Australian startups are always on the hunt for money.
There's a $12 million worth of grants
that are up for grabs from the government's
Business Research Innovation Initiative.
Applications close in September.
To talk about the impact that it can have,
we're joined now by previous grant recipient,
Ben Hobby, CEO of Itree.
Hi, Ben, welcome to Startup Daily.
Hi, pleasure to be here.
Thanks for having me this afternoon.
Thanks for coming out to talk to us about the program.
Can you just start by telling us
why you decided to apply for the grant
and the impact it had on your startup?
Yeah, sure.
We actually applied for the grant
because one of our developers had come across the initiative
and raised it up to our leadership team and said,
"I think this is a really good fit for us.
"It's something that we should entertain."
So we put our hat in the ring
and applied for the feasibility to start with
and we were successful with the feasibility
and then went into the proof of concept stage thereafter.
So Ben, it had a real impact on your business?
A huge impact.
Yeah, this project never would have got off the ground
if it wasn't for the BRI initiative.
So just take a step back and tell us what the project is
and what Itree does, mate.
Sure.
So Itree is a company that's being based in Wollongong,
now for 24 years,
we've been serving the government marketplace
and it started off at the University of Wollongong
in a small office and grew over time
as the company developed intelligent solutions
in the software space for areas like compliance,
regulation, enforcement, and safety.
So we'd been working with government for a long time.
Child safety wasn't specifically
the main that we had expertise in.
But the technology was such a good fit for our experience.
What happened as part of the BRI initiative
through the feasibility and then in the proof of concept,
we developed a platform called REACH.
And REACH essentially connects
all of the child protection systems across every state
and territory now across the nation.
Wow, and how's it been received, Ben?
Fabulously, I think it was significant for us,
with people that are working in a technology space
to be able to operate and design and create something
that we knew was gonna have so much of an impact
for those that are most vulnerable across our community,
which is children, and it's just been received fabulously
and we worked in such great harmony with the agencies
that have responsibility for keeping children
and safety at the forefront.
So Let's go back and just talk about the grants
for a second.
How difficult was it to apply?
I think you can get 100,000 up to do the feasibility
and then up to a million bucks
sort of to take things further.
Just take us through that process.
Sure, the process itself was actually relatively smooth.
So we applied for the feasibility
and we received just under $100,000
to carry out the feasibility
which happened over a 90 day period.
There were some very stringent reporting requirements
to make sure that you're achieving the milestones
and what the program set out to do.
Once the feasibility was completed,
you then have to go through an application process
to have the proof of concept approved,
which is the other much higher dollar figure.
We did that and we were approved for proof of concept
that lasted for just over 15 months
and we received $933,000 to carry out that proof of concept.
Ben, What tips do you have for other startups
that are wanting to successfully apply for grants like this?
I would say, don't underestimate the power
of this type of initiative,
which has been, born out of innovation.
The government wants to innovate in different ways
and is encouraging Australian startups to really have a go
and get involved.
And whilst it wasn't something that was specifically
in a domain expertise for us, it was such a good fit
and we were just very pleasantly surprised
with the people within the agencies,
particularly in child protection,
that have such an important role to play.
They helped us with the expertise
that we needed with the domain.
We bought the technology expertise together
and it was just such a good fit
to achieve such a fantastic outcome. Does landing a government grant
sort of give you this imprimatur
that you're able to sort of go and deal
with other government agencies
and create some level of trust
that you wouldn't otherwise have as an SME?
As an SME, it definitely helped with the trust levels
because the initiative was so well managed
that we're able to have discussions
at such a detailed level very, very quickly.
Sometimes that will take a long time
for an SME to get involved with.
So the program itself facilitated all the expertise
to be available, and it was put into a structured format
that I think really helped us get a jumpstart
on what the whole initiative was for in the first place,
which was using technology
to solve a real big social challenge
that we know is really hard to surmount.
I'm just gonna quickly take us through up
because I've got it up.
I know the grants are open until September 10.
If you go to business.gov.au,
you should be able to find them from there.
Or you can just put the name of the initiative
in your Google search engine will turn up.
But yeah, I think it's a really interesting program
and we can get free money from the government.
It's probably a good path to go down, Ben hobby.
What do you reckon?
I would say, definitely have a go.
We were just thrilled with the experts that we worked with
within the government agencies.
And I heard a fantastic statement made by somebody
as we were working on the program,
"It's people that help protect children,
"not the technology."
By using the technology to solve the challenge,
we can really help with the productivity
and with the visibility
that helps them do their jobs better.
And I just can't say enough about how successful
that aspect of it was.
And the real heroes of this program
are those within the agencies
that brought all that expertise to bear,
to make the whole initiative a success.
Ben Hobby from Itree,
thank you so much for sharing your time and insights today.
Best of luck with your future success.
It sounds like a really important initiative.
Yeah, thank you so much.