From festivals to fish feed: Meet the 2022 Smart50 category winners

In 2022, the Smart50 Awards recognise the diversity of Australia’s small business landscape.

But from festival organisers to fertiliser producers, this year’s winners share the same attributes: innovative approaches to legacy industries, bringing local ingenuity to a wide audience.

Here are the category winners of the 2022 Smart50 Awards:

Rising Star Award sponsored by Aiven: Zero Co

When he’s not racking up accolades for waste-reducing startup Zero Co, you might find founder Mike Smith occupying a giant pyramid made from discarded household goods.

In fairness, Zero Co’s Egyptian desert creation was always meant to be temporary.

But Earth’s plastic problem is far from over, and Zero Co is leading a national conversation about how businesses and consumers can lower their environmental impact.

For Zero Co’s efforts to replace disposable plastic goods with refillable alternatives, the company has notched the 2022 Smart50 Rising Star Award, sponsored by Aiven.

Innovator Award sponsored by BlueRock: Mad Paws

Many Australian pet owners face tough decisions each time they venture out on holiday. What happens if friends or family members won’t willingly supervise a furry friend while its owners are away? And what options exist if traditional animal boarding options aren’t available?

The founders of Mad Paws think they have the answer. The platform pairs pet owners with more than 14,000 local, trusted pet sitters, meeting the needs of today’s animal owners.

Dog walking, grooming, and even quick house visits are all on offer through the Mad Paws platform, giving users peace of mind each time they need to leave their beloved pets for extended periods of time.

The business has even launched an integration with Qantas, allowing pet owners to book pet sitting when they organise flights away.

Community Hero: Code Like a Girl

Australian employers are crying out for tech talent, and the nation’s global competitiveness will be determined by its digital skillset.

However, a stunning divide exists in the workforce: just one in four tech workers are women, the Tech Council of Australia says.

Helping to bridge that divide is Code Like A Girl, a social enterprise founded providing coding courses, internships, mentoring, and virtual community sessions for those traditionally overlooked in the tech sector.

Through versatile lesson plans and partnerships with organisations like AWS, EY, and the Victoria state government, Code Like A Girl also plans to change the shape of tech to come.

“It’s not enough to have more women using tech — we need more women building tech,” it states.

The 2022 Community Hero award adds to a growing list of accolades for Code Like A Girl founder Ally Watson, whose efforts were this year recognised with an Order of Australia Medal.

Marketing Award: Botanicals by Luxe

When presenting a new skincare line to the crowded sector, it helps to have a highly experienced skin therapist leading the company.

That’s one strategy deployed by Botanicals by Luxe, the Australian brand founded by skincare expert Bec Connolly.

The vegan-friendly line boasts no synthetic or artificial fragrances across its product range.

Now, a growing fanbase has given Botanicals by Luxe an Instagram following of more than 35,000 people.

People Power Award sponsored by Employment Hero: hipages Group

Finding the right tradesperson for the job can be a time-consuming process — and then there’s the question of whether the work will be up to scratch.

Roby Sharon-Zipser and David Vitek tackled the problem in 2004 with their platform hipages, an online portal connecting homeowners to qualified tradies in their area.

Eighteen years later, hipages has now listed 10 million jobs on its platform.

While the housing and renovations market is cooling off from its recent highs, demand for tradespeople remains extremely strong.

Given the ongoing need for skilled labourers and craftspeople, hipages believes it has the blueprint for even greater growth.

Regional Award: Higher State Co

Australians are thirsty for non-alcoholic alternatives to their favourite beers, wines, and spirits. Fortunately, craft breweries and distilleries across the map have capitalised on that demand.

The new Smart50 Regional Award recognises Higher State Co, both for its innovative products and its contributions to the Geelong and Port Fairy communities.

Higher State Co has doubled its revenue from its foundation in 2016, thanks to the launch of its Lunae Sparkling and Monday Distillery lines.

Building those brands in regional Victoria has been a blessing for the company, co-founder Samantha Manning told SmartCompany.

“We have managed to build a global business all within the small-town ethos of family and local support,” Manning said.

“We like to think that we are testament to what can happen — no matter where you are located.”

Resilience Award sponsored by Fifo Capital: Untitled Group

Untitled Group is the independent music and events company behind festivals like Beyond The Valley, Pitch Music & Arts, and Ability Fest, among other big-name gatherings.

But the Melbourne firm’s exciting trajectory was altered by the COVID-19 pandemic, a closed border policy that kept international artists from Australian shores, and lockdowns that prevented festivals from taking place at all.

Untitled Group’s Resilience Award recognises the steps it took to persevere as revenues fell to zero, from the launch of its Untitled Ventures offshoot — an early investor in Smart50 alumni Mr Yum — and its 25% stake in fast-growing digital media organisation The Daily Aus.

Of course, Untitled Group never lost sight of its music festival vision, and its mainstay Beyond The Valley event will return over the New Year’s holiday period.

Retail Champion: Hero Packaging

As online shopping exploded in popularity through pandemic lockdowns, so too did the quantity of plastic packaging waste piling up in households nationwide.

Combating the problem was Hero Packaging, the Australian startup providing businesses with plastic-free and home-compostable mailers.

Founded in 2018 by husband-and-wife duo Vikram Davé and Anaita Sarkar, Hero Packaging now claims to have kept 20,000,000 single-use plastic mailers from languishing in landfills worldwide.

Hero Packaging forecasts annual revenue of $14 million by 2024, with its global growth plans buoyed by a $1.5 million Equitise campaign helping the company scale up its North American operations.

Before taking home the Retail Champion award, Hero Packaging was also honoured as the nation’s best B2B retailer at the 2022 Australia Post Online Retailer Industry Awards.

Sustainability Award: River Stone Aquaculture Innovations

From fields to fish farms, River Stone Aquaculture Innovations aims to provide eco-friendly solutions for primary producers.

The enterprise began in 2007 when founder Joseph Ayoub endeavoured to reduce the mercury levels of farmed barramundi.

Ayoub, a genetics engineer before founding River Stone Aquaculture Innovations, found commercial fish feed was a primary cause of those high mercury levels.

Those readings dropped after he developed a new fish feed from organic materials.

Wastewater from those tanks also proved to be a powerful fertiliser, leading Ayoub to devote 20 years of research and development to Swift Grow, a natural, non-toxic soil additive for eco-conscious gardeners.