CSIRO’s On accelerate backs 10 deep-tech startups

CSIRO has announced 10 deep-tech game changers from Australia’s universities and research community selected to develop their innovative ventures through the science organisation’s ON Accelerate programme.

The innovators backed include nascent companies working with AI, new materials, nasal vaccines, the Internet of Things (Iot) and plant proteins.

They draw on a number of inspirations, in the case of Rainstick from North Queensland on their indigenous roots.

The Rainstick team (pictured) is a northern Queensland startup combining indigenous knowledge systems and modern electrokinetics to encourage fungi and plants’ natural systems to grow faster and increase yield. Rainstick is working with researchers at James Cook University.

CSIRO Chief Executive Larry Marshall said the ON program has been part of transforming Australian innovation since 2015.

Marshall said: “As the national science agency, CSIRO solves Australia’s greatest challenges with science, and there is no greater challenge than our innovation dilemma – solve that and we can solve anything.

“CSIRO’s ON Program has become a world-leading innovation catalyst because it inspires Australia’s scientists to turn their science into real world solutions for our greatest challenges.

“ON recognises that innovation thrives on diversity and doing things differently. When you redefine old school paradigms of leadership, you can drive financial performance and reinvent industries.

Since the ON Program began in 2015, 66 new companies have been formed, raising more than $110 million in investment capital and creating more than 500 jobs.

The 10 teams moving to the next stage of ON Accelerate are:

• DHI, connected to Monash University, is harnessing AI to improve regulation technology to better detect and report discrepancies of listed companies’ disclosures
• Green Shield, also from Monash University, offers a class of materials that provide unique solutions for object camouflage, including radio frequency shielding
• Originating out of the University of Technology Sydney, the v2Algae team is creating a new biotechnology specialty ingredient manufacturing segment for Australia. This team is partnering with another great company, one born out of CSIRO technology, v2food
• Rainstick is a northern Queensland startup combining indigenous knowledge systems and modern electrokinetics to encourage fungi and plants’ natural systems to grow faster and increase yield. Rainstick is working with researchers at James Cook University
• The SpritzOM team from Telethon Kids Institute is working to develop a low-cost nasal vaccine to prevent ear infections. There are no approved vaccines that successfully targets the major pathogen responsible for the most common ear infections.
• The Application Development team at WEHI has developed an information system to manage animals in research environments. Through venture creation, the team will deliver a solution that helps organisations working with animals improve their ethical treatment, lower the cost and improve efficiency
• Thaum, a startup team from the ANU Research School of Physics deep-tech incubator Momentum, is commercialising WhalePOD. WhalePOD’s disruptive vision capabilities help offshore industries implement harm mitigation strategies to protect marine mammals
• Cognitag, a team from CSIRO is helping tap into the phenomenal un-mined potential of Internet of Things connected devices. They’re working to make smart devices even smarter
• CSIRO’s Reduced Sugar Juice team is working on naturally reducing the sugar content of juice drinks by up to 70 percent without negatively affecting their nutritional value
• And CSIRO’s UpCell team has developed a process technology for the super-efficient and scalable production of specialised performance proteins in food-appropriate quality, quantity and cost.

The successful teams will complete immersion week in early February, before undertaking the full 14-week ON Accelerate programme.

Teams will be partnered with a team of experts and follow an individual development plan, helping to equip them with knowledge on everything startup founders and researchers need to know to become a market-ready venture.

Marshall said that teams that complete the full ON Accelerate programme would graduate with a solid business model, a clear path to commercialisation, and be a viable startup.

Picture: CSIRO/the Rainstick team