About

I believe breakthrough technologies are driving transformative change, tackling some of the worldā€™s most urgent challengesā€”from climate change and healthcare to boosting global productivity.


As a science student interested in entrepreneurship, I couldn't really find a lot of information about deeptech in Australia.

But thereā€™s a LOT going on.

So I set out to connect with people in the ecosystem who could help me map whatā€™s happening in the deep end of the startup ecosystem.

Hope this work can spark inspiration about deeptech in Australia, support entrepreneurs to navigate the pathways and opportunities ahead, and support the wider ecosystem in backing them through the early stages. Enjoy the read!

Antoine Lavoisier described nature as a vast lab, that has been innovating for millions of years. This picture of the Australian coral reef speaks to me in what innovation can achieve - the diverse ecosystem of thriving plants and fish placed against the perfection of the coral geometries.

Deeptech? šŸ¤”

Deeptech encompasses companies (specifically startups) that commercialise scientific research. Like with any labels, the definition isn't black and white across the industry, especially because of how varied science can be. For me, the research being commercialised from deeptech startups can be across any field from arts to science, but is largely based on a technology rather than a social solution.

The new technology offers a quantum leap in improvement over current solutions, which is distinct from optimisation or modifying the technology for an application (think infrastructure vs application level of a technology).

Usually these companies also have ongoing research and development (R&D), executive scientists in the founding team, and work on physical products, but it can also be software (eg. AI).. which is usually patentable. Because of the R&D and the physical nature of the products, these companies are capex intensive and have a long pathway to commercialisation.

You might think of research labs, chemicals or biological samples, test tubes, bunny suits, reactors and machinery and lots of scientific articles.

What is The Deep End all about? šŸ‘€

I've always loved science (Chemistry & Materials in CleanTech and for Humanitarian solutions is my thing) and wanted to use entrepreneurship to commercialise research and see it through to making impact in the field. In addition to CleanTech, novel technologies are at the forefront of major disruptions to global challenges like climate, health and automation which will continue to grow in the coming years. Many of these are physical problems that need innovative solutions, often distinctly different to current solutions that can't meet the needs of the donut.

As someone interested to be involved in the deeptech space, I couldn't find a lot of information readily. But there was a LOT going on. Much of the work is happening at universities and corporates that not a lot of people would get to hear about unless if you were really in it. I sought to talk to people in the ecosystem to help me find out what's out there in the deep end of startups.

I know there's more people like me: whether students, tinkerers, emerging deeptech founders, business wiz keen on the growing deeptech scence who would like to see what's around in deeptech in Australia. So with the help of a few mates and a long, rollercoaster journey getting this together, juggling between uni and work, I thought to put my learnings out here for others. This work includes an ecosystem map of the deeptech hubs (available on this site) and startups presented as a spreadsheet, and a few blogs sharing my learning from the data I've collected and the conversations I've had with leaders from the companies I've listed.

I hope this work can inspire future deeptech entrepreneurs, help clarify the entrepreneurship pathways and opportunities, and help the broader ecosystem better support these entrepreneurs in the early stages - or just be an interesting read to go with your daily coffee.

Tell me about the data šŸ¤“

Iā€™ve been collecting info on startups and ecosystem hubs that Iā€™ve come across over the last year and a bit.

  1. Ecosystem Hubs
    These are organisations that support startups and other hubs. This list is presented in the Airtable on this website. Iā€™ve listed organisations that have a deeptech specific offering or those that have a good flux of deeptech startups engaging with them. I havenā€™t included organisations that are just about research or other non-deeptech specific investors and programs (though a lot of deeptech startups find value from them), so this isnā€™t a complete list of all the opportunities out there for deeptech startups. The list isnā€™t complete, but it is extensive (180 organisations). The data I share in the blogs provide an indication of what Iā€™ve mapped and reflects some of the sentiments of the ecosystem, but I definitely have some gaps so itā€™s just an indication of what the ecosystem could be like.
  2. Startups
    Iā€™ve listed startups that meet the deeptech above definition. These are companies that are from pre-seed to scale-up which can be as old as a few months to two decades, and range from TRL 1 - TRL 8 and some TRL 9 startups that are scaling. It isnā€™t a complete list, but again itā€™s exhaustive (500+ startups) and the data shared provides an indication of whatā€™s out there in the ecosystem. But Iā€™ve definitely missed a few startups, there are new ones coming out regularly and some in stealth that I couldnā€™t trace. The list is there to see whatā€™s happening in the ecosystem and what is popular, and might give an indication of the gaps and unmet needs between the startups and the offerings of the hubs. This data is likely to change very quickly so I haven't uploaded it on the website but you can request access to the raw data here.
Ok, but how did you map it šŸ¤Ø

I found these companies online (previous ecosystem maps and reports, portfolios of ecosystem hubs, socials, startup databases like Dealroom and Crunchbase) and through conversations with people and considered each one for whether they count as deeptech. I gathered data for each of the organisations from their websites, socials, by talking to individuals from the organisations or from databases like Crunchbase (only for the startup list) - most of the data collection was automated but all of the data was double checked manually.

Some of the analysis Iā€™ve presented in the blogs are based on best assumptions from the public data (the data on the airtable is accurate to the best of my knowledge) - it isnā€™t the one source of truth but the data gives an indication of what the trends in the ecosystem are likely to be.
Iā€™ve tried to categorise the companies based on how they describe themselves but to help analyse the trends we need to configure them into groups so the categorising into industries, research fields etc is subject to my conscience! But the ā€˜tagsā€™ on the companies are based on the wording they choose for themselves where I thought it was relevant to include to help you search through the list:)

Due Acknowledgements - Thank you! šŸ«¶

Finally, and most importantly, all love and kudos to the numerous souls who have helped me with this project!
There have been individuals who helped guide the direction and outputs for my work (thanks Stephen, Phil, Charlie),
helped fill in the data (thanks Dips, Lachlan, Michael for giving it a shot, also a mention to Stanley, the Nucleate Australia team),
connected me with the right people and gave me the moral support (canā€™t thank enough for helping me make this work actually happen!).

Want to dive deeper? šŸ˜Æ

If the inner scientist in you is as curious as anyone, be assured thereā€™s more to the data - more spreadsheets! Use this link to request access to the spreadsheet with the raw data. Itā€™s free to access, but just need to avoid misuse and spamming. The spreadsheet includes more data categories and other organisations I havenā€™t included in the Airtable (ceased, ESG etc.).

And reach out to me if you have any questions or thoughts!