Meet the Pitch shortlist: Five early-stage startups ready to win big this month

SmartCompany is excited to announce the shortlist for the fourth instalment of the Pitch, our early-stage startup competition.

On November 30 in Melbourne, they’ll pitch to our guest judging panel, which includes big brains of the startup and business landscape Rachel Yang, partner at Giant Leap, Claire Bristow, senior investment associate at Skalata Ventures, Mitch Hancock, director of accounting at BlueRock and Rahul Kesavan, startups advisor at AWS.

Shortlisted startups for the Pitch, in alphabetical order

Eyeonic

Associate Professor Simon Skalicky’s Eyeonic promises to bring glaucoma testing to the home, with a test that can be completed on users’ computers or tablets. Glaucoma is the most common cause of irreversible blindness globally. Until now, glaucoma testing has been carried out on dedicated expensive machines that are typically operated by a specialist, in-clinic. Eyeonic uses AI to perform visual field testing on any computer screen, allowing users to carry out tests at home, detect loss of peripheral vision, and gather results that can be easily interpreted by optometrists or ophthalmologists online and reported back to the patient.

Farm Automation

Krishnakumar Santhanam’s AI solution allows dairy farmers to better track the grass conditions in their various paddocks, to save walking their farms to check, so they can make faster decisions about where to graze their cattle on any particular day. This helps optimise paddock rotation, avoid under- or over-grazing and, according to Santhanam’s pitch deck, boost milk yield by 15%.

Spool AI

Chloe Hanson-Boyd and Leopold Silberman’s comms management tool sets out to address the ‘corporate insomnia’ and unknown unknowns inherent in our workplace’s internal comms management tools. The “proliferation of new communication tools, pace of innovation, hyperproductivity and workforce trends carry a large and growing risk that can’t easily be solved,” says Spool AI’s pitch deck, essentially numerous blindspots and lost and forgotten knowledge. Spool AI spans across platforms, and identifies knowledge even from colleagues a user may not have known to include, to find the right answers faster.

Yoochooz

Maggie Ciobanu’s Yoochooz is a keyboard that can be used on a range of chat and messaging apps that picks up on harmful words when typed in. When it does so, it then serves an alert asking children if they’re sure they want to send the message with that wording. Enabling the setup of multiple accounts under the management of one parent or guardian, it sets out to address childhood bullying and “empower kids to stop, think and reflect before they send”.

Inneurva

Clara Zhao’s pain management healthtech aims to assist the 1.71 billion people who have musculoskeletal conditions worldwide. In an app, users input their personal information through questionnaires, the platform generates personalised treatment plans and service recommendations before real-time tracking and monitoring on an interactive dashboard. Along with the pain management hub, Inneurva has a prototype automated pain relief device that uses novel biosensors and can be integrated with various health wearable devices.

** Update, November 29: Originally shortlisted, Due to COVID, Inneurva is now, sadly, unable to attend the Pitch due to COVID. In its place is La Foundary.

La Foundary

Stepping in on short notice is La Foundary, Melody Wu’s startup that combines agricultural waste with mycelium to create a styrofoam alternative packaging solution.

The winning startup will take home a bevy of prizes including active AWS credits and mentoring sessions from BlueRock. For the first time, the Pitch will include an additional prize: The People’s Choice Award. Want to come along, see the innovation on show, hear the judges’ insightful feedback and help pick a winner? Register now to save your spot.