Prefactor Secures $150K

paperlab.co

Paper art is a mixture of art and science. The name Paperlab reflects this. I never went to art school but I am a scientist. I spent years working in laboratories, surrounded by test tubes and scalpels. Eventually, the creative call was much too strong and I left to follow my passion. Paper. I kept the scalpels but now when I cut, I create. Over the years, I’ve been lucky enough to work with some amazing people and now Paperlab is part of their story too. Paperlab is a group of artists that work across a variety of disciplines with paper at the heart. My team has worked with some of the biggest brands in Australia, fusing artistry and creativity with science and reliability. I love to collaborate and hope I can help others find their creative path sooner. The public speaking work I do is part of this. Louise

Emesent

Emesent is a pioneer in Physical AI – the convergence of artificial intelligence, autonomous robotics, and advanced spatial computing – enabling machines to understand, navigate, and map complex real-world environments without human intervention. Founded in 2018, with deep connections to Australia's globally recognized CSIRO, Emesent provides the means to access spatial intelligence outside of GPS range and beyond line of site, and is designed to operate within the world’s most challenging environments. Building on its initial success within Australia, Emesent now supports clients across 40 countries through direct engagements and a global network of over 50 partners. Emesent’s flagship product, Hovermap, is a mobile scanning unit that combines advanced collision avoidance and autonomous flight technologies to map hazardous and GPS-denied environments. Its award-winning technology utilizes innovative hardware, advanced algorithms, and machine learning to automate collection and analysis of the physical world. Equally capable above ground or underground, indoors or out, Hovermap is a complete mobile LiDAR mapping solution. Dubbed the ‘swiss army knife’ of survey mapping, Hovermap is uniquely versatile: it can be deployed via drone, quadruped robot, vehicle, backpack and a range of other accessories to map challenging, inaccessible areas. Hovermap is currently used within mining, engineering and construction, public safety and defense, and offers applications across a growing range of use cases.

Paloma

Australasia’s largest & leading venture studio. Helping founders, growing startups and corporates incubate, create and accelerate new ventures & digital products. "Paloma have done an excellent job of supporting Afterpay with creativity, agility and technical proficiency. I would enthusiastically recommend Paloma to any business looking for a genuine partner to work with." - Nick Molnar, Founder of Afterpay

SPC Global

The Original Juice Co, SPC, Nature One Dairy and Natural Ingredients were brought together under SPC Global in December 2024, with the company’s listing on the ASX (ASX:SPG). The Group has a portfolio of brands with a focus on providing nourishment and wellness for consumers. The Group’s products span packaged fruit and tomatoes, baked beans and spaghetti, ready-made meals, beverages, juice and wellness shots, powdered milk products and vegetables and fruit supplies to the food service industry. With a strong agricultural heritage, around 800 employees and operations in Australia and Asia, the company has ambitious plans to grow both domestically and internationally.

Wildfire Energy

Wildfire Energy is a privately held renewable energy startup developing technology for gasification and waste to energy applications. Wildfire has developed a novel, proprietary gasification process to enable cost effective conversion of low value biomass and waste feedstocks into high quality syngas for electricity generation and production of fuels and chemicals. The technology employs a unique, scalable configuration which avoids common problems typically associated with biomass and waste utilisation. Testing is currently underway at a pilot plant located in Brisbane, Australia prior to scale up and commercialisation of the technology.