ANZ Innovyz START Inaugural Class Graduates

ANZ Innovyz START Inaugural Class Graduates

Second program announced for 2013

The inaugural class of the 2012 ANZ Innovyz START accelerator program officially graduated today at the "pitch day", with an audience of over 300 people, including more than 100 potential investors, at the Adelaide Town Hall.

The 10 participant companies, in the first ANZ Innovyz START program, have been working with over 30 Australian and International mentors over the past three months to refine their business models and shape their marketing and product strategies.

Of the ten companies selected for the Program, seven are from Australia: Sydney (1), Brisbane (1), and Adelaide (5). Three are international: USA (2), New Zealand (1).

The ten companies graduating in the 2012 ANZ Innovyz Start accelerator program include: *Australian Baby Bargains: Free online marketplace for preloved baby & children'™s goods; a safe and valued on-line community for mums. Adelaide, AU *Be Intent: Web app that creates more positive and productive employees, with a dashboard that informs leaders of emerging problems. Auckland, NZ *Captioning Studio: Content platform for the delivery of real-time interactive speech-to-text, combined with video search and navigation, and detailed user analytics. Adelaide, AU *Beneath the Ink: We provide a fast, fun, and easy way to access the best information related to any ebook's content. Boulder, Colorado, USA *ConfPlus: A combination mobile app and web service that transforms the conference experience from simple attendance to real engagement. Madison, Wisconsin, USA and Beijing, China *Credit Key: Smartphone-based bill notification and payment system which reduces the amount of time between the issue and payment of invoices. Adelaide, AU *iStudent: On-line recruitment, enrollment, resources, and support for international students. Sydney, AU *LEAPIN: Cloud-based property management system allowing smartphone and web check-in systems for the accommodation industry. Brisbane, AU *MySupervisoronline.com: On-line resource, support and networking site to assist Honours, Masters and PhD students. Brisbane, AU *Plan2ProfitAgri: Cloud-based farm business management decision software and e-learning platform. Adelaide, AU

Alex French, CEO of The Captioning Studio, one of the ten companies, said: "Thanks to the ANZ Innovyz START program, our business model has evolved to a much bigger opportunity than we ever imagined. With the help of the mentors, we'™ve developed a business with multiple revenue streams that has already generated interest from investors."

Yang (Cathy) Liu, Co-Founder of ConfPlus, a social media integrated conference solution said: 'The ANZ Innovyz START program has enabled me to leverage my expertise in software development and expand my leadership skills to build a company."

The ANZ Innovyz START program has generated interest from the Australian investor community. "It's an enormous benefit to have the support of the Program and be introduced to investors in Australia, rather than having to head overseas to identify potential investors." said Mike Krause, CEO of Plan2Profit Agri.

Sherisse Hawkins, CEO of Beneath the Ink (USA) consciously chose to apply for the ANZ Innovyz START program and have the opportunity to work for an extended period under the leadership of Jana Matthews. "I wanted to start my company in an accelerator that was more international than the ones in the USA tend to be. I feel fortunate to have been in an accelerator with people from such diverse backgrounds, and from eight different countries.

Dr. Jana Matthews, ANZ Innovyz START Program Director, said: 'We have been impressed with the diligence and commitment of our entrepreneurial participants. They were challenged and supported by an impressive group of 30 mentors, 12 of whom flew in from around the world. The mentors spent a total of 150 days working with the companies in Adelaide, followed by weekly meetings in person or on Skype after they returned home. In fact, two of the mentors are considering relocating to Adelaide."

One mentor, Catharine Merigold, founder of Vista Ventures, has worked with incubators and accelerators including TechStars in Boulder, Colorado. "Two unique elements of this program were the international composition of the teams and mentors, and the fact that mentors dedicated an entire week on-site working with companies. Those are powerful differentiators for this program."

ANZ General Manager for Small Business, Nick Reade says the ANZ Innovyz START program fits perfectly with ANZ'™s commitment to encouraging and fostering more entrepreneurship, innovation and start-up businesses in Australia.

"We've been very impressed with the ten companies who participated in the inaugural program. It was pleasing to see the way they re-worked their business models to gain a competitive edge, and by the way they managed and addressed their business opportunities. The ANZ Innovyz START program has increased their probability of success, and exceeded our expectations.

"We have been so pleased with the program'™s success that ANZ is pleased to announce our continued partnership with Innovyz. Together we will run a second ANZ Innovyz START program, in Adelaide, starting in January 2013.

"ANZ and Innovyz are committed to developing the ecosystem of entrepreneurs, investors and mentors. Today we are also announced the launch of the '™ANZ Innovyz Leadership Forums'. These three-day forums will address issues of growth and use the peer-to-peer learning model that's the foundation of the ANZ Innovyz START. The forum programs have been developed by Dr Jana Matthews drawing on her considerable experience with startup and early growth phase businesses and will be offered in several cities across Australia

"We recognise that the Australian economy will benefit from a strong entrepreneurial network. The ANZ Innovyz Leadership Forums will provide an opportunity to bring like-minded start-up and early-growth phase companies together to learn how to better manage the challenges of growth," Mr Reade said.

About ANZ Innovyz START ANZ Innovyz START is 12-week accelerator program modelled after the highly successful TechStars program in the United States (rated as the world'™s #1 accelerator program). Many companies apply but only 10 are accepted. Those CEOs and one or two team members move to Adelaide, AU for 3 months. ANZ Innovyz START provides a $6,000 stipend to each founder (up to $18,000 for three founders) to participate in the program. The Program Director works with each company to develop a viable plan for commercializing its break-through innovation. The program includes mentoring by successful entrepreneurs, learning programs around growing a company, identification of target markets, working and reworking the company's plan, and a presentation to potential investors on the final day of the program. ANZ Innovyz START is one of 40 accelerators in the Global Accelerator Network that was created by TechStars www.innovyzstart.com

About ANZ Small Business ANZ is committed to start-up businesses and the broader small business sector. Currently the bank of choice for over 390,000 small business customers, ANZ has one of the highest approval rates of loan applications from start-up business, approving 76% of ANZ start-up loan applications. ANZ offers small business customers a range of easily accessible tools and resources to support their business at any life stage, including the ANZ Business Insights Tool, which allows registered customers to track sales trends and compare performance with local competitors

ABOUT DR. MATTHEWS Dr. Matthews was recruited to the original senior team of the Kauffman Foundation's Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership and was the architect of highly successful programs designed to teach CEOs and their executive teams to lead and manage growth.

She is the author of fifty articles and seven books, including Lessons from the Edge and Leading at the Speed of Growth. She has worked with CEOs of growth companies in the USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, India, China and other countries in Asia Pacific, has taught at several universities in the region, and was a Global Thought Leader for SAP.

Dr. Matthews is the founding CEO of The Jana Matthews Group, based in Boulder, Colorado and an international expert on entrepreneurial leadership and business growth. Named
One of eighteen women business gurus in the world' by Pink Magazine, Dr. Matthews studied at Yale, the University of London and has a doctorate in management and planning from Harvard University.

ENDS

© Scoop Media