$40,000 up for grabs as Telstra’s muru-D opens its doors to fresh batch of start-ups
by Hannah Francis
August 18, 2014
Last year’s inaugural intake of start-ups at Telstra-backed accelerator muru-D is about to graduate — and the program is now open to a fresh round of applicants.
The six-month muru-D program, launched in February last year, supported nine Australian early-stage digital businesses with seed capital, training, mentorship, a custom-built workspace and access to Telstra’s extensive network.
Eight of those participants now have a “clear path for funding”, with three of them — FarmBot, Pixc and Open Learning — already having secured a second funding round from partner VC firm SYD Ventures earlier this month.
muru-D co-founder Ann Parker said the inaugural round of participants had made a great start in growing Australia’s digital start-up economy.
“Success is many things — customer numbers, revenue, number of employees, international growth — I’m delighted to say that every team can point towards these growth metrics,” Ms Parker said.
FarmBot director Craig Hendricks said it was “astonishing” how far he had been able to develop his idea for wireless agricultural monitoring technology — which he’d been working on for 10 years — during the six-month program.
“As a mature start-up, we have learnt so much from all of our fellow muru-D comrades, who are all at different stages in their own journey but most importantly we have taken away a renewed level of confidence,” Mr Hendricks said.
“Not only in our technology but in ourselves and our ability to sell our vision and the solution to the right audiences — audiences we would have never have had access to, without the program.”
Applications for the program’s second intake of 10 start-ups close at noon on Monday September 15, with the new program beginning in late October.
Participants receive $40,000 in seed capital investment, backed by Telstra, in exchange for a 6 per cent stake in the company.
Other participants in muru-D’s inaugural round included Chatty Kidz, Lime Rocket, Momentum Cloud, OpenLearning, Safesite, Vistr and Zed Technologies.