Daniel Pet re on Petre on making t he j ump the jump
MOTOR SKILLS
St ephen C orby Stephen Corby rat es rates the futur e c ar future car
Will Jeremijenko and Ruby Jones, Aquila
HHelen Trinca, editor
Jared Lynch, technology editor
COVER
Photographed by Nick Cubbin
Styled by Liat Swartz
Make-up by Monique Jones
Hair by Gavin Anesbury Story, page 58
4 EDITORS’ LETTER
6 FOREWORD
8 ADVISORY PANEL
10 THE AI ERA IS UPON US
Just two years since ChatGPT launched, artificial intelligence already permeates almost every level of business and society. Should we be excited or concerned?
14 HIGH-TECH SCRIPT FOR MEDICINE
In the near future, the way to fight disease will be to prevent it from happening. Here’s how new technology will change our visits to the doctor.
THE UPDATE
20 THINKING LOCAL
There’s no lack of start-up innovation in Australia, but changes are needed to ensure emerging potential is nurtured, and ideas don’t find their way to distant shores.
22 ENTER THE ROBOTS
We’re knocking on the door of a robotic revolution, but first we need to teach them how to open it.
24 REINVENTING THE FARM
Australian farms are transforming into innovation hot spots as technology takes root.
26 MEET THE MAKERS
We might be blasting into space, but creating spaces for Australian manufacturing to thrive is still on the launching pad.
TH INK C LUB THINK CLUB
30 SCALE UP OR BE LEFT BEHIND
Change is happening everywhere, and fast. Australia needs to pay attention and respond appropriately to ensure we can harness it to our own benefit.
32 MAGIC MEDICINE? THE GENE AND US
Rapid advances in genomics could offer many medical benefits, from the early diagnosis of serious conditions to more efficient responses to critical public health issues.
33 IT’S TIME TO GET SERIOUS ABOUT TECH
What’s wrong with tapping into super to trigger the tech boom? We need to find more money for R&D through novel sources of funding.
William Jeremijenko and Ruby Jones of Aquila
34 YES, THERE IS A SILVER BULLET
Government regulation to make big business adopt a recycling mindset will ensure Australia becomes a truly circular economy.
35 WHY THE BOTS WON’T RULE
How do you regulate AI when innovation will always outpace policy?
THE LIST
36 TOP 100 INNOVATORS 2024
It’s not easy to select the nation’s best inventors and entrepreneurs, but it’s a task worth doing as we commit to encourage innovation across the Australian economy. Our judges have identified the most exciting ideas emerging across the country, ranging across industries, from space to cyber security, travel to fashion, energy to infrastructure. Plus, we’ve opted for a special focus on health.
F U T URE T E NSE FUTURE TENSE
70 BLUE SKY THINKING
What’s next in innovation? Where will the big advances come from? We asked three leaders in their fields to identify the breakthroughs on the horizon.
76 THE ROAD AHEAD
Look forward to cars that not only do the driving – or even flying – but also offer cinema-like entertainment to while away the journey, plus so much more.
77 COLOUR CHAMELEON
It allows people to read electronic devices more easily. Now an Australian engineer is using E Ink in a way that’s set to cause a revolution in the automotive industry.
79 GOING TO GREAT HEIGHTS
Meet the Melbourne-raised son of an aircraft mechanic who’s in charge of Amazon’s global plan for using drones to deliver its packages.
80 LET’S SHOOT FOR THE STARS
Brian Schmidt has a Nobel Prize in Physics and an outstanding CV, including eight years as vice-chancellor of the Australian National University. He spoke to Helen Trinca about how innovative we are in this country.
READ THE LIST
Scan the QR code to read the Top 100 Innovators List in detail.
EDITORIAL
Helen Trinca EDITOR
Chi Lam
ART DIRECTOR
Julie Lee DEPUTY EDITOR
Jared Lynch TECHNOLOGY EDITOR
Mollie Dixon EDITORIAL PRODUCER
Steve Colquhoun, Carrie Hutchinson COPY EDITORS
Marilia Ogayar PICTURE EDITOR
CONTRIBUTORS
Michelle Bateman, Joseph Carbone, Stephen Corby, Nick Cubbin, Cameron England, Camilo Huinca, Damian Kassabgi, Richard Kirkman, Joseph Lam, Chris Niesche, Kathryn North, Steve Panozzo, Daniel Petre, Natasha Robinson, Mackenzie Scott, Reggie Townsend
Michelle Gunn EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, THE AUSTRALIAN
Edwina McCann
PUBLISHER , NEWS PRESTIGE; EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, THE AUSTRALIAN PRESTIGE TITLES
Louise Bryant MANAGING EDITOR, THE AUSTRALIAN PRESTIGE, AND CONDE NAST TITLES
Nicholas Gray MANAGING DIRECTOR AND PUBLISHER, THE AUSTRALIAN AND PRESTIGE MASTHEADS
PRODUCT AND PARTNERSHIPS
Sophie Raptis
GENERAL MANAGER, COMMERICAL, THE AUSTRALIAN AND PRESTIGE
Alex Wilson
DIRECTOR DIGITAL PRODUCT AND PARTNERSHIPS THE AUSTRALIAN AND PRESTIGE BRANDS alex.wilson@news.com.au
THE THE 2024 LIST
It’s not easy to select the nation’s best inventors and entrepreneurs, but it’s a task worth doing as we commit to encouraging innovation across the Australian economy. Here, judges Scott Farquhar, Roy Green, Romilly Madew, Damian Kassabgi and Andy Jane bring their experiences in the public and private sectors to the job, identifying the most exciting ideas emerging across the country.
Our list includes several people who also featured on the 2023 list: these individuals and companies have kept their spot thanks to their continued ambition to turn vision and dreams into sustainable businesses. The List ranges across industries, from space to cyber security, travel to fashion, energy to infrastructure. Plus, we’ve opted for a special focus on health this year.
It’s a sector that draws on the deep historical well of medical research in Australia, and is proving fertile ground for a new generation of scientists and clinicians.
BY NICK CUBBIN
PHOTOGRAPHY
Kavita Nadan CO-FOUNDER, LOCUMATE
MEDICINE AND HEALTHCARE
Mark Waller and Jingjing Guo CO-FOUNDERS, PENDING AI
Farzaneh Ahmadi FOUNDER, LARONIX
Daniel Timms INVENTOR, BIVACOR
Alison Todd and Elisa Mokany CO-FOUNDERS, SPEEDX
Tom Oxley and Nicholas Opie CO-FOUNDERS, SYNCHRON
more than 200 medical methods and processes
Since they launched SpeeDx in 2009, Dr Alison Todd (left) and Dr Elisa Mokany have invented and patented
Arutha Kulasinghe, Kirsty Short and John Fraser (left to right) are using tissue collected during the Spanish flu to research cancers’ response to treatments
Arutha Kulasinghe, Kirsty Short and John Fraser PROJECT LEADS, UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND
With Femmi, Lydia O’Donnell has built a community of women who own their unique strengths , push their potential and honour their bodies
Lydia O ’Donnell CO-FOUNDER, FEMMI
Michael Vallely, Paul Bannon, Hugh Paterson and Ashish Mitra CO-FOUNDERS, SYDNEY HEART VALVE
Grace Brown FOUNDER, ANDROMEDA
“I HAD NO I DE A OF T HE HAD IDEA THE CONSEQUENCE S OF T HAT CONSEQUENCES OF THAT OR E VEN T HAT I T WA S A EVEN THAT IT WAS A BAD T HING. I ACTUAL LY THING. ACTUALLY THOUGH T L OSING M Y THOUGHT LOSING MY PE RIOD AS A F EMAL E PERIOD FEMALE AT HL ET E WA S G OING T O ATHLETE WAS GOING TO BENEFIT ME”
– LYDIA O’DONNELL –
Hon Weng Chong and Andy Kitchen CO-FOUNDERS, CORTICAL LABS
Doug Ward CEO, LUMOS DIAGNOSTICS
Paul Ekert and Chelsea Mayoh CLINICIAN SCIENTIST AND SENIOR BIOINFORMATICIAN, CHILDREN’S CANCER INSTITUTE
Alex and Chris Naoumidis CO-FOUNDERS, MINDSET HEALTH
Kai Van Lieshout and Linus Talacko CO-FOUNDERS, LYREBIRD HEALTH
Peter Vranes and Hitesh Mehta CO-FOUNDERS, NUTROMICS
Scott Kirkland and Stuart Crozier CEO AND CHIEF SCIENTIFIC OFFICER, EMVISION
Aiden Roberts and Will Pamment CO-FOUNDERS, SIMCONVERSE
Santosh Verghese and Rhys Parker CHIEF MEDICAL INFORMATION OFFICER AND CHIEF CLINICAL INFORMATION OFFICER, SA HEALTH
FOOD
Remo Carbone CO-FOUNDER, MEQ SOLUTIONS
David Hoey PRESIDENT AND CEO, VAXXAS
Jan Pacas FOUNDER AND CEO, ALL G FOODS
ART AND DESIGN
Ward Williams and Thananjeyan Shanmuganathan
CO-FOUNDERS, SEMINAL
Jeremiah Siemianow CEO, SURREAL ENTERTAINMENT
James Cuda FOUNDER, PROCREATE
Jeremiah Siemianow’s Surreal Entertainment has freed up the time of agencies by automating many of the tasks that once sat on spreadsheets
Keaton Okkonen’s company, Black.ai, automates computer vision software to allow businesses to analyse the behaviour of their customers
Peter Schultz, James Schultz and Patrick Neumann CO-FOUNDERS, NEUMANN SPACE
Aengus Tran CO-FOUNDER, HARRISON.AI
Amy Benson FOUNDER, DIOLOG
Chris Shaw CEO, ADVANCED NAVIGATION
Matt Ryall and Dominik Daners CO-FOUNDERS, MAWSON ROVERS
Dave Elkan and Nick Muldoon FOUNDERS, EASY AGILE
Michael Smart and David Waterhouse CO-FOUNDERS, HYPERSONIX
Will Crowe and Hiranya Jayakody CO-FOUNDERS, HEO ROBOTICS
CYBER SMART
Shantanu Kulkarni, Tim Thacker and Tony Mao CO-FOUNDERS, NULLIFY
Mark Hartmann FOUNDER, SNAPI
Michelle Price PARTNER, EY
Ashwin Ram CYBERSECURITY EVANGELIST, CHECK POINT SOFTWARE
Dali Kaafar FOUNDER, APATE.AI, MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY
MANUFACTURING, HARDWARE AND INFRASTRUCTURE
Eric Peck and Joshua Tepper CO-FOUNDERS, SWOOP AERO
Jekaterina Viktorova and Luke Connal CO-FOUNDERS, SYENTA
Casey Ellis FOUNDER, BUGCROWD
Rachael Greaves and Gavin McKay CO-FOUNDERS CASTLEPOINT SYSTEMS
Charlie McGill, Shaun Oosthuizen and Huanting Wang CEO, CTO AND SENIOR ADVISER, ELECTRALITH
Dave Budge CEO, JAUNT MOTORS
“EVERY VEHICL E ON T HE VEHICLE THE ROAD W IL L NEED T O BE WILL TO EL EC T RIC BY 2050 F OR US ELECTRIC BY FOR T O ACHIEV E NET Z ERO TO ACHIEVE NET ZERO EMISSIONS AND CL ASSIC CLASSIC CAR OWNER S W IL L WAN T OWNERS WILL WANT THEIR V EHICL E T O BE THEIR VEHICLE TO BE ELECT RIC MUCH SOONER. ELECTRIC SOONER. WE ARE RE ADY T O READY TO MEET T HOSE NEEDS” THOSE – DAVE BUDGE –
Bevan Slattery FOUNDER, NEXTDC
Kyle Hardman, Christian Freier and Paul Wigley CO-FOUNDERS, NOMAD ATOMICS
Heba Khamis FOUNDER, CONTACTILE
Rory San Miguel CO-FOUNDER, PROPELLER
Amanda Siqueira and Michelle Aguilar CO-FOUNDERS, VAPAR
Robin Khuda FOUNDER, AIRTRUNK
Tim Kentley Klay CO-FOUNDER, HYPR
Andrew Terry and Michael De Nil CO-FOUNDERS, MORSE MICRO
Jefferson Harcourt EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ECO DETECTION
Adam Jones FOUNDER, CLT TOOLBOX
Tom Hussey and Brian Conolly CO-FOUNDERS, XEFCO
Adam Jones is the founder of CLT Toolbox, a SaaS solution that radically simplifies the process of designing with mass timber
RETAIL AND E-COM
Adam McCurdie and Joshua Ross CO-FOUNDERS, HUMANITIX
Shadi Houshyar TEXTILE DEVELOPER, RMIT
TRAVEL
Marlon Law and Nathan Sampimon CO-FOUNDERS, RIPARIDE
Hannon Comazzetto FOUNDER, AIRROBE
Zac Leigh, Jason Webb and Denis Mysenko CO-FOUNDERS, TIXEL
Justin Hales FOUNDER, CAMPLIFY
Danielle Johansen FOUNDER, THREADICATED
Danielle Johansen combines AI with human interaction to provide personalised recommendations to customers of her styling business, Threadicated
Maryna Kovalenko
COMMUNITY, WEB3 AND CRYPTO
Wayne Jones
FOUNDER, XREALITY GROUP
Specialising in building and operating virtual reality, augmented reality and physical simulation, xReality Group works in the enterprise, defence and leisure sector. Founder and CEO Wayne Jones, a former member of the Special Air Services Regiment, listed XRG – as it was known – on the ASX in 2013, rebranding to xReality Group in 2021. It was initially an operator of indoor skydiving facilities, and one of its military and law enforcement groups. In 2019, the company launched VR brand FREAK Entertainment, and in 2021 moved into the enterprise XR (extended reality) space through the acquisition of XR production company Red Cartel.
James Ferguson, Robbie Ferguson and Alex Connolly CO-FOUNDERS, IMMUTABLE
Immutable is one of the few companies making realworld use of Web3. Every year online gamers spend $150bn on in-game items they don’t own. Immutable allows gamers to own their digital assets and for games
manufacturers to monetise them in a new way. Founded in 2018 by James and Robbie Ferguson and Alex Connolly, the Sydney business now has more than 240 employees and investors including BITKRAFT Ventures and King River Capital. This year the team launched Immutable zkEVM, which has become one of the most used blockchains in the world, and announced a strategic partnership with Spielworks, a leading Web3 game distribution and publishing company.
Annie Liao FOUNDER, BUILD CLUB
Annie Liao yields some power. The Gen Z go-getter isn’t afraid to chase big dreams or help others achieve theirs. At just 23 she’s already worked in consulting, as a data scientist and in venture capital as an investor. She’s also built the nation’s largest pool of AI start-ups, giving them a place to work and even a place to live while they focus on building the company of their dreams. Her AI accelerator, Build Club, has piqued the interest of international tech companies and local players who have sponsored the program and given her funds and room to host events, foster a community and bring like-minded, budding entrepreneurs together.
Maryna Kovalenko FOUNDER, SYLA
Software for ensuring you’re paying the right tax on crypto investments might sound like a niche market, but with trades likely to grow in the future, Maryna Kovalenko is optimistic.
The Brisbane-based tax professional set up her own company, Syla, three years ago and now employs six people. The subscription service already has 20,000 users in Australia, all paying a base annual fee of $59 for access to software that calculates the tax on investments in cryptocurrency. She says the platform automates calculations and keeps investors compliant with “ever-changing tax laws”.
Kovalenko, who migrated from Ukraine in 2011, used her own fund s, along with a federal government Boosting Female Founders Grant in 2022 and an Ignite Ideas Fund grant from Advance Queensland, to set up
Mondays then mainly work remotely.
“I think the number of investors is only growing because it’s a digital world,” she says. “Even people in school are looking to buy some NFTs (non-fungible tokens). It’s just g rowing.”
Kovalenko says inspiration for the software product came from her frustrations as a tax adviser, seeing clients struggle with the complexity of crypto tax.
The biggest challenge in setting up the company was assembling the core team. “Even though, in Australia, we we did want them to be here in Australia, rather than outsourcing.”
not like we just follow some framework,” says Kovalenko.
“But it’s just more about [asking], ‘How do we apply tax to something that has never been really been taxed in the past.’” – HELEN TRINCA
Daniel Danilatos FOUNDER, NEARA
ENERGY
Pete Tickler and Fabian Le Gay Brereton CO-FOUNDERS, GRIDCOG
Raj Bagri FOUNDER, KAPTURE
Dean Spaccavento CO-FOUNDER, REPOSIT POWER
Paul Sernia and Sarbjit Giddey FOUNDER AND CHIEF SCIENTIST, ENDUA
Bex Rempel and Neil Mans CO-FOUNDERS, ZEROJET
William Jeremijenko and Ruby Jones CO-FOUNDER AND COO, AQUILA
Lewis Dunnigan CO-FOUNDER, BYGEN
William Jeremijenko and Ruby Jones of Aquila have a vision to build an optical energy network to provide power
aircraft when they’re in the sky
NICK CUBBIN. STYLIST: LIAT SWARTZ. MAKE UP: MONIQUE JONES. HAIR: GAVIN ANESBURY
With Sicona, Drew Minett (left) and Christiaan Jordaan aim to reduce the world’s dependence on China for graphite, a key material used in the production of batteries
Christiaan Jordaan and Drew Minett CO-FOUNDERS, SICONA
Chris King FOUNDER, SPLEND
Lisa Marsh CEO, ELUMINA
Dan Adams and Chris Thompson CO-FOUNDERS, AMBER ELECTRIC
FINTECH AND FINANCE
Michelle Deaker FOUNDING PARTNER, ONEVENTURES
Alex Badran and Mario Hasanakos CO-FOUNDERS, SPRIGGY
Ada Guan CO-FOUNDER, RICH DATA CO
Andrew Birch and Adam Pryor CO-FOUNDERS, OPENSOLAR
Ada Guan’s Rich Data
Spiro Rokos and Paul Weingarth CO-FOUNDERS, SLYP
NICK CUBBIN. STYLIST: LIAT SWARTZ. MAKE UP: MONIQUE JONES. HAIR: GAVIN ANESBURY
Spiro Rokos (left) and Paul Weingarth are working to eliminate many of the 10.6 billion paper receipts generated in Australia each year
Jodi Geddes and Kate Pollard CO-FOUNDERS, CIRCLE IN
IMPACT
Sally-Ann Williams, CEO, CICADA INNOVATIONS
Jordy and Julia Kay CO-FOUNDERS, GREAT WRAP
Colette Grgic HEAD OF STARTUP ECOSYSTEM FOR AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND, AMAZON WEB SERVICES
Andrew Deveson and David Caputo CO-FOUNDERS, KAPITOL GROUP
Louise Nobes CEO, 42 ADELAIDE
Barb Hyman FOUNDER, SAPIA.AI
Sarah Jones CEO, SYDNEY SCHOOL OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Barb Hyman believes AI is more ethical than humans and followed her intuition to develop the recruitment platform, Sapia.ai
