The weather outside may be cooling down but the innovation at ilab is just warming up as we welcome 11 teams to Germinate, ilab’s flagship accelerator. UQ entrepreneurs with promising ideas will embark on a 3-month program to take their ventures to the next level. We received applications from over 30 student, staff and alumni-run companies. 24 teams were invited to a 3 day bootcamp where they attended seminars, and pitched their ideas to some of the startup ecosystem’s biggest names. After 3 rounds of intense competition, the judging panel whittled it down to the top 11 who will enter the program.
Committed to creating an inclusive space where entrepreneurs from all walks of life can come to create change, we couldn’t be more excited to work with such a diverse group. The new founders hail from 5 UQ Faculties; BEL (Business, Economics and Law), EAIT (Engineering Architecture and Information Technology, Science, HaSS (Humanities and Social Science) and MABS (Medicine and Biomedical Sciences). Their companies cover industries such as education, health care and robotics with social enterprises looking to make an impact in the lives of refugees and people with disabilities, and more! With Entrepreneur in Residence, Peter Laurie returning for another round, we can’t wait to see where the next 3 months takes them.
Learn about our newest cohort of startups and stay tuned for more information on their progress and the final pitch event happening this October!
Germinate 12 Startups
Guest Karma
Protect yourself against bad customers. Guest Karma is a web-integrated guest blacklist for holiday accommodation operators. The program serves as a replacement for primitive systems used by hotel operators by creating a formal network of historical customer information.
Happy Dinosaur
Put your message in their hands. We offer an innovative solution to make premium traditional outdooradvertising more affordable. We turn a takeaway coffee cup into a shared advertising space. Business owners are able to advertise on our cups on a subscription basis according to their targeted geographical areas. We then help businesses to design their ads, organise the print and distribute the coffee cups to our partnered cafes. Café owners can use our cups for free. Whether it is a quick coffee to go, taking a short break, or a social catch-up, our innovative advertising format gives local businesses an opportunity to engage with their potential customers during their daily routine. At the same time, café owners are able to lower their operating costs and communities have better access to local business information.
MasterIB
Perform at your peak. Studying for exams through content delivery, as practised in classrooms, online courses and by students themselves, is a wildly inefficient way to study. The best way to improve student exam performance is typically by employing a tutor, who can monitor a student’s progress and provide good practice questions. However, the cost of employing a tutor long-term can be prohibitive.
MasterIB accurately simulates real exams, analytically weighted towards students’ particular areas of difficulty. Content delivery only occurs in providing exam feedback. This is a radically different teaching approach to any services currently available on the market.
MediRoo
Personalized Medication Management Platform for patients to stay on top of all their medications.
Have you ever forgotten your medication? MediRoo is for you! Our cloud-synced platform helping patients to adhere to all their medications. It is more than a digital pill organiser, MediRoo keeps track of the most complicated medication schedules, so no one will forget if they have taken their pills or not. It connects users to their family and their doctors for support, encouragement and expertise. It learns about each user’s unique situation, so it can deliver custom notifications for appointments and refills, medication updates, personalised health recommendations to help you stay organised and informed. It tracks health benefits alongside pathological results to help you and your doctors make the best decision for you.
MediRoo simply provides information about medication, possible adverse interactions and side effects. We hope to eliminate admissions and outpatient visits resulting from incorrect or missed doses and help patients from all walks of life increase their medication adherence for optimal health benefits. You can ask your doctor to write personal notes and reminders on our web-based platform, which is integrated into your app. Based on your compliance and related behaviours, doctors can receive and review concise information on a web-based platform to personalise your future medication routines and the best course of action.
Model Econ
Applied Economic Models for the Understanding of the World. Economics see the world through models, however much of economics remains too theoretical. Model Econ takes these economic models and applies them to real data to gain insights into the models and the world.
Nature Freedom
Regenerating our Future. Nature Freedom is a developing social enterprise organisation basing in Brisbane aiming to inspire,connect and empower young people aged 18 years to 35 who have disabilities and/or mental health to meaningfully access, participate and lead with the environment. A core element of the project emphasises personal and professional development through self-discovery, adventures and environmental action.
The project focuses on improving social inclusion and accessibility for young people with disabilities and/or mental health to act and lead on matters that are important to them. The project also aims to collaborate and connect existing services, programs and projects on an expanding basis. Bush regeneration is big part of life in Brisbane’s natural areas, provided supported by incumbent National’s Green Army program and existing Conservation and Land Management certificate courses with community organisations.
Neon King Kong
Connecting refugees to volunteers for convenient language practice. To rebuild their lives, it is vital that refugees learn the language of their new homes. Many struggle, however, because they don’t have enough people to practice the language with. Neon King Kong’s Chatfor10 connects refugees to volunteers through a messaging app for some convenient language practice. It’s called Chatfor10 because the refugees connect to a partner, choose a topic, and then chat about it for 10 messages. When that’s finished, they get a new partner, get a new topic, and chat again. It’s like speed dating, but slower, because they just send one or two messages a day, whenever they have a spare moment. The refugees get a drip-feed of daily authentic language practice, and the volunteers can positively impact someone’s life with just five minutes of their time a day.
North Hem
As of today, there are quite a number of online stores where we can buy the furniture and get the savings, but 90% of the people still prefer to buy at the local stores because they want to see the colours and experience the products.
With that in mind, North Hem allows the customers to personally try out the products and still pay at the internet price. We could do this by transforming everyday’s home into a showroom space, where the online retailer would display and showcase their products. This will now give the customers a unique experience, allowing them to inspect the products so they can buy with more confidence. As a result of this, the online retailers will enjoy a better conversion rate and lower return rate. For the showroom hosts, they can now make extra income with their properties.
This is a win-win solution for everyone where buying no longer means guessing.
Robotics Playground
Robotics Playground provides an accessible, inclusive and fun space to learn and explore robotics and all things Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM). We host workshops led by industry professionals and educators, as well as providing a robotics playground to have fun exploring and playing with robotics.
We provide a diverse/inclusive learning environment where we invite students of all genders of any learning ability or level of knowledge to come and learn/explore the world of robots and all things STEM.
Finding Perfect 
Taking the guesswork out of buying the most important of gifts – while keeping it a surprise.
Leveraging social media to help define the preferences of people without them knowing. For example, finding the perfect engagement ring without giving out the secret.
Site stream
Fastest deployment and cash flow friendly. Automating the development and deployment of simple web apps to be sold as a service rather than a one-off fee.
A growth mindset is important for students, teachers and the whole university ecosystem. This is what we are here to favour.
Get a glimpse of these 3 days of the ilab UQ Germinate 12 selection bootcamp below! We bring you students, alumni, staff, judges, volunteers and, overall, energy, fun, hard work, … and an unforgettable experience!
