TechCrunch is headed to Australia to find the most disruptive early stage startups poised to compete on a global stage. How? We are bringing TechCrunch’s..
TechCrunch is headed to Australia to find the most disruptive early stage startups poised to compete on a global stage. How? We are bringing TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield to Australia this year in partnership with ELEVACAO.
Many are familiar with the many adventurous innovations — zorbing, bungee jumping, and jet boating to name a few — that have come out of the Australian-New Zealand ecosystem. But, so did WiFi, black box flight recorders, cochlear implants, ultrasound technology, and even atom splitting.
In recent years the island nations have witnessed Atlassian’s 1.1B IPO, a 250M equity growth round for Australia’s Campaign Monitor, and $150M round for New Zealand’s Xero. These high-growth companies are inspiring a healthy crop of early-stage startups in the region.
The Startup Battlefield has been bringing world class founders into the spotlight since 2007, and in the past decade almost 700 contestants have gone on to raise nearly $7 billion in funding, and rack up nearly 100 exits. Our community of Battlefield Alumni include companies like Mint, Dropbox, Yammer, TripIt, Getaround, and Cloudflare. If TechCrunch invested in these companies, we’ d perform like a top ten VC. Instead, we’ ll stick to telling the founder’s stories; uncovering the next wave of disruptive innovations; and letting our readers deploy the capital.
Competing in Battlefield doesn’ t guarantee success, you earn that with your ideas and your execution. But it does put an unprecedented amount of attention on your company, help you to prepare for pitching investors and sharpen the way that you communicate your vision.
TechCrunch Battlefield Australia will bring promising founders from the region’s rapidly accelerating startup ecosystem into the Battlefield portfolio. We’ re thrilled to see what amazing companies we will uncover, and for the world to see this ecosystem’s rising founders and innovations launch globally with us on November 16th, 2017 in Sydney. See you there?
Battlefield is simple. Early stage (typically pre-A round) startups with a functional prototype whose founders are resident in Australia or New Zealand are eligible. Sound like you or someone you know? Apply here. The deadline is September 4th, 2017. We will notify the 15 founders selected to compete in Startup Battlefield Australia on September 30th, 2017. TechCrunch does not take any fees or equity. But it’s also tough. We usually accept under 3% of the applicant pool.
If you make the cut, you’ ll receive expert pitch coaching from Samantha Stein, our Battlefield Editor, and Marisa Warren, CEO & Founder of ELEVACAO. When the Battlefield arrives, you’ ll be ready to pitch your company to seasoned investors and founders in five minutes, and answer any questions they throw your way. If you make it to the finals, you’ ll pitch again in the top five for your chance to be the first winner ever of TechCrunch Battlefield Australia: The recipient of $25,000 equity-free cash prize, and an all-expense paid trip (for two) to compete in TechCrunch’s flagship global competition, Disrupt Battlefield SF, in 2018.
The entire event will be live-streamed (and later available on-demand) , and carried on TechCrunch.com, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.
To bring Battlefield to Australia, TechCrunch is partnering with the ELEVACAO Foundation, whose mission is to empower women tech entrepreneurs globally aligns with TechCrunch’s Include program to encourage more diversity in tech. We are also joining forces with Founders for Founders, a group dedicated to supporting tech entrepreneurs across Australia, and Hoist, who is promoting innovation through collaboration between entrepreneurs and corporates.
