{"id":38369,"date":"2023-10-20T14:56:02","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/queensland-startup-jesi-closes-1-million-seed-round-led-by-the-state-government-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T14:56:02","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:56:02","slug":"queensland-startup-jesi-closes-1-million-seed-round-led-by-the-state-government-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/queensland-startup-jesi-closes-1-million-seed-round-led-by-the-state-government-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Queensland startup JESI closes $1 million seed round led by the state government – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

A Queensland mobile workforce software startup has closed a $1 million seed round led by a state government co-investment, the first funding dished out to a regional company.<\/p>\n

Townsville-based JESI, which offers B2B software to track workers movements between sites, secured $500,000 in funding\u00a0from the Queensland government’s Business Development Fund along with a co-investment of the same amount from Future Now Ventures.<\/p>\n

JESI founder and CEO Joe Hoolahan says he applied to Advance Queensland for the funding in December, and the \u201clong\u201d process has provided several lessons.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust be patient and prepared to be very clear about what the business is about,\u201d Hoolahan tells StartupSmart<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis process has proven that you have to be diligent in your business practices and knowledge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is fantastic validation and reward for the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JESI<\/p>\n

A global business from Townsville<\/h3>\n

JESI offers a workforce solution that aims to make the movements of workers safer by tracking and reporting across different work sites. The software platform reminds users to check-in at locations and if they fail to do so an automated alert process is activated.<\/p>\n

The company is still based in Townsville but also has a US presence in Houston and has secured a business partner in Oman to provide Arabic translations and business development in the country.<\/p>\n

The cash injection into the two-year old startup will be used for one thing: scale.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really is about getting the product to develop as far as we can as soon as possible,\u201d Hoolahan says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a fairly ambitious roadmap of where we want the product to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

It marks the first time Advance Queensland has invested in a startup outside of Brisbane, and the founder says he\u2019s proud to be a \u201ccheerleader for the powerful potential of regional startups\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a regional startup it is a bit more difficult,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have the same access to population, market, talent or the people that have been there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Government looking regional<\/h3>\n

Queensland treasurer Curtis Pitt says JESI is an example of a local startup succeeding on the world stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first regional investment made by the Business Development Fund and it\u2019s great to see a Townsville-based company leading the way in creating a real-time monitoring of journeys, enabling employers to respond immediately in the event of an emergency,\u201d Pitt says in a statement.<\/p>\n

The Business Development Fund invests between $125,000 and $2.5 million in startups through a co-investment strategy.<\/p>\n

Now backed by funding, Hoolahan says the Townsville startup is now set to rapidly expand.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got an up-curve and some major clients,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is perfect timing for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on<\/em> Facebook<\/a>,<\/em> Twitter<\/a>,<\/em> LinkedIn<\/a><\/em> and\u00a0<\/em>SoundCloud<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Queensland mobile workforce software startup has closed a $1 million seed round led by a state government co-investment, the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38369"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}