StartCon awards celebrate Aussie start-ups

Up and coming start-ups bag awards at Sydney’s StartCon 2016.

To recognise and celebrate Australia’s amazing startups, founders, investors and media, StartCon, co-sponsored by the University of Technology Sydney, recently hosted The Australasian Startup Awards for the first time. Over 200 nominations in 14 categories and an overall winner were reviewed by juries. Winners were determined by over 50,000 popular votes.

More than 3100 attendees arrived at StartCon 2016 held from 26 to 27 November in the Royal Randwick Racecourse to listen to keynotes from the biggest contingent of Silicon Valley Internet marketing superstars and more.

Among those who graced the StartCon main stage from Silicon Valley were Andrew Chen Head of Rider Growth at Uber; Elena Verna, SVP of Growth at SurveyMonkey; Sean Ellis, founder of Growth Hackers; Nate Moch VP of Product Teams & Growth at Zillow; and Chandini Ammineni, Distribution Partner at 500 Startups. Tech industry heavyweights also gave a keynote including NASA’s Director of Advanced Explorations Systems, Jason Crusan; Bloomberg’s Global Tech Media Specialist, Christopher Lowe; Alibaba Group’s ANZ Managing Director, Maggie Zhou; and Freelancer.com ’s very own CEO Matt Barrie.

The exhibitors area featured 88 local and international tech companies, start-ups and investors including Escrow.com, Going Expert and UnicornGo!

Here is the complete list of winners:

  • Startup of the Year: Snooper
  • Technology Company of the Year: Xero
  • E-Commerce Company of the Year: Vinomofo
  • Best Mobile App of the Year: PocketBook
  • Startup Founder of the Yeart: Plann
  • Startup Investor of the Year: Blackbird Ventures
  • Startup Journalist of the Year: Yolanda Redrup, AFR
  • Startup Incubator/Accelerator of the Year: Incubate
  • Best Bootstrapped Startup: Plann
  • Best Startup for Social Good: Uprise
  • Best Student Run Startup: WipeHero
  • Best Fintech Startup: Brickx
  • Best Mobile App Startup: Snooper
  • Best E-Commerce Startup: The Wine Gallery
  • Best SaaS Startup: Health Engine

The event also featured Australia’s biggest pitch competition, in partnership with Startup World Cup. The partnership opens up opportunities for Australian start-ups and entrepreneurs to gain access to Silicon Valley, global VCs and international tech leaders.

Mental health startup Uprise founded by Dr. Jay Spence won the competition and took home prizes valued at $160,000 as well as winning all expenses paid trip to San Francisco to represent Australia in Startup World Cup Grand Finale on 24 March 2017.

“StartCon is all about empowering and equipping Australia’s startup community and entrepreneurs. That is why we’re hosting big awards and pitch competitions on top of bringing in nothing but the best tech industry speakers from all over the world into our main stage,” says Matt Barrie, Freelancer.com CEO. “Seeing all this potential in the community drives the StartCon team to make this a bigger and better event in 2017.”

Inside Small Business