From quantum technology and AI to biotech and space tech, 55 startups are preparing to impress with big ideas at UNSW’s annual Investor Showcase.
This Thursday, October 15, these entrepreneurs will have the chance to put their best founder foot forward in front of investors.
Investors can register their interest in attending here.
The invite-only investor event promises plenty of big ideas and business opportunities.
Here’s a taste of some of the projects and opportunities attendees will hear about:
Quantum Lock
Founded by Dr Jesse Laeuchli, Quantum Lock is developing a new way to protect critical infrastructure from cyber threats.
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Power grids, financial exchanges and data centres need to know their hardware hasn’t been tampered with or compromised. Quantum Lock uses entangled photons and quantum communication protocols to detect intrusion attempts at the device level, offering a physics-based way to verify that mission-critical hardware remains secure.
Founded: 2025 | Stage: Pre-seed
SWAN Genomics
Founded by Dr Lawrence Lee, Dr Min Huang, Brock Siegel and William Hyun, SWAN Genomics is commercialising the world’s first single-molecule DNA sequencing platform built on plasmonic nanoantennas.
Protected by seven patent filings and backed by more than US$6M from investors, the UNSW spinout bridges short-read accuracy and long-read capability to deliver scalable, cost-effective sequencing across research, biotech and clinical diagnostics.
Founded: 2023 | Stage: Series A
DataCruiser
Founded by Flora Salim, Hao Xue and Devin Hua, DataCruiser is building AI for the moving world.
Physical infrastructure operators lack unified predictive insights to make decisions in dynamic, unobservable environments. DataCruiser’s platform ingests real-time physical data to forecast demand spikes, spot anomalies and run proactive “what-if” simulations on the fly.
Founded: 2024 | Stage: Seed
DeCarice
Founded by Goran Bozic and Prof. Shawn Kook, DeCarice is a UNSW spinout tackling the challenge of decarbonising heavy diesel fleets.
Transitioning heavy commercial diesel fleets to zero-emission alternatives is expensive and slow to deploy at scale, making existing clean power technologies non-viable for many heavy industrial businesses.
DeCarice adapts diesel engines to run as hydrogen or natural gas hybrids, helping decarbonise heavy diesel fleets without sacrificing performance. The company has developed a prototype engine and has four pilot projects in the pipeline.
Founded: 2023 | Stage: Seed
EpiQuil
Founded by Hélène Klein and Tushar Kumeria, EpiQuil is developing a proprietary dissolving microneedle patch for the transdermal delivery of lipophilic drugs to treat severe, drug-resistant childhood and adult epilepsies, including Lennox-Gastaut syndrome.
The patch aims to eliminate the daily burden of high-volume oral oils, delivering consistent therapeutic doses through the skin to increase bioavailability while improving quality of life for patients and caregivers.
Founded: 2025 | Stage: Pre-seed
Skykraft
Founded by Dr Craig Benson and Doug Griffin, Skykraft build and operates its own constellation of satellites to deliver real-time air traffic management.
Air traffic control systems don’t work over oceans and in remote areas, leaving major surveillance and safety gaps, particularly in nations with infrastructure challenges such as Papua New Guinea. Skykraft’s satellites deliver real-time global VHF communication and air traffic tracking. Backed by more than $100 million in funding, with 10 satellites already in orbit, the space tech pioneer overcomes line-of-sight radar limits to provide continuous, space-enabled air traffic management for commercial airlines and navigation service providers worldwide.
Founded: 2017 | Stage: Series B
CounterCurrent
Founded by Shane Keating, CounterCurrent has built the “Google Maps for the sea”, using satellite data and onboard sensors to deliver real-time, hyperlocal ocean forecasts.
Around 11 billion tonnes of cargo are shipped by sea each year. Rising fuel costs and tightening emissions regulations are putting increasing pressure on shipping operators to improve fuel efficiency, reduce emissions and maintain profitability. CounterCurrent’s AI routing system cuts commercial vessel fuel burn and emissions by 10–25 per cent without requiring vessel modifications, saving operators up to AUD $9 million per ship annually.
Founded: 2024 | Stage: Pre-seed
More startups to watch
Additional companies that will be at the Showcase include:
- Advanced Ally Holdings: Tailored alloy solutions for advanced applications.
- ALBON: Wastewater treatment spinout that can turn harvested biomass into a saleable soil amendment.
- AZX Biotech: A therapeutic solution for knee pain and osteoarthritis.
- Byrd: Redesigns construction waste bins to enable easy, multi-stream source separation on-site while providing builders with real-time waste analytics.
- Canopus Networks: Delivers an agentic AI network observability platform that gives telecommunications and enterprise teams real-time, autonomous intelligence across applications and security threats.
- Carbon Hills: Upgrades raw waste biogas into grid-ready, renewable biomethane using a modular, low-cost separation technology.
- CardioLife: Manufactures a single universal console architecture that powers and monitors three distinct cardiac support devices across acute to long-term heart failure care.
- Circular Sourcing: Operates a B2B marketplace and data platform for apparel brands to buy surplus textiles directly from mills in small batches.
- Diraq: Fault-tolerant quantum processors using standard silicon CMOS manufacturing techniques to scale qubit counts on a single chip, recently secured US$51M from DARPA.
- EcoPeroxy: Generates green hydrogen peroxide disinfectant on-site using only water, air, and electricity, eliminating hazardous chemical transport.
- Ephemeris: Crowdsources live flight data to issue speed advisories for optimal arrival sequencing, cutting holding times and fuel burn.
- EPIWATCH: Operates an autonomous AI early-warning system that analyses global open-source data to detect epidemic and pandemic threats in real time.
- Geney Bio: Develops programmable RNA therapeutics and delivery systems targeting hard-to-treat genetic conditions.
- Ginigai: Creates culturally grounded, AI-driven digital health tools for First Nations communities.
- Hullbot: Deploys autonomous underwater robots to clean biofouling from ship hulls, reducing hydrodynamic drag and cutting fuel costs by up to 28%.
- iFire 2.0: Provides an AI-powered wildfire simulation platform used for frontline crew training, real-time fire spread modelling, and risk management.
- IIK Materials: Manufactures sustainable, high-performance concrete alternatives and advanced binders from industrial waste streams.
- iiShield: Develops smart sensor monitoring systems for organ preservation during transport to improve transplant viability.
- Jumpstart Fertility: Commercialises therapeutic compounds designed to improve egg quality and restore reproductive health in older women.
- Juno AI: Builds sovereign, educational AI models and tools that guide students through reasoning step-by-step rather than giving away direct answers.
- Lamina: Develops thin-film optical coatings and surface solutions for next-generation defence and aerospace applications.
- LoopForm Materials: Transforms hard-to-recycle plastic waste into structural, high-durability composite materials for construction.
- LORAI Health: Provides an AI-driven clinical workflow assistant that automates documentation and administrative burden for healthcare providers.
- MapAI: Creates AI-driven geospatial analysis tools that transform satellite imagery into actionable terrain and asset intelligence.
- Media City Scientific: Develops specialised laboratory reagents and diagnostic assays to accelerate life sciences research.
- Merge Energy: Delivers intelligent software that orchestrates and optimises distributed energy resources and microgrids in real time.
- MINIMUM bio: Uses a biosynthetic closed-loop discovery platform to design novel rapalog molecular glues and rapidly map their targets across the entire human proteome.
- MotionLogic: Builds motion-tracking and biomechanical analysis software for clinical rehabilitation and athletic performance.
- OmniTx.ai: Leverages generative AI to accelerate antibody discovery and optimise therapeutic lead candidates.
- OxyLo: Develops oxygen-enhancing medical therapies to improve radiation treatment efficacy in solid tumours.
- OzAmmonia: Commercialises zero-emission, zero-carbon green ammonia production technology for agriculture and energy storage.
- P2AgentX: Builds sovereign AI security agents that automate threat hunting and incident response for complex IT enterprise environments.
- Proseek Bio: Develops targeted diagnostic and therapeutic tools for early-stage detection and treatment of aggressive cancers.
- PsychoSocial Tech: Delivers evidence-based digital platforms and screening tools to assess and improve workplace psychosocial safety.
- Radiant Jelly: Creates bio-inspired cooling gels to prevent thermal runaway in high-density battery systems.
- RNAxis: Develops precision RNA-based diagnostics to enable early detection and personalised treatment strategies for complex diseases.
- Silicon Quantum Computing (SQC): Manufactures atomic-precision quantum processors and silicon-based quantum hardware components.
- SMarT Minds Dx: Creates point-of-care diagnostic tools using microfluidics for rapid biomarker detection in mental health and neurological conditions.
- SunDrive Solar: Replaces expensive silver in solar cell manufacturing with abundant copper using an advanced electroplating process.
- SydSol: Develops ultra-thin, see-through, peel-and-stick solar panels that transform building facades and windows into clean power plants.
- Tandem ART: Offers a low-cost fabrication technology to integrate sub-cells into high-performance silicon tandem solar cells.
- The Promise Innovation: Creates assistive technology solutions designed to improve accessibility and independence for individuals with mobility impairments.
- UBIQUT: Converts OLED materials into room-temperature quantum sensors for low-cost deployment in defence, healthcare and mining.
- UltraMarine InsurTech: Builds predictive risk modelling software for marine insurance underwriters based on real-time ocean dynamic data.
- UndaTech: Manufactures fire-resistant, high-performance base layer garments tested and validated for military and emergency personnel.
- Vocare: Provides AI-driven vocal biomarker tools to assist in the early screening and monitoring of respiratory and neurological health.
- Yarnie: Operates a digital collaboration platform for educators to streamline curriculum design, alignment and resource sharing.
- Zenith Hosting: Delivers sovereign, high-density edge infrastructure and specialised cloud hosting for compute-heavy AI workloads.
- ZenQuo: Commercialises safe, low-cost, and fully recyclable zinc-ion batteries for residential and commercial stationary energy storage.