Today, The Duke of York began his visit in Australia, during which HRH will visit five states; New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia.
The Duke of York is returning to Australia after the successful launch of [email protected] Australia in September 2017. Pitch was founded by HRH in 2014 as a platform to accelerate and amplify the work of Entrepreneurs.
This morning, The Duke of York visited Fishburners, the most established and largest not-for-profit dedicated to supporting Australian’s start-up community. The Fishburners community is made up of 403 start-ups and 828 entrepreneurs across Sydney, Brisbane and Shanghai hubs. During the visit, HRH received a briefing on the Sydney start-up hub and was taken on a tour of the accelerator, meeting with a handful of entrepreneurs there. Within the same building, The Duke of York then visited The Studio, a new creative and media-tech innovation hub which is focused on fostering and supporting tech start-ups and scale-ups creating global businesses in the media, entertainment, music / sound, communications, games and creative industries.
Afterwards, HRH met the [email protected] On Tour Sydney Entrepreneurs at Sydney Business School, the University of Wollongong during their workshop to prepare for [email protected] that afternoon. Whilst there, The Duke of York met with undergraduate and postgraduate students from the University of Wollongong and opened their new Level 10 facility.
Later, HRH called on the Governor of New South Wales, H.E. General The Hon. David Hurley and Mrs. Hurley at Government House. His Excellency is the 38th Governor of New South Wales. The Governor hosted a lunch to a knowledge the work of [email protected] Australia.
That afternoon, The Duke of York attended the first of the On Tour events in Australia; [email protected] On Tour Sydney at The Sydney Opera House, hosted by The University of Wollongong and Macquarie University. 17 Entrepreneurs involved in areas including Biotech, Education, Health and Robotics pitched their businesses to an influential Audience. Eight businesses were announced as being selected for [email protected] Boot Camp in Brisbane which will take place on 28th November. The final [email protected] Australia 2.0 will then take place on 30th November. The eight businesses were;
• Bawurra Foundation, which hopes to help close the literacy gap and preserve the culture for future generations in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
• Document Modelling provides legal technology solutions using its “Prose” smart drafting platform to deliver process efficiencies and strategic value for lawyers and legal teams.
• Staybil believes that the future of urban life depends on workforce geo-optimisation. It has created innovative machine learning powered software to reduce commuting and congestion.
• Littlescribe is an education platform solving Australia’s (and the world’s) literacy challenges by empowering Children to create and publish their own books.
• Mable is a profit-for-purpose business and one of Australia’s leading online marketplaces in the A$33 billion aged care and disability support sector.
• The Plastics Circle has developed “PlastX”, a micro-trading platform that connects brands committed to using recovered plastic with people in communities interested in earning money by collecting used plastic.
• The Generous and the Grateful harnesses the kindness of a caring community to support survivors of trauma, enabling them to continue to recover by offering the infrastructure for them to sleep well, eat well and continue their work or study.
• Tykn Tech leverages blockchain to provide self-sovereign and privacy compliant digital identify solutions to NGOs and governments, to help vulnerable and displaced people.
Opening [email protected] On Tour Sydney, HRH The Duke of York said, “I’m so pleased to welcome you all to the first On Tour event for [email protected] Australia 2.0. Australia has led the way in which we are taking Pitch around the world.”
“We need to remember that [email protected] is not a competition. We are a pod of dolphins; dolphins work collaboratively in order for everyone to succeed. But [email protected] is not going to succeed unless the Audience participates; you are the people who can make a material difference to the businesses who will pitch to you this afternoon. [email protected] is about making connections for those businesses, it’s about opening supply chains and distribution systems or becoming mentors. It’s also where you start the process of investment. If we can help you, we will do.”
Later that afternoon, HRH called on The Hon. Scott Morrison, Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia at Kirribilli House.
That evening, The Duke of York attended a Dinner given by the Hon. Malcolm Turnbull, former Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia.
