21. Spinifex Energy

Revenue: $1.95 million
Growth: 60%
Founders: Tom Warriner, 38
Head Office: Milton, Queensland
Employees: 2
Industry: Power and utilities
Website: https://www.spinifexenergy.com.au/
Year Founded: 2018

How it started

Tom Warriner grew up on a remote cattle property in the Northern Territory where diesel generators were standard, giving him what he calls his “first taste of intermittent supply of energy”.

Seeing the green energy revolution in its infancy, he founded Spinifex Energy in 2018 with a focus on solar and battery storage, planning for the coming global demand.

Growth

After trying to follow the herd and compete on a low-cost model, Warriner says he quickly realised it wouldn’t work in the battery storage market, where cutting corners can lead to weeks of interruptions.

So he took Spinifex in the opposite direction, guaranteeing a 10-year-plus minimum operational life for every system and never competing on price again.

This has led to revenue growth of 60% in the last 12 months, following the trend of 60% average growth year-on-year for the past three years.

Where to next?

After building out technical knowledge and testing new products, Warriner says the business is ready to scale and will be hiring a team of salespeople in 2023.

He also points to new technologies the company wants to bring to market, potentially replacing lithium — a limited resource with huge global demand — in the small-scale residential and commercial markets.