{"id":44952,"date":"2023-10-20T15:39:58","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:39:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/gocatch-takes-out-top-prize-at-tech-23-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:39:58","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:39:58","slug":"gocatch-takes-out-top-prize-at-tech-23-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/gocatch-takes-out-top-prize-at-tech-23-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"goCatch takes out top prize at Tech 23 – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tech start-ups goCatch, Filter Squad, OrionVM and StageBitz are among this year\u2019s winners at innovation event Tech 23, which saw 23 early-stage companies vie for the chance to share in $150,000. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Backed by the NSW Government and organised by Slattery IT Consulting, Tech23 was held in Sydney, attended by investors, mentors and entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Taxi app goCatch<\/a> took out the $50,000 Innovation Excellence Award while cloud computing company OrionVM won the $25,000 Broadband Innovation Award.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Centryc \u2013 which aims to revolutionise real-life customer engagement in real-time \u2013 won the $25,000 Outstanding Collaboration Award while StageBitz<\/a> won the $25,000 Catalyst Award.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

App developer Filter Squad won the $25,000 Greatest Potential Award, while BugHerd<\/a> won the People\u2019s Choice Award for best presentation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Filter Squad is currently building its flagship product \u2013 a custom magazine for iPad devices. However, co-founder Dave McKinney says the company has no intention to relocate somewhere more tech-friendly, such as Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWe acknowledge that there is a strong culture of investment with start-ups in the Silicon Valley and we don\u2019t have that here. But in another way, it\u2019s good for us to do our own thing,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In addition to five major cash prizes, there were more than 20 minor prizes up for grabs at Tech 23, including meetings with high-profile entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

StageBitz took out a second prize, which will see it venture to Silicon Valley, while location-based social media start-up Roamz was also recognised.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Data-mining start-up Kaggle<\/a> took out two minor prizes, including a $1,500 prize and a meeting with a VC firm in Perth.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Kaggle chairman Nicholas Gruen, who attended Tech23 on behalf of Kaggle\u2019s founder and chief executive Anthony Goldbloom, says the company is \u201cgoing like the clappers\u201d.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThey like us in Silicon Valley. We\u2019re in the process of capital-raising there and we\u2019re hoping to make an announcement about it in the next month or so,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

With regard to the start-up scene in Australia, Gruen believes there is \u201ca lot of vibrancy about\u201d, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no shortage of good ideas, and we haven\u2019t found a shortage of money either,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, technology incubator ilab will hold its annual investment summit in Brisbane today. Aimed at tech start-ups, the summit is designed to \u201cdemystify\u201d the process of raising capital.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Phil Hutchings, a keynote speaker and chief executive of clean tech company RedFlow, believes Australian investors are more than willing to fund promising start-ups.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is more money available for investment in Australia than people credit but you need to have a strong business case, an experienced management team and a good market position,\u201d Hutchings says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cIf a start-up couldn\u2019t secure investment then the company probably wasn\u2019t worth investing in. The market\u2019s a very good filtering system.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tech start-ups goCatch, Filter Squad, OrionVM and StageBitz are among this year\u2019s winners at innovation event Tech 23, which saw<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,21,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44952"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}