the Pitch shortlist: Meet the six shortlisted startups competing for $100,000 in prizes in Melbourne

SmartCompany is pleased to announce the shortlisted entries for the Pitch, our early stage startup competition hosted in partnership with AWS, The Commons, VentureCrowd and Startup Victoria.

Once again we received hundreds of fantastic pitches from around the country and are excited to welcome these founders.

Next Thursday night in Melbourne, members of the startup and VC communities will hear their pitches. Our guest judging panel: Jodie Imam of Tractor Ventures, Christie Jenkins of Blackbird VC, Jun Qu of Main Sequence Ventures, Steve Maarbani of VentureCrowd and John Kearney of AWS, will choose one winner. 

The winner will receive a $100,000 boost in AWS credits.

In Melbourne next Thursday night? Join us to see who’s named our Pitch winner.

Here are the shortlisted candidates, in alphabetical order:

ALT. Leather

This manufacturer aims to disrupt both the animal leather and $70 billion plastic leather industries by turning agricultural waste into textiles. Founded by Tina Funder, ALT. Leather’s product is 100% bio-based and animal free, contains zero plastics, minimises greenhouse gases, water waste and resource depletion, and is made in Australia with 100% Australian ingredients.

Buzz Rewards

This one sets out to solve a particular problem with the current $4 billion Reward Program industry made up of offer by banks, retailers, airlines and cashbacks: they do not cater to a younger demographic. Led by Jasmine Bromley and Loi Nguyen, the program hopes to provide an accessible loyalty program for younger users without the need to involve credit cards of buy-now-pay-later programs. For each dollar spent with partnering vendors, users receive a Buzz point that can be used for rewards and gift cards.

Diolog

Diolog bills itself as the world’s first two-way retail investor communication software. Founded by Amy Benson, it effectively opens up easy communication between individual investors and listed companies — a current pain point as board members are currently too time-poor to engage with investors, many investors lack confidence in companies they invest in and cannot communicate with them.

Investi Hub

Investi Hub is a centralised solution for listed companies allowing the management of investor relation activities in real time. Founder Amalie Schreurs has set out to create a cost-effective solution for small cap companies which cannot afford investor relations companies or resources. Via a centralised dashboard, users are able to manage shareholder communications, social activity, and access real-time data reporting and insights, eliminating the need for outdated paper reports.

SeenCulture

An experienced HR expert, founder Nikki Tugano has developed SeenCulture, a diversity, equity and inclusion platform where everyone feels seen. It combines data science with behaviour science for a scaleable SaaS solution that democratises decision making to retain talent. It leverages personality AI, machine learning technology to capture deep workforce insights, finding out which players in which positions can make the most difference — a way to uncover untapped potential.

WOOM

Founders Erin Moy and Tessa Westerhof conducted an Australian Workforce Period Care Audit to inform the launch of WOOM, a subscription service to deliver period care to workplaces. The study found that 99% of workers believe providing free accessible period care makes a workplace more inclusive, yet only 32% of workplaces provide free period care. Users visit the WOOM website, fill in how many bathrooms and occupants they have, before WOOM calculates quantities and delivers each month. With striking branding and bright packaging, WOOM sets out to remove the stigma around periods in the workplace.

Want to join SmartCompany, VCs and the Melbourne startup community and see who wins the Pitch? Join us next week. Register here.