Funds for WA innovators

As Australia's longest-running tech and innovation festival kicks off in Perth, the state government has announced its latest round of innovation grant recipients.

Twelve WA innovators will share in $736,000 of funding through the two programs – the Innovation Booster Grant and the Commercialisation Bridge Grant.

And, on the same day the West Tech Fest kicked off its week-long program with its Women in Tech event, which focused on how the state can do more to encourage more female founders, a quarter of grant recipients were for female-founded businesses.

Among the grant recipients were an autonomous cattle eye disease detection system, developed by Forrest Farm Vets; a digital PCR for rapid assessment of biologicals developed by MALDIID Pty Ltd; an emotional support teddy bear by Tedology Pty Ltd; and a testing regime to accurately measure antibacterial activity in honey, developed by Y-Trace Pty Ltd.

Recipients of the Innovation Booster Grant received between $27,000 and $40,000, while the two recipients of the Commercialisation Bridge Grant received between $156,000 and $200,000.

The two bridging grant recipients were Agora Square, which will use the funds to scale its Agora Square livestock pricing platform; and Facilitate Tech, which will use the funds to grow its immersive education platform, Project Immerse.

“The Cook Government is focused on building our local innovation ecosystem, and our very successful grants program is having a profound impact on driving competition in this exciting market,” Innovation and Digital Economy minister Stephen Dawson said.

"There were over 230 applications received between the two grant programs, which goes to show how this local ecosystem is burgeoning and is being fed by a great pool of local innovators.”

The grants bring the total funding allocated under the two programs to $8 million since 2022, across 176 projects.