With the Covid pandemic over, the Australian economy is hard pressed on the accelerator and that is true for its startup ecosystem as well, which continues to dive deep in huge profits and innovation. Our research here mainly entails the processes and systems that have helped the current growth to come up, the companies that have played a big role in it and how in tandem the other networks of international economic exchanges plus the innovation focused policies of the Australian government has created an ecosystem which nurtures both talent and wealth.
The Australian Startup ecosystem is one of the world’s leading innovation hubs, ranked at number 8 globally and shows a positive momentum since 2021. In the Australia and Oceania group it is number 1. There are about 15 cities ranked in the top 1000 in Australia and the top ranked city is Sydney with a global rank of 38. This should come across as surprising given the demographic extent of this country with a certain degree of aloofness inherent in its geographical position.
It is important to state, though, the paradox of this development. In recent years Australia experienced a drastic decrease in their Index ranking. The 2019 ranking showed Australia as one of the best in the world at 5th place but in just two years the ranking fell to a worrisome 9th place. The growth could be recovered to a pre pandemic level if the investments and the fundings didn’t stop, the same report added. Still Australia is in a stage of recovery as most of the countries are, the only problem here would be the tempo of this development. Also was mentioned the fact that the year 2021 was a record in terms of the amount of fundings the startups had received.
Australia’s consumer market is also growing, even with its small proportion size in accordance with its geographical space. Not to mention, the country enjoys a steady stream of tourists and immigrants from overseas that too help in bolstering its overall economic health and also of the startups at large. In this way it ensures that talented and educated people are part of the workforce, are in fact industrious and boast an entrepreneurial mind. The most important segment of people that have henceforth arrived and are probably thriving there has been the pool of Indians and Chinese. Many have established startups that are now booming, and have in fact turned into multinational operations with thousands of setups all over the world.
We must talk about the hardware of the Australian economy now, which like most other developed economies is digitally and technologically focused with strong support provided by the big corporations and the government. The Academia and the educational institutions too leverage their support to this in the form of courses, and study material provisions to enhance and empower this sort of skill learning. Various methodologies are in the process of development which in a way relate heavily to entrepreneurship and commercialization. University of Technology Sydney, Monash University and University of South Wales now even have deputy Vice Chancellors of entrepreneurship. The key strengths of the Australian startup ecosystem therefore are strong economy, corporate backing, founders with risk taking attitude and a stringent focus on technology and innovation. Startups are the largest contributor to the process of job creation in Australia. In the years 2004-11, a staggering 1.2 million new jobs in the Agritech, Clean energy tech, edutech, Fintech and Healthcare tech, Biotech, Social Enterprise Ventures, and other tech areas including BlockChain, Cyber Security, AI-ML, IOT, AR-VR-XR, Data-driven services were offered. The employment streams didn’t die off any time since then.
An analysis of more than 1600 Australian startups that have publicly raised funds between 2015 and 2020 found that about 20% could be classified as impact startups, meaning Revenue generation was inherently linked to creating measurable positive social or environmental impact.
A company of Australia has been in the centre of all this talk about profits and valuations and what not amidst a very volatile market and in recent years has seen itself trying to out compete the tech giants of the world in the race to establish supremacy over the future, and that is Canva. Canva is a free to use online design platform and boasts a massive presence in and around 190 countries. It helps create basic designs, flyers, documents and various sorts of presentations with its gamut of design tools plus a wide array of graphic fonts, styles etc. The platform is free to use and offers paid subscriptions such as Canvas Pro and Canva for Enterprise for additional function. In June 2020, Canva raised $60 million at a valuation of A$ 6 billion, almost doubling its 2019 valuation. Billions of designs owe their origins to its creative field. Founded in 2013 by girlfriend-boyfriend duo of Melanie Perkins who is the CEO and Cliff Obrecht, two The University of Western Australia students, the company has been in a tough battle against the Adobes and the Microsofts of the world. They indeed have revolutionised this particular space and still continue to do so. Melania, when asked about the need for such a platform, said in a response that it was in fact due to the long and tedious complications of the then mainstream design platform, that she felt a need for a more simpler form of design system which could cater to the requirements of social media and much more. It is very easy to use and accessible with many tutorials about how to use and adapt the app in accordance with the needs of the user. Now in its services it includes more than 250,000 templates, over 100 design types (social media posts, presentations, letters, and more). Blackbird VC had been one of the major investors during the entire ordeal and one of the investors when asked about the company said that it was Melanie’s will and her alone that finances and runs the venture. Female led tech startups have always been special and in this case the two founders were just 19 years of age when the idea propped in their minds which adds to their specialty. They now even have Hollywood stars Owen Wilson and Woody Harrelson as their brand ambassadors. Their importance was recognised by the Australian government when it in clear terms requested the venture to have their operations conducted in and from Australia. This company now became the darling of the Australian startup scene and what is the reason for this very special place, as one of the investors puts it was a very clear vision of the founders for a one stop design shop site and nothing else. A certain resilience and calibre helps them make head long strides against the tech giants but still their design services are the prime in the field, it is going to be a matter of time before any new venture could replace its place.
The conclusive part must feature the fact that the present times are tumultuous. In times like this the processes and institutions that create wealth and ideas must collaborate and we can see it happening in the situation we just described here in expansive details. We have been referring to this here again and again and the cases haven’t proved otherwise, only those people move forward the wills of those who are not puny and are not stymied by the necessary obstacles of one’s life. It is only this zeal that can make any change be it one’s business or one’s life. The process is simple and the same everywhere.