On Friday 5 September 2025 Startup Central Victoria celebrated the conclusion of its fifth annual Pre-Accelerator Program with a Showcase at the Capital Theatre in Bendigo.
Consortium Chair, Craig Hunter, paid tribute to the consortium members that encompasses all six local government agencies, and the masterclass presenters and mentors that volunteered their time to make this journey possible. “Our ecosystem is growing stronger each year.”
One of last year’s participants, Jay Davey was congratulated for his robotics startup, Rampey, recently being awarded venture capital.
Craig congratulated the 19 teams that participated from across the Loddon Campaspe region for progressing their startup ideas. “Feedback shows that everyone has benefited from the ten-week program,” he said. “All the participants have reported a significant increase in their knowledge of startups and one third of the teams have progressed towards soft launch stage.”
Program Manager, Kerry Anderson, introduced nine of the teams who presented their startups to an appreciative audience. “Ten weeks, fourteen masterclasses, hours of one-on-one mentoring, and twelve days to prepare a pitch, promotion or launch. This is a big night for them,” she said.
- Jean Franscoi Desvignes from Castlemaine explained how Science Data Nexus will combine state of the art “scientometric” techniques with open science data for better community outcomes.
- Shona and Chris McClellan promoted The Sorted Stylist that will provide a valuable service to Bendigo.
- Geoffrey Murray from Kyneton shared the latest news from Victorian Regional Recyclers that has some interesting prototypes in production to reduce agricultural plastic waste across the region.
- Our most colourful presenter was Michelle Newton from ReaWear in Hepburn. Also on a mission to reduce waste, Michelle shared her passion for repurposing old clothes and plastics into fashion for personal wear, exhibitions and workshops. [view Michelle’s work at the Daylesford Arts Exhibition, Stanbridge Hall, 54 Central Springs Road, 26-28 Sep 10-5pm]
- Guri Sandhu from Harcourt is looking for early adopters to try out Bloom, an effective app to help busy individuals manage tasks more efficiently.
- Castlemaine’s Anwyn Stekerhofs invited couples to enrol in her Recipe for Respect course that combines a love of cooking with relationship building.
- Satish Pokhrel presented a compelling pitch for FARMKET, an online platform, that will reduce the gap between food growers and local consumers.
- Anna Mitchell from Malmsbury is a wizard at creating easy to follow content for business owners to understand “that accounting stuff!”
- Jordan Lee from Horsham was delighted to launch his new business Collab-Ag reporting that he is already working with clients in the Loddon Shire.
At the conclusion of the evening, Claire Green from Woodend spoke on behalf of all the teams and echoed Craig’s thanks to the sponsors, presenters and mentors. “One of the real highlights for me has been meeting such a diverse group of entrepreneurs – people with different industries, backgrounds and experiences – but all driven by the same determination to create something new. That energy has been infectious,” Claire said.
Congratulations to the teams that presented. READ MORE about all our teams.