Eight innovative business ideas from Western Australian entrepreneurs and early stage businesses have been selected as winners of Pitch@Palace Australia On Tour Perth at Murdoch University.
Pitch@Palace was founded by His Royal Highness The Duke of York in 2014 as a platform to amplify and accelerate the work of entrepreneurs, and The Duke is currently in Australia to hold Pitch@Palace Australia 2.0.The winners were selected by a judging panel of business and community leaders after pitching their ideas in just three minutes to HRH.
The winners have advanced to the Pitch@Palace Boot Camp and national final in Brisbane later this month.
The successful pitches were:
• Arility – for an augmented reality platform for community safety
• Biotome – for a blood test for early diagnosis of stomach cancer
• Chironix – for technology to enable human-robot collaboration
• Geo Risk Systems – for real-time risk management software
• Kiwa Techwear – for high-tech wearable socks to assist in elderly homecare
• Makers Kids Club – for helping Year 6 students to launch micro-businesses
• Oncores Medical - for its high-resolution imaging tool for tumour removal
• Telemed – for providing nuclear medicine and paramedical services to regions.
Vice Chancellor of Murdoch University Professor Eeva Leinonen congratulated the winners and wished all 16 participants well in their future endeavours.
“The projects pitched today were of the highest quality and provided a wonderful showcase of the entrepreneurial talent and spirit we are fortunate to have here in WA,” Professor Leinonen said.
“We plan to nurture these connections following this event, to the benefit of our students and researchers.
“It is an honour to welcome His Royal Highness to Murdoch University and partner with Pitch@Palace to provide our State’s aspiring innovators and entrepreneurs with an invaluable opportunity to share their ideas with an esteemed panel of judges.
“The event aligns strongly with our focus of equipping our students and staff with the knowledge, skills and confidence to be applied in finding innovative solutions to real-world challenges.”
Professor Leinonen was particularly delighted to note two projects with strong Murdoch connections among the final eight.
“Murdoch MBA student Adam Kinnest was among the finalists with his SafetySocs innovation,” Professor Leinonen said. “This product warns wearers when they are at risk of falling and will be an incredible product for our ageing population. It’s gratifying to hear that Murdoch nursing students were consulted during development.
“Murdoch alumni were also represented among the top eight. Robert Pezzaniti and Luke Beumont Barrett from Geo Risk Systems are using AI and data collection systems to help clients visualise, monitor and manage risk on a large scale and in real time.”
Speaking at the event, HRH The Duke of York said; “It is an enormous pleasure to be here to hold our first On Tour Australia event in Perth in Western Australia.
“Pitch@Palace is about the audience, not about the entrepreneurs. You may find that a strange comment for an entrepreneurial platform, but if the audience don’t get involved and behind what these entrepreneurs are doing we’re not going to have the effect we might have,” he said.
“You have no idea how incredibly important the connections you make for these businesses can be. If we all work together we’ll be able to make a material difference.”
“I am not looking for an individual winner, I am looking for the businesses with the greatest growth potential.”
Earlier in the day, The Duke of York learnt how the innovative application of technology is enhancing teaching, learning and research during a short tour of Murdoch University.
The Duke met with University leaders, students, staff and researchers, and had the opportunity to try teaching in Murdoch’s virtual classroom, the SimLab.
HRH also encountered two species of endangered black cockatoos, courtesy of Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Conservation Centre, and learnt how Murdoch researchers are using satellite and GPS trackers to study them.
Finally, The Duke met researchers from Murdoch’s Harry Butler Institute who demonstrated how they are training AI to identify invasive species of animals and plants.