You know the drill by now: Simon Crerar (SC) and Tegan Jones (TJ) are bringing you all the news, views and “overheard at the ICC” SXSW Sydney gossip they can: thanks for joining us, email us here if you have any juicy news or hot-takes.
Yesterday TJ spotted a flying car, hit the vending machines, scored a bunch of freebies, and reported from the enterprise, big data and AI Pitch heat. She also did a few interviews for upcoming Neural Notes columns and special editions: stay tuned.
SC had a bit of an incident with a Lekker bike and a Simon Says green smoothie, caught up with Sea Forest CEO Sam Elsom, saw WaveX win the climate and sustainability Pitch heat, and managed not to fall asleep during a session with the CEO of Eight Sleep.
Today’s big highlight is the final of the SXSW Sydney Pitch which starts at 3:30pm.
ICYMI: Day One: Pre-seed exclusive, $12 tampons, Demo Day | Day Two: Startmate hangovers, TJ meets Abi, website issues | Day Three: Pitches, flying cars, freebies | SXSW Sydney? No thanks | Startmate Demo Day | Mel Perkins keynote | SXSW Bingo!
“It’s very lonely as a founder and recognition like this is incredibly validating!” says founder Stefan Mazy, collecting his prize after winning the SXSW Sydney Startup Pitch event.
Mazy is the CEO and founder of DermR Health, which promises to revolutionise the future of skin diagnostics, on what its founder hopes is a journey to prevent one billion biopsies.
He started the business after witnessing his mum’s painful journey dealing with skin cancers.
The DermrPatch can extract skin cells pain free, without biopsies, and at a much lower cost, via an innovative patch that collects just a few cells to conduct pre-screenings – thus potentially eliminating the need for unnecessary biopsies.
DermR Health aims to generate rapid revenue by licensing its patches, predicting 80% margins.
The business came out of stealth mode 12 months ago after three years of development, and is seeking $5m in investment.
Mazy is on his way to Austin, Texas, to pitch his startup at SXSW 2025. SC
Two highly commended: Ovum and WaveX
Other finalists…
Airee
Creates air-filters from sheep wool
Outread
Summaries generated by AI
Ovum
Closing the gender health gap
Space Draft
Collaborative visual comms tool
The Laundry Lady
Nationwide mobile laundry
WaveX
Converting ocean waves to clean, green energy
Simon:
The room is now packed and hosts Dan Illic and Holly Ransom are on stage.
“I too am a founder,” claims co-host (and comedian) Ilic. “I started a Spotify for embalming app, but sadly it didn’t work…” [long pause…]
“What was it called” asks Ransom.
“Mummify, it was a pyramid scheme.” Boom boom.
This afternoon’s event follows a series of heats, all sponsored by VentureCrowd, and supported by Dell Technologies. Each pitching founder has three minutes for their pitch and then three minutes of judges’ questions.
Today’s judges are Venture Crowd’s Steve Maarbani, Google’s Melanie Silva, One Ventures MD Dr Michelle Deaker, and Peak XV MD Abheek Anand. SC
Simon:
Anticipation building for the SXSW final. Only joking, I’m the only person in the room. SC
Tegan:
I just caught a short talk by Angela Shi about her AI tax startup, Empathetic AI.
Earlier this year I chatted to Shi about being one of three winners of Australia’s inaugural AI sprint.
Since then she has launched her Luna AI tax tool, which is what the majority of her SXSW short talk focused on.
The idea of Luna is to address the complexity of Australia’s taxation system. It has features such as real-time ATO updates, scenario analysis and automated legislation checks. Shi emphasised Luna’s privacy measures, ensuring sensitive tax data is protected. TJ
Tegan:
You all seemed to love hearing about the many freebies we spotted yesterday, so we’re back at it.
If you see any great free stuff, let us know!
So far today we have:
☕️ Coffee and choccies at the Tim Tam cafe;
? Full lunch meals and cocktails at USA House (I was told there will be free massages on Friday, too);
? Sweets and lipstick touch-ups at the Amazon Prime activation (outside);
?Multi-charger cables and sunscreen in the Cyber Wardens goodie bags;
? Coffee and snacks at the Aussie Broadband booth (yesterday that switched to pies, sausage rolls, beer and wine in the mid-late afternoon);
? Socks and ice cube moulds over at Hubspot (L3 foyer near the podcast stage);
☕️ Keepcups and fancy notebooks at the Australian Government ‘Energise your Enterprise’ booth; and
?Yesterday afternoon there was ice cream, coffee and sweet treats outside C3.2, so check that out later!
Update:
I spotted Ryde booster shots being given away on C2, close to the registration area. Also, Tom from Below Deck Down Under season one was at the booth, for those who enjoy quality television as much as I do.
We’ll keep adding to this list as we clock more stuff! TJ
Tegan:
This morning I popped over to UTS to checked out the State of Play: A Games Industry Town Hall session.
The panel was moderated by Stephanie Salter (executive producer of Hojo Studio) and included Dakoda Barker (Screen Australia), Ryan Penning (Screen NSW) and George E. Osborn (creator of Video Games Industry Memo).
For context, I’m a lifelong gamer as well as a game developer (disclosure: at Hojo Studio). I also began my career as a gaming journalist before moving towards tech in general. Today I am still incredibly passionate about the comparatively unreported business side of gaming.
Spending the last two years at SmartCompany also has me convinced we need to treat Australian indie gaming studios like startups.
But I digress.
The 30-minute conversation revolved around the growth and challenges facing the video game industry in Australia.
And the timing couldn’t be more pertinent. Last night Screen NSW released its long-awaited Screen and Digital Games Strategy.
This has been on the cards since June when digital games were officially added to the $35 million Made in NSW Fund as part of the 2024-25 state budget.
Incidentally, that wraps next year so I’ll be staying tuned to see if the program gets extended.
It’s a good start, particularly when it comes to supporting the growth of established game studios in NSW.
But as the report says, NSW is home to only 22% of Australia’s game studios and 16% of the sector’s full-time employees. One has to wonder how we can move that needle without more support for small-to-medium indies.
Looking at the numbers, there is still a disproportionate amount of funding from the Made in NSW Fund going towards screen projects versus games.
Despite the insistence that games are front and centre in this strategy, a game doesn’t even appear on its front page.
But what was clear is that those who are working on the games side at Screen NSW are keen to see the pendulum swing in the other direction.
With the panel having representation from both Screen Australia and Screen NSW, there was a particular focus on funding and general industry sustainability.
The speakers chatted about the effect of government support, including tax breaks and funding programs and strategic policy at state and federal levels.
The conversation also touched on the continued need for industry advocacy, particularly when games funding is rolled in with screen, the role of educational programs, and the competitive nature of funding opportunities.
The Screen NSW and Screen Australia reps also emphasised a desire to hear from those working in the gaming industry to help improve things, as well as the need to build trust and collaboration between government agencies and the private sector if we want to see the industry truly flourish in Australia.
It was a great, mature chat — something I want to see more of in the industry so people can take the business of games (and its vast revenue opportunities) more seriously. TJ
Simon:
It’s an absolutely GLORIOUS morning in Sydney today. I’m just out of a fascinating business breakfast hosted by Commonwealth Bank. Waiting to go in, I asked a fella – who turned out to be the production designer, oops – why the event was being held in a giant handbag. Apparently it was actually a padlock. Obviously. On second glance.
Anyway, Commbank knows cybersecurity is top of mind for all SMEs, and guests such as COSBOA CEO Luke Achterstraat explained how the Cyber Wardens program and other initiatives (including CBA’s own) are designed to help. SC
Have you got your SXSW Bingo card read for the day?
An anonymous contributor helpfully compiled this SXSW Bingo card for your enjoyment.
As we kick off Day Four, how close to SXSW Bingo Full House are you?
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Today’s big highlight is the final of the SXSW Sydney Pitch which starts at 3:30pm.
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Simon Crerar is the managing director of Impact&ble, a sustainable impact advisory firm. He was editor-in-chief of SmartCo Media from 2022-24, and before that the founding editor and then GM of BuzzFeed Australia. Simon began his career on Fleet Street at The Times, and has also worked for the SMH and News Corp Australia. He champions businesses having a positive impact on LinkedIn.
Deputy editor
A multi-award-winning journalist, Tegan has been reporting on technology, telecommunications and gaming for the past 10 years. She regularly appears on mainstream media channels as an expert tech commentator. Her previous roles include editor of Gizmodo Australia and global reviews editor at Finder. She has also served as a reporter and editor across Business Insider, Lifehacker and Kotaku Australia. Tegan is also the co-host of one of the top technology podcasts in Australia, Weird Tech. You can find her on Twitter @Tegan_Writes.
