Before VCs, a university writes the first cheque

This is your annual reminder that Australia’s best pre-seed investor is … a university.

The UNSW Founders 10x Accelerator just invested $1.6 million into 16 of the highest potential startups we met this year. Each of them receives $100,000 to help increase momentum, and three women founders from this group also each received an extra (non-dilutive) boost of $20,000 from our friends at Westpac.

UNSW was the first capital into most of these companies (via a SAFE with a 20% discount and no valuation cap).

If we weren’t first capital in, then we matched whatever the last terms were. When you consider that The Australian Venture & Startup Report 2026 found that only 18 investors made more than five seed-stage investments in the last 12 months. This makes UNSW one of the most active early-stage investors in Australia. 

Our philanthropic approach means we can be the most patient capital, providing cash, networks and infrastructure before anyone else. We can start backing high-potential people sometimes years before there is enough evidence for investors to act. We’re finding talent early, connecting their ambition to research and infrastructure, and embracing technical risk beyond what any conventional investor can tolerate.

Thanks to our generous donors and partners, UNSW isn’t just backing our staff, students and alumni, but in the Health and Climate domains, also any ambitious Australian.

For Health in particular there are no shortcuts. A health technology company can have excellent science and still require years of validation and clinical acceptance before it looks investable to conventional investors. Since 2019, UNSW and The George Institute for Global Health partnered on Health 10x, our national platform to accelerate commercialisation of evidence-based health innovations.

Together, UNSW’s entrepreneurship networks and The George Institute’s clinical research expertise create an easier pathway through the difficult jungle of their commercialisation.

Clinical Advisors mapped 131 investors behind 288 ANZ healthtech companies since 2020. Ranked by the number of companies backed, UNSW was again crowned one of Australia’s most active pre-seed investors. 

The companies we funded through the 2026 10x Accelerator are:

All Industries 10x:

•  Media City Scientific – Makes a chemically defined, animal-free replacement for fetal bovine serum.
•  Zenith Hosting – Turns open-source software into one-click managed SaaS products.
•  MotionLogic – Vision AI that analyses industrial video for productivity and safety insights.
•  UltraMarine InsurTech – Usage-based boat insurance powered by IoT sensors and AI risk analytics.
•  Vocare – Connects fragmented enterprise data so AI agents can act reliably in regulated industries.
•  Yarnie – Screen-free landline-style phone letting kids call approved contacts only.

Health 10x:

•  LORAI Health – Developing next-gen transdermal drug delivery patches to improve treatment continuity, starting with hormone therapy.
•  Geney Bio – Building scalable, GMP-ready manufacturing tech to cut the cost and complexity of cell and gene therapy production.
•  iiShield – Makers of the “Kidney PJs,” a single-use insulating jacket that protects organs from thermal injury during transplant surgery.
•  SMarT Minds Dx – Developing an affordable, scalable blood-based biomarker test for early detection and staging of Alzheimer’s.
•  EpiQuil – Australian medtech developing dissolvable microneedle patches for controlled transdermal delivery of drugs.
  

Climate 10x:

•  Byrd – Redesigned construction waste skip enabling on-site source-separation of materials.
•  Circular Sourcing – Marketplace for brands to source surplus/deadstock fabric direct from mills.
•  ALBON – Modular algae-bacteria system for treating agri-food wastewater and producing biochar.
•  LoopForm Materials – Recycling process that reclaims carbon fibre waste with high performance retention.
•  Ephemeris – Coordinates flight arrivals across airlines to cut fuel burn and emissions.

Many of these startups need much more than just capital. They require prototyping facilities, laboratories and testing infrastructure, all things that UNSW has and can make accessible to founders. 

Before you see a startup raising a huge investment round there are months (or years) of hidden toil. It starts with individuals becoming curious about entrepreneurship, testing ideas, building prototypes, finding cofounders, talking to customers and eventually deciding whether there is enough substance to incorporate a company.

At UNSW Founders, we have deliberately built across all these stages. We can meet someone before they think of themselves as a founder, help them test an idea, connect them with technical infrastructure and experienced operators, and then back those that have best earned the right to take the next ambitious step.

In Q3 2026 Cut Through Ventures was only able to find about $25 million of total investment into Australian pre-seed rounds. UNSW Founders is investing before most conventional investors are able, at the first glimpse of where promising technical work might become a serious company.

We’re doing this because at UNSW we know that entrepreneurship is the most effective machine we have for converting knowledge and ambition into both private wealth and public good. 

Australia does not have a shortage of ideas, research or ambitious people. It just needs a few more institutions prepared to back founders at the first mad step.

• David Burt is the director of entrepreneurship at UNSW and UNSW Founders.