Eight start-ups selected for Incubate program at University of Sydney

The University of Sydney Union’s Incubate program has selected the eight successful start-up teams who will use $5,000 grants to develop their ideas over the university’s summer break.

Incubate, which launched in September, is the University of Sydney Union’s inaugural business-focused program, open to all students, researchers and recent alumni of the university.

The program will fund eight start-up projects with $5,000 business grants, access to co-working space over the university’s summer break, and mentoring from well known Australian entrepreneurs.

This includes Matt Barrie, chief executive of Freelancer.com, who donated $20,000 to the program, doubling the number of spots available from four to eight.

The eight teams will use the summer break to develop their start-ups, ready to present to potential investors and the media during the university’s orientation week in February 2013.

More than 50 applications were received. The eight successful teams are:

1. WeSit

WeSit, founded by Georgia Kia and Stephen Merity, connects parents to a trusted network of babysitters online. It wants to become the leading online childcare referral network.

2. The BestDay

Founded by Whitney Komor and Tate Johnson, TheBestDay is a social planning tool that makes it easy for a group to agree on a time and place for an activity.

TheBestDay is aiming to become the global platform for “making plans happen”.

3. VIC Bot

VIC Bot, founded by David Fitzpatrick and Fernando Vega, is “preparing children for tomorrow” with a robotic kit that is controlled through easy-to-use visual interfaces.

4. Muro

Muro is a context-based photography platform that allows people at the same event to connect with each other through image sharing. It was founded by Sam Turner, James Cooper-Stanbury and Nicholas Cooke.

5. SnapDisco

SnapDisco was founded by James Boyden and Tom Murtagh. The start-up is a visual search engine for shoes and fashion accessories.

6. WatchMe

WatchMe is a watch that can save lives – an automatic panic button is built in to detect medical emergencies such as falls and heart attacks. Its founders are John Haire, Nick Tong, Emila Young, Angela Mariani, Vanush Vaswani and Jai Chopra.

7. Feedback  

Feedback, founded by Martin Seneviratne and Tom Senevirante, is a smartphone application that allows users to raise money for charity by completing market research.

8. CloudHerd

CloudHerd is an “eBay for livestock”, with extra services such as inventorying, based on leading Australian standards. It was founded by Alexander Stamp, Luke Fries and Mike Tichen.