10 start-ups graduate from Queensland’s iLab incubator

The start-up founders who graduated last night from Queensland’s ilab technology incubator Germinate program have had an intense three months of planning and pivots.

This is the fifth intake to graduate from the program in two years. All 10 start-ups selected for the program graduated with a demonstrable product.

Program director Bernie Woodcroft told StartupSmart the diversity of the entrants was the most exciting element of this graduating class.

“Seven of the start-ups had founders who were juggling mortgages and kids but still wanting to deliver an entrepreneurial outcome. I find that very impressive.”

Two of the enterprise start-ups have trials confirmed with major corporations and several start-ups will be receiving some of their first payments in the coming months.

“Most of the start-ups will stay on in the ilab space from now without the accelerator program wrapped around them,” Woodcroft says.

Navigation algorithm start-up CB AeroSpace co-founder Michael Creagh told StartupSmart the best thing he learned was that mastering the technology was only one factor in the business success.

“The business solution will need a marketing strategy, a network of people, intellectual property protection and involving the professional world from markets to accountants to lawyers,” Creagh says.

The start-up will enable a much cheaper version of existing navigational systems. Creagh says the increasing uptake of drones bodes well for the commercial potential of the start-up.

“As someone from a technical background, the biggest challenge for me was narrowing down all the advice and filtering through many different opinions to work out what to do,” he says. “In the end I went half with my gut feeling, and the rest from weighing people’s input based on their experience in this area.”

The program is funded by the Queensland government and part of the University of Queensland’s commercialisation arm, UniQuest.

They recently launched a $1.5 million fund for the program in partnership with Artesian Ventures.

In a statement, the Queensland Minister for Science, Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts, Ian Walker, said technology start-ups will be agents for diversification of the Queensland economy.

“As a government, we need to create the best environment we can to help get new products, services and innovative processes to market,” Walker said.

Applications are now open for sixth intake and close April 8.

The team behind ilab also recently ran a rapid, mass mentoring event for start-ups in the Indooroopilly area.