In summary

  • Swinburne Innovation Studio's 2023 Accelerator Program Demo Night lit up the path to entrepreneurship with a mix of startup ideas, technology and innovative talent. 

  • The line-up featured personalised healthcare platforms, Virtual Reality therapy innovations, end-to-end tracking solutions, a web accessibility breakthrough and an automated documentation platform.

  • Two startups were awarded winners.

Embarking on the entrepreneurial journey is like embarking on a quest for the unknown. It's a path filled with excitement, challenges and the promise of building something meaningful from scratch.

After an intensive 12-week journey in Swinburne Innovation Studio’s 2023 Accelerator Program, five emerging startups at the dawn of their entrepreneurial journeys took to the stage to present their awe-inspiring pitches at Demo Night, marking a significant stride toward realising their business dreams.

The presenters showcased a wide range of concepts, featuring personalised healthcare platforms, virtual reality therapy innovations, end-to-end tracking solutions, a web accessibility breakthrough and an automated documentation platform.

Vice President of Innovation and Enterprise, Dr Werner van der Merwe noted the significance of this event for the entrepreneurs.

“Demo Night is the culmination of a whole set of offerings that we have for entrepreneurs at whatever stage of their journey, whether it's proof of concept funding, pre-seed, or the accelerator that gets them on their way, we've got the full spectrum of support functions for our entrepreneurs,” Dr van der Merwe says.

Suong Le, the founder of Juno Healthcare, presented at 2023 Swinburne Accelerator Program Demo Night.

Easier and more affordable access to specialised medical care

Many people find it inconvenient, expensive or difficult to access timely and high-quality specialist care. To combat this challenge, Associate Professor Suong Le, the Accelerator winner and founder of Juno Healthcare, provides a personalised platform to help customers navigate complex healthcare systems.

“Juno Healthcare provides health system relief through new models of home-based multidisciplinary care delivery enabled by proprietary digital technologies. We help patients and carers connect seamlessly with their specialists at every encounter,” Dr Le says.

Finnlay Morcombe (left) and Oliver Farnill (right) won People’s Choice award at 2023 Swinburne Accelerator Program Demo Night. 

Achieve greater efficiency with streamlined process documentation

For many, process documentation is a boring and time-consuming task. Winner of 2023 Pre-Accelerator and People's Choice in the Accelerator Program, Fluency is an automated platform founded by Finnlay Morcombe and Oliver Farnill, which empowers businesses to significantly decrease costs and save time on documentation.

“Fluency creates a solution to streamline the manual documentation by sitting in the background while a user completes a task on their computer. It learns and generates data as they complete their process, then translates this data into human-like, step-by-step documentation that's editable, sharable and consistent with your business’ style guide,” Finnlay says.

Cultivating entrepreneurship and collaboration

Swinburne Innovation Studio is committed to a culture of innovation, collaboration and entrepreneurship within the university community. Developed to support entrepreneurial ventures and incubate startups, it is the perfect place to explore and grow entrepreneurial potential.

Director of Commercial Innovation at Swinburne, Abhay Seth, says the Studio's Accelerator Program is a catalyst open to the whole Swinburne community.

“If you have an idea and the thirst for figuring out how to transform it into a startup, that's where you turn to Innovation Studio for help bring your ideas to life. We would like to support our staff, students and alumni further, introducing them to the relevant content, opportunities and engagements within the larger startup ecosystem, both locally and globally,” Seth says.

Head of Commercial Programs & Operations, Joan Norton, says Swinburne wants to help uncover ideas that are important to the world.

“We want to help founders solve real-world problems that are important to society, to our industry partners and to our community at large. We've been able to draw from all aspects of Swinburne to bring mentors and academics to support founders, so they can really grow and thrive into the future,” Norton says.

Professor Suong Le agrees.

“It's an absolute honour to return to Swinburne as an alum of the Clinician Innovation Fellows Program, to continue my journey as a HealthTech founder. The Swinburne Accelerator Program gave me the commercial skills, knowledge and mentorship required to steer Juno Healthcare's transition from a startup to a growth company.” 

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