Winners Announced in Latin American Accelerator

26 April 2018

 

• Finalists pitch-off for eminent judges from BHP, Engie and CSIRO in Santiago, Chile in the unique Latin American accelerator program.

• Non-toxic Weed-killing, Handheld Mining Drill, Portable Solar and Environmental Monitoring showcase Australia’s best.

 

Industry leading innovators battled it out with pitches to a panel of eminent judges in Santiago, Chile. The Judges, drawn from BHP, Engie, CSIRO and Vantaz Group, heard pitches from the Program Finalists before asking questions on key aspects of their Market Entry Plans.

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The Program is focused on technologies that drive efficiency and productivity in the four sectors that are common to both Australia and Latin America: agtech, energy, mining and water.

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The pitching event was hosted by Startup Chile and was the climax of a six month mentoring Program. During the Program, the companies have worked with mentors in Australia and Chile and explored the best way to ensure success in the Latin American market.

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The companies were welcomed to the event by Rocio Fonseca, Executive Director of Startup Chile, and by the Australian Ambassador to Chile, Robert Fergusson.

Building on the seven years of successfully growing Australian technology businesses, this inaugural program has been launched to connect Australia to the rapidly growing markets of Latin America.  2019 will see the Program grow its presence with innovative technology companies also travelling to Australia to help with market entry in both countries.

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After lengthy debate on which companies would have the best chance of success in Latin America, the Judges emerged to announce the Winners in each Award category as follows:

 

• OVERALL WINNER & Agtech Winner - Weedtechnics - Non-toxic weed control solution, eliminating herbicide use through the use of the condensate of superheated water.

• Energy Tech Winner - SunSHIFT - Pre-fabricated, moveable turnkey solar photovoltaic (PV) solution for off-grid solutions for mining, agriculture and communities.

• Mining Tech Winner - HI Mining - HE22 Hustler handheld fully-hydraulic mining drill delivers 25% more drilled meterage and delivers 65% reduced costs.

• Water Tech Winner & People’s Choice Award - Envirosuite - Comprehensive and intuitive real-time environmental monitoring, investigation, prediction and control software.

 

 

Commenting on their win, Jeremy Winer, the CEO of Weedtechnics, said, ‘We are very excited by the prospects of growing a significant market in LatAm. Our proven solution allows farmers to provide organic, healthy food for local and export markets and we have found fantastic interest in this region.’

 

He summarised the benefits received by Weedtechnics from being part of the Program by saying, ‘The LatAm Market Accelerator Program has allowed us to short cut the process of understanding this opportunity and has allowed us to assess and access the significant potential of this market.’

 

The Program is supported by the Australian Government through the through the Council on Australia Latin America Relations (COALAR) and was delivered by Australian CleanTech. The Program design is based on the highly successful Australian Technologies Competition that has mentored 200 emerging Australian technology companies over seven years. Many of these companies are now thriving both at home and in export markets.

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READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT HERE

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