Startup Factory – recognising opportunities in a maturing and post digital startup ecosystem

Oliver Tod, from Space Tank, speaking to participants in the Startup Factory workshop 

Last month we supported a workshop as part of the Startup Factory project and Space Tank’s investigation into growing the entrepreneurial community to nurture the development and commercialisation of physical products and technologies in Fishermans Bend. We discovered the startup ecosystem has a lot to gain from embracing advanced manufacturing and the development of physical products.

The group workshop was attended by key government and industry stakeholders from university, defence, health tech, aerospace and manufacturing sectors - and it was great to have a few Fishermans Bend locals in the mix such as 4D Medical, Siemens Mobility and City of Melbourne. The workshop built on insights already gathered by Space Tank from their discussions with investors, startups, representatives from State and Federal Government, Launch Vic, industry groups and Accelerators from the Medtech and Agtech space.

While there are inherent challenges in supporting manufacturing and hardware startups at the grassroots (affordable space, high set up and operating costs to name a few), the enthusiasm within the group was palpable and you could sense a collective desire among stakeholders to do things differently. Everyone agreed that we have a legacy of industry strengths, we have tons of emerging talent and great ideas - but support was needed to de-risk investment into emerging talent in fields that require manufacturing. Stakeholders want to work together to extract the value inherent in this opportunity.

Also interesting to note is the increasing role of manufacturing to add value in a ‘post-digital’ innovation era. As one participant pointed out, ‘On one hand Australia has a strong manufacturing legacy and high engineering and design capabilities, yet on the other hand it is not a global leader in the software space. And yet, our startup ecosystem has often focused on digital startups that promise an allure of fast unicorn exits’.

However, as digital and physical worlds are merging in every possible way, participants noted the need for value added manufacturing to provide a foundation for startups across many categories. In particular, opportunities were discovered for mutually beneficial collaborations in high value market sectors, which aligned with feedback Space Tank have had from accelerators in the agtech, cleantech and energy space who have said that up to 80% to 90% of their cohorts require hardware and manufacturing support.

As Space Tank says, ‘the collective value creation from this, if supported wisely, will spill into multiple industry sectors, connect and strengthen our supply chains and create a centre of gravity that will make Melbourne an epicentre for innovation. We must create the conditions to grow industry and job value that suit our high-priced economy and highly educated talent – or we will continue to lose them to offshore ecosystems that better support them.’

Watch this space - we’ll provide more details soon of Space Tank’s findings and next steps to realise the Startup Factory vision to support the growth of startup capabilities within manufacturing and hardware fields in Fishermans Bend.  You can read more about Space Tank’s work at Fishermans Bend here.

If supporting a wave of ‘post digital’ innovation excites you – or you have something important to contribute, please contact the Space Tank team via Holger Dielenberg: holger@spacetank.com