{"id":44168,"date":"2023-10-20T15:33:56","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:33:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/zhushing-the-envelope-australia-post-launches-investment-fund-and-is-planning-drone-trial-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:33:56","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:33:56","slug":"zhushing-the-envelope-australia-post-launches-investment-fund-and-is-planning-drone-trial-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/zhushing-the-envelope-australia-post-launches-investment-fund-and-is-planning-drone-trial-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Zhushing the envelope: Australia Post launches investment fund and is planning drone trial – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

Australia Post is getting in on the innovation act, announcing it has launched an investment fund and will begin a major drone delivery trial in 2016.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The company has set aside $20 million to invest in emerging ecommerce businesses and will also forge a new partnership with Melbourne University.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The partnership will see two new places aimed specifically for ecommerce businesses open up in the Melbourne Accelerator Program.<\/p>\n

The businesses include those operating in online shopping, deliveries, communications, payments and transactions. The successful applicants will receive $20,000 in funding, office space and mentoring.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Australia Post managing director and group CEO Ahmed Fahour says he expects the fund to grow to more than $100 million in the coming years.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very proud to announce that our Board has recently allocated an initial $20 million towards our e-commerce Innovation Capital Fund,\u201d he says,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cOver time, as it becomes successful, this fund could grow into a $100 million fund. The fund will be used to invest in tangible commercial venture opportunities in the ecommerce market.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cSo we are actively seeking to invest in and accelerate new business ideas. And we expect those ideas will come from a variety of different sources. Our own staff, our customers \u2013 especially small to medium size businesses, our partners and the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The fund will be managed by the Australia Post Accelerator, which will select ideas \u201cthat have real commercial potential\u201d and co-invest in them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cOver time, a handful of these opportunities will be accelerated; scaled for growth; and some will be folded back into the core of our business while others will leave to take on the world,\u201d Fahour says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Last week Fahour told the Australian Financial Review<\/i> that drones were not gimmicks and Australia Post had already begun and a trial with a \u201cmajor\u201d ecommerce business next year.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Investors certainly think they\u2019re here to stay. Funding for drone-based startups hit an all-time high in the third quarter<\/a> of 2015, for the third time in a row.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

According to CB Insights data, drone companies raised over $US300 million in funding this year, with $US139 million of that coming in the third quarter.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Do you know more on this story or have a tip of your own? Raising capital or launching a startup? Let us know. Follow StartupSmart on<\/i> Facebook<\/i>,<\/i> Twitter<\/i>, and<\/i> LinkedIn<\/i>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australia Post is getting in on the innovation act, announcing it has launched an investment fund and will begin a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44168"}],"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=44168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}