News Corp partnership with Majoran Distillery shows potential of Adelaide startup scene

News Corp has announced a major partnership with Adelaide coworking space Majoran Distillery.

The deal, similar to News Corp’s partnership with Sydney co-working space Fishburners, includes financial sponsorship, and access to training and mentoring, according to News Corp Australia ‎innovation manager Daniel Perotti.

“Fishburners is quite a similar setup to Majoran. The point there is to tap into the innovation that’s happening in Sydney, by looking at how startups can improve our business and how we can improve their business,” Perotti says.

“Majoran is perhaps the foremost coworking space in Adelaide, and News Corp Australia have sponsored events there in the past, for example, we’ve sponsored the MEGA [startup pre-accelerator] program for three or four years now.

“We’ll be running corporate challenges, where we set a brief for the challenge and the winner can gain a lot of exposure and put that they did something for News Corp Australia on their resume. There will be a lot of events, and a new section in The Advertiser’s SA Business section called innovating SA. We really want to help boost and push the ecosystem.”

News Corp Australia’s partnership with Majoran comes at a time of tremendous change in the South Australian economy, with the Holden plant in the Adelaide suburb of Elizabeth set to close.

“In South Australia, manufacturing was the economic base, but now that’s changing to a knowledge economy,” Perotti says.

“Basically we hope that in South Australia – while we’re not the first – we will drive others from big business to look at the possibilities in the ecosystem.”

Perotti says he is particularly impressed with some of the Adelaide startups, such as international student guide developer Insider Foundry and fitness app PT Biz.

“Insider Foundry are a couple of guys who have developed guides for international students, and that’s exciting because it looks in well with the print side of News Corp. PT Biz won MEGA two years ago and has a personal training app that could be released around the Body & Soul brand.”

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