Brisbane Tech Startups in 2021
So, I’ve decided to do a bit of a roundup of Brisbane based tech startups because finding accurate information on this seems to be rather difficult. Every source I found was old and full of defunct companies. If you’re reading this, I assume you’re interested in this too, or are reading this 3 years from now and harvesting this list for your own Brisbane Startups in 2024 list.
This list is in no particular order, however I reserve the right to make irreverent and/or cynical commentary on each company.
Actually, upon finishing this list I’m pretty sure none of these places will ever hire me. Oh well, how many times can you commit career suicide anyway?
ClipChamp
Really wants to be Canva for video. I bet you that’s how their pitch deck starts too.
I feel like trying to edit video in a browser would be an absolute nightmare for anything serious, but it looks like they are aiming at the social media marketing crowd who just need to create 30 second clips with some text and a cool filter.
Go1
The world needs yet another online learning platform and if you can make money out of it why not? I keep hearing about Go1 so they must be doing something right. It provides learning modules for internal training to businesses.
Octopus Deploy
The world needs yet another continuous delivery platform too! That said this one looks fairly nice. And the name is cool.
I keep seeing ads from them on StackOverflow, so I guess they are hiring.
Roubler
Oh, and the world needs yet another HR / Payroll system!
I don’t know, I would have thought this was a solved problem but apparently, we need to reinvent the wheel every few years. That said if you’ve ever used a legacy payroll system, you’ll probably wished you hadn’t so I guess there’s merit in this.
Mindhive
It looks like it’s kind of like Quora. Ask a question, get some answers… and now the world has two Quora’s.
Travello
A social media app for travellers. Connect with other travellers in hotel quarantine, I guess? Probably hasn’t been a great 12 months for these guys but the idea is solid.
The UI looks like it needs a bit of a revamp though. Might be over doing it on the drop shadows I think?
Codebots
One of those rapid development toolkits that aims to write code for you with a drag and drop interface. I’m always a bit sceptical of these sorts of packages because they look great in demos but end up requiring developing reams of code to do anything other than trivial use cases.
That said their website looks really funky and I’m sure they’ll sell heaps of licenses to managers looking for a magic bullet for their development teams and 10x that in professional services fees.
Will probably be the next Salesforce.
Sparkello
This is my shameless plug for my own tech startup. It’s a vision board and goal planning app. Yes, the world does need another one, because I thought the other ones weren’t very good! This one is great, I promise!
It’s available for iOS, Android, and web right now!
No, you can’t have a job, I can’t even pay myself.
So, by now you might have realised that this whole article exists just so I can 10x my SEO. Did I mention shameless? Look if I can’t have fun 10x-ing my SEO and destroying my future career prospects at the same time then what’s the point in living?
CohortGo
Does what TechnologyOne has struggled to develop a solution for over the last decade and provides a managed onboarding process for international tertiary students. My old workplace really should have looked at this, but they didn’t. ;-(
Oh yeah the international student market is in the toilet, so these guys probably haven’t had a stellar year either. Hopefully that will change for them.
FloodMapp
Does what it says on the tin. Software for real time flood mapping. Probably one of the few startups in this list that seems important and non-trivial.
Fin-Pay
A mobile payments platform or app (or both). I’m not really sure what the angle is but everyone wants to be the next Afterpay and fintechs always get the $$$.
The real question is how can you “make it rain” with a QR code?
Fathom
A dashboard full of pretty graphs showing you how poorly your business was doing while you distracted yourself making pretty graphs.
I’m getting more cynical as I get further down this list. I’m sure it’s a very nice and useful software tool, but I can’t fathom what you would need this for…
Kapiche
Provides your enterprise with deep contextual customer insights. Yeah look it’s hard not to keep being cynical when I see another startup providing a bunch of gooblygook on its homepage, but I’m sure if you are in the business of searching for customer insights this would undoubtably be the platform for you.
Outfit
A brand automation platform. Oh my god, my brain is hurting now. What do those words even mean? It looks like Canva but with the ability to add your logo and colours as templates. Oh, wait Canva already does that.
Once again I’m sure it’s a very nice and useful software tool.
Popgun
Okay this is really cool. It’s an artificial intelligence app for making music. They are giving away their product for free, so they’ll never make any money just like a real (human) artist, but this is so cool!
If you’ve ever wanted to see a software developer busk in a park and haul all their possessions away in a Woollies trolly with a dodgy wheel you should try and get a “job” here.
Vald Performance
Something to do with sports science and tech. Probably a cover for creating mutant super soldiers and Tour de France cyclists.
10x your dead lift you CrossFit chad.
TravelShoot
Wow, I really should have grouped all the startups that have undoubtedly had a terrible year in one spot.
Apparently finding a photographer while you travel is a hard problem to be solved, and this platform solves it. Now we just need to start travelling again.
BenchOn
The website says it’s a “digital platform that is revolutionising and streamlining the way organisations collaborate with their contingent resource and supply chain partners.”
Blood is trickling from my ear right now.
I used to have an in-joke with former co-workers about lean six sigma on the block chain and this is perilously close.
Cashflow Hero
The webpage made me think it was a sports betting app but it’s actually a predatory lending app!
Haystack
A virtual business card app for people who have never heard of LinkedIn.
Movus
An IoT company that creates remote monitoring sensors. Seem actually legit, or at least I don’t know enough about it to say something cynical.
Gruntify
If I had a dollar for every form and workflow tool I’ve ever evaluated… I could probably pay for lunch, but only if we went halves.
Floktale
A platform for your enterprise’s media department to outsource their job to the rest of the organisation.
Reekoh
An integration platform for the Internet of Things.
Now you’re pumping out the buzz words! Gartner will gobble this up. I love it.
Maxwell Plus
Artificial intelligence for prostate cancer testing. Completely revolutionises the meaning of digital examination.
Aire
Artificial intelligence for real estate agents, thus making it indistinguishable from real real estate agents.
PetCloud
I was going to make a joke about this, but the puppy photos are so cute.
Hooks you up with a sitter for your pets.
Inndox
Property logbooks for property managers. I don’t know, I guess this is a very sensible and practical piece of software.
MegaPort
Sounds like a video game console from the 80’s but actually provides businesses with fibreoptic high speed internet access.
I guess you can’t really call Megaport a startup anymore if it’s listed on the ASX, but it’s based in Brisbane and they made it big so good on ’em.
– – – – EDIT – – – –
Some late entries that I missed because they didn’t 10x their SEO.
Muval
Sounds like a slur that should belong on Urban Dictionary, but it’s actually the website for you if you’re an introverted millennial who is moving house and needs a removalist but are too anxiety ridden to use a phone to speak to a human.
When they arrive you’ll avoid eye contact and hide in your ensuite to read your phone until they leave.
Advvy
Dreams of being acquired by Atlassian. Emailed Mike Cannon-Brookes with read receipts turned on but still marked as unseen.
Conclusion!
So that’s it, that’s my career ending roundup of Brisbane based startups.
Remember to like and share, comment to let me know if I missed one, or if you just want to tell me to go screw myself.
Bye!
