The Winter ’25 cohort is stuffed with founders chasing the sting of what’s attainable and dragging the longer term nearer.
A future the place interval poverty is a factor of the previous. The place anybody can service a machine like an knowledgeable. The place AI doesn’t simply reply questions, however books your Uber, edits your work and fills a hospital shift.
From AI-native workplaces to at-home cervical screening kits, super-intelligent healthcare brokers to haptic gloves that make VR touchable, this cohort is fixing issues you didn’t know may very well be fastened, and tackling challenges most shrink back from.
They’ve educated as surgeons. Taught college at 15. Demoed their {hardware} at Open Sauce. Bought corporations. And began over.
They’re reinventing how we rent, how we heal, how we really feel, and the way we play. They’ve launched merchandise in weeks, signed clients in days, and raised capital to energy their missions earlier than most of us have had our morning espresso.
This cohort spans industries, cities, and lived expertise, however what unites them is urgency. They’re not ready to be advised what’s attainable. They’re constructing it.
Care GP
Sydney, NSW
One-liner: Constructing the AI infrastructure for Healthcare supplier admin
Care GP founder Melvin Chen
Admin is consuming healthcare alive – a 3rd of all healthcare prices are paperwork, not affected person care. That’s $1.3 trillion yearly within the US alone.
Care GP is eliminating that burden with built-in AI brokers that automate supplier admin, beginning with doc processing, billing, and affected person communications.
Their imaginative and prescient? Enabling the primary technology of super-intelligent healthcare suppliers.
Led by Melvin Chen (ex-VP at Latch, 3× founder, Forbes 30 Beneath 30), Ethan Atkins (ex-Fleek, YC W22), and Andy Bui (constructed and scaled AI merchandise to $10K MRR in 2 months), this crew blends product, operations, and engineering excellence.
In simply 3.5 months, Care GP has hit $200K ARR, commercialised 1 agent, and is seeing 50% WoW utilization development, with three extra brokers within the pipeline.
Founders: Melvin Chen, Ethan Atkins & Andy Bui
Ninja AI
Sydney, NSW
One-liner: Ninja provides anybody the facility to equip AI brokers with linked apps.
Ninja AI founder Marcus Schappi
AI assistants can suppose and speak, however they will’t take real-world motion (like reserving an Uber) as a result of they lack entry to apps and information. In consequence, on a regular basis duties like reserving rides or sending emails nonetheless depend on customized code and fragile integrations.
Ninja solves that by making it simple to construct, host, and share instruments that AI brokers can use. It’s like an App Retailer, however for AI brokers to get issues carried out.
The imaginative and prescient? Ninja turns into the default method AI brokers work together with the world. Similar to APIs helped construct the web, Ninja will energy what AI brokers do.
Founder Marcus Schappi has constructed and bought a number of corporations, and specialises in connecting AI to real-world instruments.
In simply six weeks, he launched three platform variations, constructed a totally serverless system, attracted over 700 customers, and has greater than 50 MCP instruments already within the ecosystem, proving sturdy demand from SaaS groups and AI builders.
Founder: Marcus Schappi
Medlo
Melbourne, Vic
One-liner: Medlo & Doccy solves healthcare entry with AI-powered staffing and hybrid care supply.
Medlo founders Louis Sisk & Jordi Hermoso
Docs need flexibility. Sufferers need sooner care. However the system is damaged – there’s no simple method for docs to search out roles, get verified, or ship care on-line and offline.
Medlo is fixing that. It connects docs with short- and long-term roles whereas dealing with credentialing and onboarding. Doccy then allows these docs to offer digital care to sufferers, creating an end-to-end hybrid care platform.
Their imaginative and prescient? To grow to be the primary AI hybrid healthcare supply platform.
Louis has spent 8 years working as a health care provider in Normal Surgical procedure & Emergency. Jordi is a technical co-founder with deep startup expertise, together with constructing cyber and market platforms.
Since launching in November 2024, Medlo has onboarded 310 docs, partnered with 80 hospitals, and is processing over 20,000 hospital shifts.
Founders: Louis J Sisk & Jordi Hermoso
Matchbox
Sydney, NSW
One-liner: Startup recruitment platform to de-risk hiring and fill vital roles sooner.
The Matchbox crew: Nick Glynn, Holly Sanders & Jack Harber
70% of startups fail on account of unhealthy hiring. Founders usually lack the time, networks, and expertise to get hiring proper, while conventional recruiters are costly, misaligned, or simply not a match.
Matchbox solves this with a better, founder-first method. It makes use of AI to deeply perceive a startup’s hiring wants, then connects them with a curated community of domain-expert recruiters and expertise communities. The inducement construction is flipped by rewarding their community solely for crucial factor: discovering the proper candidate.
The imaginative and prescient: make hiring human-first and AI-powered, so founders can scale confidently, with out compromise.
Led by Holly (previously at LinkedIn, with a background in startups and tech recruitment), second-time founders Jack (Vyro) and Nick (Quickapay), the crew brings 40+ years of expertise throughout hiring, gross sales, technique, ops, and tech—and so they’ve felt the ache of hiring gone incorrect firsthand.
Founders: Holly Sanders, Jack Harber & Nick Glynn
Promosync
Adelaide, SA
One-liner: Automating retail promotions for FMCG manufacturers to maximise their ROI.
Promosync founders Henry Choo & Divyanshu Chauhan
Behind each yellow ticket promotion we see on grocery store cabinets every single day, lies a damaged system.
FMCG manufacturers are nonetheless manually analysing and working multi-million-dollar retail promotions utilizing clunky spreadsheets, losing time, inflicting expensive errors, and lacking alternatives to maximise ROI.
Promosync maximises ROI for FMCG manufacturers by analysing information and automating handbook processes to create optimum retail promotions.
The imaginative and prescient for Promosync is to unlock real-time optimisation for retail promotions. Just like Google Adverts for digital promoting.
Henry and Div are the proper crew to resolve this long-standing world downside.
Henry is an trade knowledgeable, having beforehand led multi-million-dollar retail promotion operations throughout corporations corresponding to P&G and Nestle. Div is a seasoned tech founder who has efficiently constructed and scaled a number of companies, together with Chefadora, Indebted and Shippit.
Founders: Divyanshu Chauhan & Henry Choo
Integuide
Sydney, NSW
One-liner: AI to information technicians by upkeep & servicing duties.
Integuide founders Slava Chalnev & Hunter Jay
Senior technicians take years to develop their experience; studying which sounds matter, which shortcuts work, and how you can deal with edge circumstances that aren’t in any handbook. However they will solely be in a single place at a time, and once they retire, that information walks out the door.
Integuide captures how the perfect technicians truly work through body-cam recordings, after which makes use of AI to remodel that experience into accessible information for junior employees to do the identical advanced duties. Each perception, approach, and hard-won lesson turns into institutional reminiscence, searchable and citable, full with verification in opposition to present documentation and recognized greatest practices.
Our objective is to allow any technician to carry out at a senior degree by giving them AI-powered entry to an organisation’s collective experience, dramatically accelerating the trail from novice to knowledgeable.
Hunter beforehand constructed fruit-picking robots with Ripe Robotics. Slava is an AI security researcher recognized for his work in mechanistic interpretability. Collectively, they’re turning tacit information into scalable intelligence for industrial groups.
Founders: Hunter Jay & Slava Chalnev
Luck
Sydney, NSW
One-liner: Luck kills copy-pasting into chatbots with an AI workspace that edits, writes, and thinks with you – inside your instruments.
Luck founder William Kirkwood
At present’s AI instruments for work are fragmented. Proper now, utilizing AI means copy-pasting between your doc and a chatbot. It may possibly speak about your work, however can’t do it as a result of it could actually’t edit immediately, lacks full context, and also you by no means see precisely what modified.
Luck replaces this messy copy-pasting with an Settle for/Reject workflow in an AI workspace that edits, writes, and thinks with you immediately contained in the instruments you already use. Luck has full context throughout your work, and also you see each change highlighted and may granularly settle for, reject or refine.
The imaginative and prescient? One AI-native workspace that connects each software and each AI Mannequin – so your work lives in a single place and your AI actually understands it.
Luck is led by William Kirkwood, a seasoned Founder and self-taught Engineer. His expertise as a Product Supervisor at Seed, Sequence A, and Sequence C start-ups, and in a big enterprise has given him deep perception into knowledge-worker workflows.
Founder: William Kirkwood
On The Home
Brisbane, QLD
One-liner: World’s first free interval merchandise, funded by advertisements, not girls.
On the Home founder Remy Tucker
On The Home is tackling a nationwide disaster: in 2025, over 3 in 5 Australian girls are utilizing makeshift options for interval merchandise on account of an absence of entry.
On The Home installs digital merchandising machines in public and industrial bogs that present free, natural interval merchandise, funded completely by manufacturers trying to promote to their feminine audience.
The imaginative and prescient is daring: from 2 in 3, to 0 in 3 girls experiencing interval poverty by 2035.
Founder Remy Tucker brings a mixture of frontline girls’s healthcare perception and industrial expertise, from coaching as a pupil midwife, constructing shopper engagement by large-scale occasions for LVMH, and launching go-to-market methods for startups throughout social media and model.
Founder: Remy Tucker
Rave
Melbourne, Vic
One-liner: Discovering and sharing suggestions with individuals who get your style.
Rave founder Steph Brook
One of the best suggestions come from individuals who actually get you, however there’s no easy option to swap them. We’re caught in group chats, Notes apps, or influencer feeds that miss the mark.
Enter Rave. Add your favorite suggestions to your Rave profile – movies, skincare necessities, and must-visit spots. Others can discover your suggestions, and also you’ll see theirs in return.
Rave is the place individuals uncover what to look at, eat, purchase, and check out, primarily based on suggestions from those that actually share their style. Rave will energy every thing from what you pack for a visit to how you discover your subsequent signature scent, turning on a regular basis recs into trusted discovery.
Based by Steph, a former Atlassian engineer, Rave already has early traction. She launched her MVP targeted on podcast suggestions and attracted 10,000 customers in simply three months. Now she’s scaling Rave past podcasts, constructing it right into a discovery platform for every thing you like.
Founder: Steph Brook
June Well being
Sydney, NSW
One-liner: Australia’s first at-home STI and cervical screening kits for ladies and other people with a cervix.
June founder Grace Toombs
Solely 62% of eligible girls are getting cervical screening. STI charges, like syphilis, are skyrocketing, but lower than half of Gen Z girls frequently see a GP, usually on account of disgrace or stigma.
June Well being is altering that. It presents self-collection kits for STI and cervical screening, shipped straight to your door. Swabs take simply 5 minutes to finish and are analysed by NATA-accredited labs—all from the privateness and luxury of house.
The imaginative and prescient? To grow to be the worldwide house for ladies’s sexual and reproductive well being supporting her from first bleed to closing interval, from ache to prevention, each step of the way in which.
Based by a proud First Nations girl, ex-med pupil, public well being researcher, and endometriosis affected person, June Well being blends private perception with medical rigour.
Since launching in March 2025, June has secured Australia’s largest pathology supplier, gained paying clients in each state and territory, and achieved 5 earned media options all with out spending a cent on advertisements.
Founder: Grace Toombs
Leakster
Brisbane, Qld
One-liner: Leakster detects and pinpoints water pipeline leaks by listening to the water community in actual time.
Leakster founder Sara Richardson
Australia loses 269 billion litres of fresh consuming water annually earlier than it even reaches clients. That’s 1000’s of litres each second, leaking from underground pipes and costing utility time and clients cash.
Leakster is altering this. Utilizing acoustic sensors and AI-powered software program, it detects, locates, and tracks leaks in actual time, decreasing water loss and saving upkeep groups hours of investigation.
The imaginative and prescient? Exchange reactive water upkeep with good, real-time monitoring throughout world pipe networks.
Founder Sara Richardson spent 15 years as a utility economist, listening to about this downside each day, whereas residing by a Queensland drought so extreme, her city had water trucked in. Now she’s constructing the answer she at all times wished existed.
Founder: Sara Richardson,
On Zero
Sydney, NSW
One-liner: Constructing inexpensive and open haptic gloves for digital actuality.
On-zero founders Freesia Gaul and Sean Coulon-Clark
Most individuals utilizing digital actuality solely get a headset. That’s as a result of the additional gear, like gloves that allow you to “feel” issues, is pricey and complex to make use of. In consequence, VR hasn’t modified a lot for on a regular basis customers in almost a decade.
On Zero is fixing this. They’re constructing inexpensive, customisable gloves that assist you to contact, seize, and work together inside digital worlds, making VR extra actual and extra enjoyable for everybody.
The massive thought? Let anybody absolutely step into digital actuality, not simply see it, however really feel it too.
Founder Freesia Gaul began constructing these gloves whereas learning quantum engineering. She first realized to code utilizing headsets as a 10-year-old, and is making her youthful self’s dream tools.
“The only limit this industry should have is imagination,” she insists.
She’s gained awards from MIT, taught university-level lessons since she was 15, and co-founded ACES, one among Australia’s fastest-growing {hardware} communities, all earlier than 20. Her co-founder, Sean Coulon-Clark, studied mechatronics and has labored alongside her on {hardware} initiatives ever since.
Their first tester, a software program engineer at Roblox, was shocked:
“Woah, I’m feeling something! What!?”
Since launch, they’ve demoed their gloves at Open Sauce to overwhelmingly constructive suggestions, and are aiming to showcase them at SXSW and CES subsequent.
Founder: Freesia Gaul, Sean Coulon-Clark
HeySTU
Melbourne, Vic
One-liner: STU is a private desk companion robotic that helps individuals with ADHD keep targeted, organised, and on monitor.
The HeySTU crew: Ikya Thearam, William Cerdelli & Matteo Beretta
In a world stuffed with distractions, individuals with ADHD usually wrestle with focus, activity administration, and burnout. It’s not simply irritating, it’s expensive. ADHD is linked to greater charges of job loss, psychological well being points, and productiveness loss, with world financial prices within the billions.
STU is a pleasant, conversational desk robotic designed to assist individuals with ADHD. It helps customers break down their ideas, plan their day, examine extra successfully, and keep on high of duties, like a useful teammate that sits beside you.
The crew behind STU has each lived expertise with ADHD and deep technical experience in machine studying. Collectively, they’re constructing instruments that genuinely perceive how neurodiverse brains work.
In simply 4 days, STU’s early take a look at launch grew to 150 customers, with over 1,000 individuals now on the waitlist. The primary prototype was in-built simply two weeks, and pilot partnerships are already underway.
Founders: Ikya Thearam, Matteo Beretta & William Cerdelli
