The Pitch 2023: SmartCompany is looking for Australia’s best early stage startups

UPDATE: Entries for the third instalment of the Pitch are open now. They close on July 7. Get started here.

Continuing the success of our inaugural the Pitch event in Sydney in September, SmartCompany’s doing it again — chasing your pitches, bringing our shortlisted candidates together and naming a winner.

The very first winner of the Pitch was Zipr, a gen Z fashion startup founded by Amber Linz. Zipr, which turns users and brands into influencers to post and sell their clothes, walked away with $100,000 in AWS credits and recognition among a room full of startup founder peers and VC heavyweight judges.

“It’s really going to help us scale up our business,” Linz said upon claiming the number one prize. 

But more than that, it was a chance to share her idea and gain recognition among her community and VCs. “To be able to practice your pitch, to get different insights from different people in the industry, for them to become ambassadors of your app” was one of the biggest draws of the experience. It’s all part of the way the tight-knit startup community works, helping and connecting its members.

“Being part of this world just opens up the next introduction, and the next introduction, and everyone knows someone from somewhere,” she said.

This time around the community will find itself in Melbourne, though we’re taking pitches from across the nation.

Competitors will submit their short, three-slide pitches, and a shortlist of five candidates will be named, who will pitch on the night to our guest judging panel. Shortlisted finalists will receive $5000 in AWS credits and one lucky winner will take home $100,000 in AWS credits.

Last time, the judges were Alex Khor of AfterWork Ventures, Kylie Frazer of Flying Fox Ventures, Adrian Osman of Mr Yum, John Kearney of AWS and Chris Dahl of Pin Payments. 

In Melbourne in February, we’ll once again be joined by a panel of knowledgeable and connected members of the startup and VC community, who’ll work together to pick a winner.

This week alone, two great Australian startups have completed sizeable raises. Subpod, a three-in-one modular composting, worm farming and garden seat raised $800,000 and Oceanfarmr, a ‘Google Maps for the ocean’ closed a $1.45 million round. 

Last week, seven Aussie startups raised a combined $284 million, so it’s clear that, despite current challenges, investors haven’t lost enthusiasm for the right startups that solve problems in unique and sustainable ways. 

“We haven’t changed the principles that we apply in understanding and identifying the best early-stage startups,” said Alex Khor, co-founder at AfterWork ventures.

“While the markets might have reassessed the way that they value a business, our job has always been to focus on the part of the curve where short-term market aberrations have little or no relevance, and that’s the path where founders are creating something from nothing — going from zero to one. A founder’s ability to do that is the main driver of value, regardless of what’s going on in capital markets.”

For further information on the Pitch, eligibility and entry, click here.