done to make this ecosystem into a connected EV world.

Elocity Technologies Inc

Consumers and businesses want to be able to sustainably source their energy. Existing renewable energy certificate systems are flawed in that they do not match energy usage at the time of production, and may even be de-coupled completely from the energy procurement. This has lead to accountability problems and accusations of 'green washing'. Moreover, current systems create no incentive for procurement of renewable energy around the clock, leaving a significant part of energy consumption supplied with fossil fuels despite claims of 100%RE by some.

Most organisations understand that ultimately we need 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy but at same time cannot commit to something without knowing the costs and implications for their business. They require easier carbon reporting and simple corporate action plans. They would, no doubt, also like a simple solution to scope 3 emissions, perhaps supporting renewable energy supply for so many employees working from home.

Our Powertracer software leverages smart meter electricity data to unlock the value of clean energy using Source, Time and Price. With Powertracer installed, our customers (energy retail suppliers) can identify the source of energy sold to our end-users (businesses and individuals) without the need for a separate certificate, and can apply differentiated pricing to each matched source. This enables new compelling retail energy products such as split tariff products (renewable at price a + firming at price b) for any customer right down to residential level. Since renewable energy is typically available at lower cost than firming, end-users see a product where they can save money and reduce their carbon footprint at the same time.

Powertracer is a SaaS product. It integrates with the metering and billing systems of licenced electricity retailers so that they can in turn sell supply contracts that are differentiated and priced according to the source of supply. Powertracer can also be deployed directly for corporate energy users to trace their energy supply to
renewable generation where they have direct contractual agreements or PPAs.

The Enosi platform is unique in both technical architecture and business model.
1. Powertracer works across an open grid, showing the provenance of the energy. No other platform enables even the smallest residential consumer to trade across an open grid while proving the provenance of the energy from wind and PV farm sources.
2. Powertracer is not built on a blockchain. Our view is that blockchain solutions are entirely unnecessary in a highly regulated, licenced market where trusted data sources are 100% necessary (meter data) and trusted entities (licenced suppliers) are mandatory. Without the processing overheads of blockchain, Powertracer is simpler and uniquely scalable.

Powertracer is sold in a B2B2C model and Enosi is proud of its market traction and integration with energy retailers, who pay for the Powertracer service so that they can offer differentiated electricity products to end customers. Our top retailer partners, Simply Energy (owned by Engie), Momentum Energy, Senoko Energy (owned by Engie), Next Business Energy and Energy Locals are providing Powertracer solutions to corporations include Google, Canva, Hunter Douglas, The Port of Brisbane, Hobsons Bay City Council, Elk Fashion and others.

Enosi

Current production of hydrogen is 99.9% made from fossil fuels and the desire to transition to an accountable, verifiable green hydrogen supply chain is being undermined in certain sectors by nefarious activity and "green-washing" from some legacy actors.

By utilising graph-based enterprise resource management tools on DLTs, "Hydroverse" is capable of tracking, validating and verifying the generation, storage, transport and consumption of green hydrogen and its inputs, thereby certifying and quantifying sources of carbon emissions and allowing a traceable, transition pathway for current fossil fuel companies to modify their methodologies, practices and supply chains.

Hydroeverse allows for the upgrading of enterprise resource management, joint venture and business process mapping tools into a graph-based schema and allows the data to be saved on distributed blockchain ledgers thus guaranteeing information integrity.

"We are Founding members of the Smart Energy Council Hydrogen Division.
We have expressions of interest from solar farm developer ""Enertech PV Australia"" and engineering firm ""Entura"" to trial the technology in several pilot projects across various solar farm and renewable energy projects."

Hydroverse

Today a car is a data-driven machine, and the consumer is not the owner of the data his vehicle produces! Data about a car is not limited to real-time data, but it also contains information about your insurance, your last maintenance, etc.

We bring all related vehicle data together in one centralized environment based on Blockchain and Web3. In doing so, we provide added value not only to the consumer, but also to all mobility partners.

We are the only solution that puts the consumer in the middle, so our solution can also be used later when vehicle sharing becomes popular. Furthermore, we build our technology on trusted blockchain technology.

We won numerous awards. Last year we were 1 of the 3 best startups in Belgium, we won the Salesforce Partner Innovation award worldwide and this year we won the global automation award for all the integrations we've created.

LinkedCar

We are here to end ocean plastic pollution. We believe 'you will protect what you love', so we are striving to find ways for consumers to truly connect with the environment around them on a deeper level.

Through our pilot product: phone cases. Made from 100% recycled ocean-bound plastic.

We chose to start with phone cases because 90% of the world’s population have a phone. This way, we can put ocean conservation, quite literally, in the hands of the individual.

This is sure to get the conversation going.

Current environmental phone cases on the market are made from compostable materials.

These cases have a limited shelf life, and do not protect your phone. The cases are also made from products from the mass agricultural industry, which is an environmental concern within itself.

Zawn's cases offer superior phone protection, unlimited shelf life, and use a material that is taken from where it's causing harm, and repurposed into a usable and functional product that can do the job it's designed to do

We've formed 2 strategic partnerships

1. Honest Ocean Materials - by giving plastic waste a value, our plastic supplier partnership employs struggling fishing communities in cleaning beaches and waterways from plastic when they're outfished by commercial fisherman
2. SeaTress project - we support coral, mangrove and kelp forest restoration projects, as well as sequestering more carbon than we emit, and improving marine and coastal biodiversity.

Zawn

ZScore Technologies is an AI powered platform that enable organisations to understand and extract value from their data through advanced data profiling.

Zscore Technologies

A 4-month program designed to support entrepreneurs scale their industry-changing technology businesses.

Expert-led sessions covering all scaling fundamentals - from pricing to fundraising in 2023.

Connections to the leading corporates in your industry for pilot projects, partnership opportunities, and as customers.

Unmatched access to a global network of mentors, corporate partners, industry experts, and alumni across 40+ countries.

Over 100 carefully selected mentors from the energy industry who provide hands-on support and valuable introductions.

More than $500,000 AUD in exclusive partner deals from leading technology providers such as Amazon, Stripe, F6S and others.

A day to celebrate your achievements during the program with investors, corporates, mentors and press attendees.

Meet most active VCs and Angel investors in your industry from around the world.

A scale program designed for energy transition and sustainability Scaleups

Stuart has worked and consulted at all links of the energy supply chain across 4 continents. In 2012 he co-founded a digital energy tech start-up that was listed on the ASX in 2017. Since then he has been mentoring dozens of start-ups with SBC and this year, has joined SBC as energy partner, helping clients, start-ups and scale ups across all of our programs. The clean energy transition is the most profound transformation the sector will ever experience, opening up a world of challenges and huge opportunities.

Energy Partner

Stuart Allinson

Incredibly passion-driven enthusiast, Adri is an industrial engineer who likes to sing and play the guitar while being involved in sustainable development and environmental projects since university.

One of Adri's most significant accomplishments has been creating a mathematical operational model for Econduce's new investor's round; this included meticulous analyses of CAPEX and OPEX and forecasting three possible scenarios that presented an average cost-efficient savings of 25%.

Has been with Startupbootcamp since 2022 when she finished her MBA, and has run startup programs across Asia and Australia.

Program Manager - Energy

Adriana García Cota

There is no cost to apply or participate in the EnergyTech Hub scale program.

What is the cost to apply to the program?

The EnergyTech Hub program is a Victorian Government-backed initiative, offering zero equity, catering to Victorian Scaleups aiming to expand internationally and Overseas Scaleups seeking to establish a presence in the Australian Market.

Do you take equity?

No, there is no requirement to travel to Victoria to participate. All sessions will be run online. Teams already located in Melbourne will be connected with our international network, and overseas teams looking to expand into Australia will be connected with our networks here. 

If you do come to Australia, we're happy to meet and assist.

Do I need to travel to Melbourne, Victoria to take part?

Complete the EOI, the link is at the top & bottom of this page.

How do I apply for the program?

Scaleups working in the energy transition or sustainability fields. This is not a startup program, so we are looking for teams that have a product or service in market and are now looking to scale.

Who is eligible to apply? 

A scale program designed to help busy founders unlock barriers to rapidly grow their energy transition and sustainability scaleups. Complete the EOI below to find out more.

The EnergyTech Hub (ETH) headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, is the collaboration platform connecting international, market-ready scaleups with Australia’s energy industry and local scaleups with our extensive network in overseas markets.

Now in its forth year, the 4 month program will cover the key challenges we’ve identified that scaleups face during their growth phase. Each session will be delivered by a subject matter expert. Topics include:

Leadership decisions and Managing Under stress

Our program connects you with mentors, industry leaders, and investors to make your ideas change the world. World-class experts will also assist you in overcoming your biggest scaling challenge.

EnergyTech Hub

Stay up to date with our 2023 cohort here

The Victorian Clean Technology Fund has been providing critical seed and pre-seed funding to clean technology start-ups for 18 years.  VCTF fills a notoriously difficult gap, offering venture and loan funding to support early-stage companies, when alternative funding is either not available or insufficient to demonstrate the technological or commercial potential of a new technology. In short, VCTF effectively de-risks those companies for subsequent investment by larger funds.

VCTF has invested in 26 companies, fostering multiple new technologies and supporting hundreds of new, highly-skilled jobs. VCTF has made investments in over 10 different cleantech sectors including renewable power, alternate fuels, recycling and waste, energy efficient manufacturing and energy storage/management.

Victorian Clean Technology Fund

DiUS helps organisations use emerging technology to solve difficult problems, get new ideas to market, or disrupt traditional business models. We understand your business strategy is your technology strategy.

Leaders in data, digital and devices, we assemble cross-functional teams in partnership with our clients to take ideas from experimentation, to build and production release. We are able to bring together many different capabilities across Cloud, IoT, big data, data engineering, AR/VR, AI/ML, Product Delivery and Experience Design to deliver bespoke software and hardware solutions that really change the game.

EnergyTech Hub

About Startupbootcamp

Scaling Clean Energy Transition & Sustainability Teams

The EnergyTech Hub Managers