Spacecubed, Seven West Media, Hawaiian and muru D launch the ‘Plus Eight’ accelerator
Hawaiian has partnered with muru-D, the startup accelerator backed by Telstra, in partnership with Perth’s largest entrepreneurial hub, Spacecubed, and Australia’s leading multi-platform media company, Seven West Media, to launch a new startup accelerator program, Plus Eight.
Following on from the launch of FLUX, in partnership with Spacecubed, the investment in the new accelerator program will see Hawaiian play an important role in further cultivating the state’s platform to assist in transitioning start-ups into sustainable businesses.
The strategic combination of partners will provide a strong base of expertise for the program and its participants; muru-D, with its strong presence in Australia and Asia and its track record of investing in great teams with innovative ideas and global ambitions; and Spacecubed, with its experience managing innovation programs and working with the WA startup community; and Seven West Media, with its successful startup investment; and Hawaiian, with our experience in growing and evolving a property investment business to a well-respected brand and sustainable company operating across various industries.
Based at FLUX, up to 10 startups will be selected by a board of representatives from each partnering company. A total of $40,000 seed funding will be invested into each startup, in addition to being provided space at FLUX, gaining access to Perth’s largest entrepreneurial community, expert mentorship and professional development, perks, networking and event opportunities.
Spacecubed’s Managing Director, Brodie McCulloch said, “through the Plus Eight accelerator we aim to leverage Perth’s unique geographical opportunity to take West Australian startups to the global stage. Over 60 per cent of the world’s population lives within 2 hours of Perth’s GMT+8 time zone and we are just a short flight away from massive growth markets across Asia.”
muru-D’s co-founder Annie Parker said, "we are hugely excited to add the Spacecubed partnership to the ever-growing muru-D family. They've worked tirelessly to support the WA startup ecosystem and I believe they're the perfect team to help us continue to foster more amazing Aussie startups. Brodie and the management team at Spacecubed have impressed us from day one with their depth of experience and commitment and we can't wait to get cracking to find our first crop of startups”.
Hawaiian Director and CEO, Russell Gibbs said FLUX has become an incredible platform to connect local startups and corporates, and this gave Hawaiian the confidence to extend its support into the local industry.
“When the opportunity with muru-D and Spacecubed was presented, we saw it as the natural progression of our investment in the industry. By partnering with Plus Eight we can assist in the commercialisation of startups, which we have already begun to see just months into FLUX being operational.”
Seven West Media (WA) Head of Digital, Dan Stinton, said, “WA’s startup ecosystem is blossoming and we’re excited to partner with muru-D, Spacecubed and Hawaiian to bring some of these innovative ideas to life. We're looking forward to working alongside the startup founders and their teams to both help them grow and help us learn new ways of doing business. It’s also a great opportunity for us to highlight the importance of innovation and make this central to our culture”.
Applications for the Plus Eight accelerator open on 2 January 2017 and will close on 29 January, 2017 and the program leads are looking for ambitious founders and startups with a global outlook.
Photo Credit: Mogens Johanson/ The West Australian