50 Startups To Take A Look At In 2018
Australia’s startup ecosystem continues to flourish and it’s most coveted report the Startup Muster “tells a positive story about Australia’s small but fast-growing emerging technology sector.”
To put it simply, more Australian’s are starting companies and substantially more money is being made available to its entrepreneurs. “Early Stage Venture Capital Limited Partnerships (ESVCLP) have increased early-stage investment from $620 million in 2015–16 to more than $1 billion in 2016–17, ensuring more funding is available to support our emerging technology sector.”
So as the year begins I wanted to take a look at the companies — in Australia — set to make waves in 2018. The list is a mixture of the local legends that continue to move from strength to strength and young upstarts that seem destined for greatness.
Finch — Financial app for your social life combining both payments and analytics to keep you on top of your spending. They recently secured $2.5 million in seed funding and will undoubtedly be growing fast in 2018.
CoinJar — Australias #1 Bitcoin trading exchange. With bitcoin hitting an all-time high late last year, 2018 is set to be a major one for the Melbourne based team.
AfterPay — Financing your online purchasing through micropayments. Already a publicly traded company AfterPay is will be using their momentum from 2017 and partnership with Goldman Sachs to hit new highs in 2018.
SpaceShip — The Superfund for the 21st century that focuses primarily on tech investments smartly addressed critics in 2017 by lowering their fees and cleverly letting them know it in subsequent marketing efforts.
Nucleotrace — This team is tackling drug counterfeiting by developing synthetic DNA as a supply chain monitoring technology.
Airwallex — Cross-border and International transactions made easy. Having raised $17 million from the likes of Sequoia and Tencent Airwallex the team also added Australia’s own SquarePeg Capital to the long list of impressive investors betting their extremely rare China trading license will pay off.
Mentorloop — Mentoring platform which matches both mentors and mentees in large corporate environments effortlessly. Having just raised over $1 million to grow in 2018 we can guarantee we will be seeing this company around a lot.
Petcloud — Australias #1 pet minding and boarding platform with a recent endorsement from the RSPCA.
Getswift — Delivery management software for SMEs that is publically listed on the ASX. They recently signed a service agreement with Amazon (Australia), positioning the company for fast growth in 2018.
Syntropy — Imagine there was a development team directly over your shoulder writing programs for the reptitive tasks you inevitiably do. That what they guys do with artificial intelligence!
Pelikin — A global money app that helps travelers spend and send money while overseas straight from their smartphone.
Prospa — Fast business loans made easy straight to you when you need it the most. Running off a 2017 series B round of $25 million from Airtree Ventures Prospa is transforming the SME landscape in Australia.
Zero Latency — The world’s first virtual reality gaming center has the eyes set on the rest of the world with opening up their first experience in Singapore and plans to expand further.
HyperAnna — Your personal AI assistant for data analysis and financial modeling is already partnered with companies like Westpac and Microsoft. With a $16 million Series A round recently finished the team is poised to expand internationally in 2018.
MYOB — The leading Australian accounting platform has become tremendously active in the startup ecosystem with the aim to recapture its share of ‘cloud’. 2018 will be an interesting year for the company as it continues to embrace startup culture around Australia.
Paritech — The technology company behind OpenMarkets ($50BN) now has its eyes set on dominating Asia’s equity crowdfunding with Wealth Circuit, their own high-value equity crowdfunding platform.
99designs — The poster child for the online graphics industry is set to IPO in 2018 which will most certainly make it a big year for the company.
BlockFreight — One of Australia’s big blockchain hopefuls taking on the inefficiency of global freight documentation.
CultureAmp — The golden standard in collecting and analyzing employee feedback with clients like Nike, Airbnb and Slack. In 2017 they landed their Series C round raising $20 million.
Catapult Sports — Elite sporting optimisation software juggernauts recently acquired two sports-tech companies worth a total of $3.9million in August 2017 further cementing their position as the elite athlete analytics company.
Data Republic — Data exchange platform with secure collaboration networking possibilities that just landed a huge deal data giant Cint providing them a new audience of 40 million users and a new universe of data to work with.
Thank You — Australia’s leading consumer-powered charity that donates 100% of profits to saving lives around the world. These guys never have a big year and to date have impacted 755,338 lives.
AutoPilot — Visual automation platform for just about everything you need to contact users or funnel leads. This team was behind Stayz, Australia’s version of AirBnb created well before AirBnb!
AirTasker — The online marketplace kings for outsourcing the everyday small jobs. Having just recently raised $33 million they now have their sights set on expanding to the UK for 2018.
Twospace — Transforming restaurants and bars into coworking spaces during the day when they generally sit unused and empty. Disrupting the co-working space one city at a time Twospace is spreading across Australia and looking for a big 2018.
TheRight.Fit — One stop shop for influencers, designers, photographers and every other resource needed to launch a brand. Created by models, photographers and industry stars the Right.Fit is perfectly positioned to become an influencer cash cow.
Honee — The beauty and wellness marketplace that has pivoted to become a SaaS all in one for beauty and wellness shops. Having raised an additional 550k in 2017 Honne is confident that their SaaS product will transform the low tech beauty industry.
SafetyCulture — Currently one of Australias largest startups. The workplace health and safety platform that keep employees safe with updated inspections and data analysis. The company has managed to corner a huge niche and will most certainly be dominating well into 2018.
Elevio — Self serving user education platform to drive down customer relationship costs. With clients like Atlassian and Dell Elevio has quietly been transforming the way users troubleshoot issues on the net. Further growth and securing of partnerships into 2018 is just about a certainty.
InGenious.AI — The fast-rising chatbot geniuses that are one of Facebook’s preferred partners in Australia have recently created bots for the ATO, Monash University and Bupa, all in their first year. Founded in 2017, 2018 looks to be a big year as the company continues to build momentum.
Plattar — Bespoke Augmented Reality (AR) for the masses continues to break the boundaries of what is possible. Still riding from their last round raise with News Corp Plattar will be steadily increasing as AR continues to become widely adopted.
Nura — The crowdfunded headphones that raised $1.8 million on Kickstarter to then raise $5 million in VC funding are shipping as you read this. 2018 will be an exciting year for Nura as they continue to innovate and grow.
Vinomofo — The hippest wine seller on the net known for its trendsetting designs and unbeatable taste and prices. The team has started dramatically expanding conquering Singapore, New Zealand in 2017 and now has its sights set on the U.S.
Envato — One of Australias biggest startups continues to dominate as the world’s largest creative ecosystem and home to ThemeForest, VideoHive, and AudioJungle — with Ben Chan at the helm 2018 will surely be another year of record-breaking growth.
LawAdvisor — After securing the founder of Google Maps as an advisor the team expanded to London, and have picked up a number of major companies with the unprecedented growth of their new corporate product.
Expert360 — Find and manage your contingent and consultant workforce before costs spiral out of control. The team is another great example of cornering a niche market and spreading quickly. Having raised $13 million this year the company will most certainly be expanding their SaaS offerings in 2018.
TRIBE — Australia’s most prominent influencer platform with an ever-growing specialty in micro-influencing for large corporations. Pulling in large clients like Unilever this year TRIBE will undoubtedly have a big 2018.
Power Ledger — Trade surplus solar power by leveraging the power of the blockchain. They were the first Australian company to ICO in 2017 raising AN impressive $34 million.
YGAP — Social impact entrepreneurs that back local gamechangers. Their recent Polished Man campaign, that has the bold mission to ‘end violence against children’ once again had a record-breaking year.
Solar Captus — Leveraging LiDAR satellites through special contracts to create top-down maps of the best places for solar installation. The first of its kind the company will most certainly be interesting to watch in 2018.
Fingerprintforsuccess — An introspective analytics platform that helps you optimise your business and it’s performance. Based on the research of decade-long studies the company literally has entrepreneurship down to a science.
Hismile — The duo from Brisbane saw incredible growth for their tooth whitening kits when they managed to secure the endorsement of Kylie Kardashian, having achieved $40 million in annual revenue only three years since launch.
Redbubble — The worlds largest artist merchandise marketplace continues to grow year-on-year and shows no signs of stopping yet. With their share price almost double what is was earlier this year the company looks like its going strong.
Sidekicker — Hiring temporary staff when they are needed the most. This startup is looking to fix underemployment issues across Australia while saving companies money and idle workers. With both an investment and partnership from SEEK we think 2018 will be a big year for this employment marketplace.
OneCrop — This company that has created a bio-degradable film that creates a mini greenhouse over the crops at a time it is most fragile — the result is often times a 50% increase in yield. When you start talking commodities — you quickly see how this solution is worth billions.
Unlockd — This company turns your mobile locked screen into advertising space for smart offers and competitions and just raised $30m to share its technology across Asia.
SilverPond — Data scientists and machine learning specialists for solving big problems. Still in their infancy but set to innovate some staggering industries next year with next level analytics at their disposal.
BigCommerce — Australia’s premiere ecommerce service provider with 55,000 SMEs onboard recently partnered with Visa to integrate a one-click buy button, on its platform.
FlyAirly — The team from Australia disrupting private air travel in a big way. With Sydney to Melbourne being one of the busiest air traffic routes in the world this will continue to get interesting.
Backpacker Deals — The Melbourne team delivering ‘great experiences at backpacker prices’ took out some major tourism awards and doubled in revenue once again in 2017.
