Nine of Victoria’s promising startups, including Bare, Nutromics, and InternMatch, have been chosen to take part in 30X30, a new programme from LaunchVic that aims to help 30 Victorian entrepreneurs become unicorns by the year 2030.
The programme helps Victorian scaleups create world-class back-office operations to handle rapid expansion with the support of mentors who have grown the HR, Operations, or Finance units at leading companies like Atlassian, Canva, Bumble, and SafetyCulture.
Through a collaboration with Global Victoria, the trade agency of the Victorian Government, the programme also assists exporters in entering new markets.
Melbourne’s startup ecosystem
Melbourne has surpassed comparable ecosystems like Hong Kong, Dublin, Barcelona, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, and New Zealand (in terms of value) in 2022. Melbourne’s early-stage Ecosystem Value has increased by 126% in a year, from $10.5 billion (AUD) to $23.6 billion (AUD).
More than 2,650 startups, or businesses that use cutting-edge technology and business concepts to expand quickly and serve international markets, are based in Victoria. As of June 2022, unicorns, scaleups, and startups in Victoria had produced 58,572 new jobs for the State.
LaunchVic Chair Leigh Jasper said one of the biggest challenges facing rapidly growing scaleups is to have the time to develop the HR, Operations and Finance leaders.
“30X30 enables scaleup founders to focus on their strategic growth while the leadership team gets coaching and mentoring from experienced peers who have previously scaled tech companies.”
LaunchVic CEO Dr Kate Cornick said supporting scaleups to become Victoria’s next unicorns represented a significant economic opportunity for the State. The 30X30 program has just commenced, and two further cohorts will run in 2023 and 2024.
“To date, just 20 Victorian unicorns have created more than $100 billion of value between them – so we have a vested interest in supporting this growth.
“The first cohort of LaunchVic’s 30X30 program is a really exciting list of scaleups with strong ‘unicorn’ potential,” she said.
Talking about the inititiatve, InternMatch CEO Gerard Holland says, “To be selected in a program like this as one of only nine businesses is very humbling; to receive affirmation from the community, stakeholders and the wider industry that what we’re doing has the potential to see InternMatch become a unicorn and to make a huge, global change is fantastic,” said Gerard.
“The impact the program has already had on InternMatch is immeasurable. LaunchVic has identified the importance of supporting the whole executive team (as opposed to just the founder or CEO) with resourcing, learnings and guidance from people who have been through the same accelerated growth that we are experiencing, and who have gone on to build some incredibly impactful companies, like Canva and Atlassian.
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