Five Australian start-ups to watch in 2014

The Australian start-up ecosystem continues to grow rapidly, with hundreds of start-ups and several new funds and incubators emerging last year.

Here’s our pick of five Australian start-ups to watch in 2014.

Pozible (Melbourne)

With crowdfunding taking off across the world and in Australia, this home-grown platform is one to watch as they take their show on the road and start targeting the United States.

Pozible’s communications manager, Reuben Acciano, told StartupSmart in September they’d grown 550% in the last 18 months.

Despite their solid growth and big plans, the Pozible team will also need to keep an eye on their home market with major international competitors such as Kickstarter set up Australian offices and targeted campaigns.

“The nature of start-ups is we have strategies for anything that can happen, we know where we want to be but we need to be a little reactive. When the situation changes, we’re ready to move with it,” Acciano said.

Ollo Mobile (Brisbane)

This start-up burst onto the scene last year, taking out a series of pitching competitions, heading off to Silicon Valley briefly and launching a crowdfunding campaign, all steps in their promotional strategy to build awareness about their alternative to the panic button for elderly or unwell family members.

Now targeting the United States for both consumers and funding, the start-up will begin their international roll out in 2014, tapping into an international demographic trend of ageing populations.

“What we’re doing is a bit different and finding investors with experience in our space and access to the market channels has been difficult here as it is such a small community and what we’re doing is quite specialised,” co-founder Hugh Geiger told StartupSmart.

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