The startup’s Micro Honey Harvester ranks among products from the likes of Apple, Anthropic, and Fujifilm on the annual list.
Victorian innovator HiveKeepers is buzzing after TIME Magazine recognised its small-scale honey harvesting device as one of the 300 top inventions for 2026.
The annual listing, celebrating new products in fields as diverse as aerospace and fashion, ranks the HiveKeepers Micro Honey Harvester among the 13 best food and beverage breakthroughs of the year.
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The device allows hobbyist and small-scale beekeepers to harvest small amounts of honey, without the heavy lifting and cleanup associated with traditional harvesting routines.
Instead of using a large single frame, the system uses small plastic cassettes, which can be removed from the hive once honeybees have completed their work.
Beekepers can insert those cassettes into the main Micro Honey Harvester device, which sits halfway between a food processor and centrifuge.
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The device spins those honey-laden cells at high speeds, physically extracting the honey without the need to first remove the wax cap.
HiveKeeper began as an offshoot of firefighter Simon Mildren’s own beekeeping hobby, and his frustrations with traditional, large-scale honey extraction systems.
Mildren developed notepad sketches into working prototypes, including an early model built on a modified salad spinner.
“I keep reading the [TIME] list and seeing our name next to Apple and Samsung,” Mildren said, in a statement provided to SmartCompany.
“I’m a firefighter who got sick of how long it took to harvest honey. I never imagined it would end up here.”
The HiveKeepers business, which operates as a team of just two people, now sells its harvester through specialist retailers in Australia, New Zealand, and the US.
In the UK, its products are sold through the E.H. Thorne beekeeping equipment business.
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Hivekeepers also ran an oversubscribed Kickstarter campaign in 2025, securing $110,000 from some 170 backers.
“To every beekeeper who gave us feedback, every stockist who backed us and every customer who welcomed HiveKeepers into their beekeeping journey: thank you,” the business wrote on Instagram.
“You helped us get here.
“We’re incredibly proud to see Australian innovation recognised on this stage. And we’re just getting started.”
Silicon Quantum Computing makes TIME top inventions list
HiveKeepers is not the only Australian business to earn a berth on this year’s list, with Sydney’s Silicon Quantum Computing appearing on TIME‘s 2026 list for its Watermelon quantum processing device.
Founded by Michelle Simmons, Silicon Quantum Computing says it has merged traditional and quantum processing systems in the Watermelon device.
The key use case: accelerating machine learning models, with the company counting Schneider Electric among its customers.
The National Reconstruction Fund tipped $40 million into Silicon Quantum Computing in June last year, just three months after a prior $20 million investment.
Global brands to share the spotlight with Hivekeepers and Silicon Quantum Computing include Adidas, Asus, Fujifilm, Anthropic, and Braun.