Success stories

Inspiring Western Australian success stories

Landgate’s SPUR Location Grants Program is a collaborative Western Australian (WA) Government initiative, designed to discover innovative location data technology and deliver improvements to the State’s land and property sector.

"A lot of people see grants or accelerators as a quick way to secure some funding, however, the SPUR Landgate program has also provided a huge amount of intangible value that has gone way beyond expectations.

In addition to much needed funds, we have also been granted unparalleled access to WA's best spatial data sets and one on one's with in house spatial experts along with providing a variety of practical & relevant master classes & field trips with industry leaders and government, which has already led to a number of fantastic opportunities & big meetings.

Not only has the accelerator guided & supported us through the technical aspects of our project, but it has also allowed us to exchange ideas and bond with the other fantastic WA startups, which has already led to some long-lasting friendships & an additional support base."

“The SPUR grant has proven to be a great boost to delivering our product roadmap. The (non-dilutive) money was useful to add in features that were originally planned for later and the Landgate team connected us with government departments and influential contacts we wouldn’t have thought of or had easy access to.

This has opened doors for Markr with our new product being published in May. We can now not only publish images and text in the language of the user’s device to specific geo locations, but now we have check-in features, a fully flexible Markr layout for content of all shapes and sizes and the wow factor of publishing animated Augmented Reality objects.

We recommend anyone wanting to fast track their geo data idea, product or service to apply for the Spur grant.”

“The SPUR Location Research Grant has provided our international and interdisciplinary research team from Curtin University and Fraunhofer IOSB, Germany the opportunity to improve our 4D heat modelling approaches and connect to end-users (including policy makers) to help quantify the effects of Urban Heat Islands. Thanks to the SPUR Grant’s funded student internships we have been able to expand our team and have connected with key stakeholders due to seminars organised by Landgate as part of the program. Together with key stakeholders we are planning follow up projects to better understand and quantify Urban Heat Islands to achieve our ambitious aim of keeping Australian cities ‘Liveable’ now and into the future.

Thanks again for the opportunity of the SPUR grant!”

Soar’s goal is to develop a global Super-map, capable of showing and delivering geospatial imagery at any scale from low-resolution satellite to high-resolution drone imagery. Soar's global super-map combines spatially tagged imagery and content acquired from drone operators, aerial surveyors and satellite image providers in a single marketplace platform. Based on the Ethereum blockchain and with a unique on-chain/ off-chain storage, Soar uniquely tags every image and transaction to maintain a public ledger of the origin and authenticity of the content. The Super-map went live in early May 2019 and users can visit it at https://soar.earth

As most content captured by drone and aerial mapping companies is only ever used once, the Soar Super-map allows imagery creators an opportunity to license their content through a decentralised, distributed mapping environment. These images can be purchased and downloaded from the Super-map using either Soar's SKYM token or fiat currency.

Due to its novel approach to the mapping industry and as a practical application of uses of the blockchain, Soar was listed amongst the 2019 Top 50 Global Blockchain Innovations at the World Blockchain Forum conference in Singapore in June 2019.

The SPURonWA grant provided additional funding to help Soar deal with critical pre-launch issues involving client onboarding and content licensing issues. We found the SpuronWA grant team really helpful during the project. – Neil Prentice, Commercial Manager

Aerie is a pilotless UAV system to autonomously collect and analyse aerial data for the agriculture and Natural Resource industry. Aerie is currently in first prototype system testing, which will be testing for farming and natural resource applications. Aerie has had great achievements throughout the SPUR grant funding period, progressing from proof of concept to initial prototyping phase.

Aerie is currently undergoing testing on a farm in Wandering, Western Australia and have commenced an approach to market viability study and second prototype/Minimum viable product design.

The SPURonWA grant has been a major element to our project’s rapid development. For a small startup to have the funding readily available to buy the necessary items for development, without having to wait and save funds or spend time exploring alternate options has been a great asset. – Rhys Haines, Co-Founder

BD Water Services is a Perth, WA based service provider. Founded to bring quality and simplicity to the water bore drilling and irrigation industries, we pride ourselves on offering the best solutions regarding anything water. With dedicated service teams in residential, agricultural and commercial spaces, we engineer, construct and maintain systems to the highest of standards.

Water trading was the logical next step for our model. The SPURonWA grant allowed us to build the next stage of our business by bringing the entire WA water trading process online via the BD Water Trading marketplace. Sellers are able to list their allocations and buyers purchase them all through the one platform, while BD Water secures the payment and lodges the application to the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation for each trade.

With Spur’s support we were able to take our idea from a concept to being fully integrated into our business! - Barkley Day, General Manager

Cognetic Technologies is the company behind the VORTALS™ application and software suite – a world-scale augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) design and presentation platform. By harnessing the power of GIS data, the VORTALS™ platform re-invents the way in which we structure and deliver content to users in an augmented world.

Cognetic Technologies engaged Gustavino Capital to analyse the product and our route to market and we have embarked on the strategy laid out. We have completed a pilot program with Edith Cowan’s Graduate School of Research and have embarked on a pilot with Cecil Andrews College.

We are also currently in discussions with a number of institutions, both in industry and in the education sector.

The SPUR grant gave us the opportunity to use services that would typically be out of reach of a startup. Because of the grant, we could bring in outside perspectives and skillsets that were invaluable in progressing our business forwards.- Russell Scott, Co-Founder

Vine growers in all regions of Australia and overseas face constant pressure for uplifting the quality of their wine products, increasing productivity for economic performance and reducing inputs for environmental sustainability. SpecTerra has a long-standing history servicing Australia's viticulture industry with airborne multispectral image data, mapping variability in vine canopy vigour to support growers with strategic and precision vineyard management activities.

The concept for the V3 Maps Vine Mapper project is to use machine-vision and spatial data processing tools to extract new information from SpecTerra Imagery, creating a new and innovative geospatial product that will provide a greater level of precision, metrics and crop “asset” management opportunities. The product aims to further support growers, wine producers and vineyard owners in measuring and achieving their performance objectives.

This new commercial offering will provide SpecTerra a competitive edge to retain and secure new business in the viticultural and agricultural markets, while introducing market leading and innovative products founded on Western Australian developed technology.

The SPURonWA grant has provided SpecTerra with financial assistance and stimulation to enable the further development and validation of a unique, innovative and potentially high-value product. Being a small business, the grant has allowed SpecTerra to dedicate internal team resource towards the VineMapper project; resource that would otherwise be allocated to bottom-line revenue generating activity. – Nathan Turner, Operations Manager

Hygge Community Life is a not-for-profit organisation with registered charitable, PBI and DGR status. Hygge was established to develop, nurture and grow Australia's first social and affordable housing advertising service called Hygge Home Hub!

For the first time in Australian history, Home Hub provides a centralised place to connect people in need of housing and those who have a range of potential homes. By creating an inclusive Home Hub that all people can use, Hygge supports us to speed up the process of people who have a range of housing needs from crisis and transitional housing needs to longer-term and more secure housing needs, to access their options via a 'one-stop hub', move into somewhere suitable and appropriate, and access the right supports to ensure that they can stay there for a while.

The Home Hub gives all people and entities the ability to tackle, reduce and prevent housing stress and poverty. Imagine this, without giving money to charities rattling tins on the street, and without spending loads of time feeling bad about limited volunteering or walking past homelessness, people who need help, and those who we know and love who without us realising live in housing stress and poverty, we can help them find a 'Home' that meets their needs both now, and into the future.

Imagine you could create a housing system of the future, without really doing that much. Imagine a society where all people had access to safe, secure and affordable homes. Come talk to us if you'd like to know me - we're always looking to talk with people who are concerned and driven to affect change and create a better world when it comes to having a 'Home'.

Home is where the heart is, let's work together as a community to give everyone a home.

We're privileged to work with the SPUR team in a range of ways, from supporting us through co-working space that allows us to flourish and grow alongside other great start-ups and enterprises, through to specialist knowledge, skills and experience of all things geospatial data and technology. They're individual and collective passion to support social purpose that leverages their specialist skills and experience to create a better tomorrow is infectious to be around.

The SPUR team is proactive in finding and supporting opportunities to assist Hygge Community Life, from the provision of a working space, to opportunities to network and flourish in networking environments such as presentation spots and booths etc., to supporting innovative strategic collaborations where other co-working spaces may not. Thank you to SPUR for your support and continued relationship - Iain Shields, Founding Director of Hygge Community Life Limited

Tuggl is building a search engine for local shopping. Bricks and mortar stores have suffered sales declines in recent years and this is adversely impacting local businesses and communities. We believe a large part of the problem is that due to changing technology and lifestyles, local products are often invisible to shoppers. Our solution is to build an online platform that makes it easy to know what products are in stock at local stores.

However this can be difficult, as each retail location can have thousands of individual products, all with their own images, descriptions and differing options and stock levels that have to be captured - somehow. So we’ve had to do some ’out of the box’ thinking.

Our initial version semi-automated collecting data from different sources such as retailer websites and Point-of-Sale systems, but it still required a non-trivial human effort to collate the data, so something better was needed.

A key aspect of a local shopping search engine is knowing where stores are located. We’re using the Landgate SPUR funding to build a location extractor using Neural Nets technology. This will read retail websites and identify locations and add them to our database. We’ll then be able to use the learning from this experience to automate other aspects of building our local product database.

SPUR funding allows us to investigate using artificial intelligence to gather data more accurately and with significantly less human involvement, boosting our chances of making bricks and mortar stores discoverable online. - Ankur Shardar , Founder & CEO

Voyant Augmented Reality was a recipient of a 2018 SPURonWA grant to further develop our augmented reality mobile app DropIt.

Mobile technology lets us do amazing things but can also leave us disconnected from the present; we ignore our immediate physical surroundings and the people we’re with. At Voyant AR we believe that augmented reality can change this: we can help connect people with each other and encourage them to explore the world around them.

DropIt is a location-based social messaging platform that lets users create messages in augmented reality and drop these at real world locations for other people to find. We are currently working with businesses and community organisations to explore ways in which our platform can be used to improve customer acquisition, engagement and retention.

One of the major challenges with our initial prototype was the location accuracy of GPS which lacked precision to create a highly personalised experience. We have used the SPURonWA grant to identify, test and integrate technology that combines computer vision, simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM) and 3D point clouds to increase the accuracy of our AR messages. Early testing of our improved prototype has demonstrated significantly greater precision and a much improved user experience.

“As a bootstrapped startup we are grateful to be a recipient of a SPURonWA grant. This has allowed us to focus on an important area of research and development which will deliver a better experience for our users. We have also benefited from networking and promotion opportunities, which have increased our exposure to potential collaborators and customers.” - Natalie Marinho, Founder & CEO

Since receiving SPUR grant funding, SpacetoCo has been able to implement two significant milestone projects. We have improved search functionality with a kilometre radius search tool on the space search results page. We have also been able to automate data extraction from our database to assist with business analytics, customer service, customer feedback, and future planning. The latter has been an invaluable tool to support our work in local government.

Whilst the SPUR funding was greatly received, the recognition, networking opportunities and continuing support from SPUR staff continues to help us achieve our goals. We’ll always be grateful to SPUR because they gave our fledgling startup a real boost when we needed it most!

We have been privileged to work with the SPUR team. They have been helpful, enthusiastic and prepared to help in any way possible. The team has looked for multiple opportunities to assist SpacetoCo from the provision of a working space to assistance with events to exploring an opportunity to further engage in a project for the utilisation of SpacetoCo as a system for the entirety of Landgate. - Jeremy Hurst, Co-Founder and Director of SpacetoCo

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Ovass used the SPURonWA grant to build out its Artificial Intelligence (AI) capability to identify shipping vessels at sea. Not only can its AI identify a marine vessel but also the type of vessel. This technology is then used to identify ‘dark’ vessels that maybe taking part in illegal activities such as illegal fishing. By automating the detection of these vessels we can speed up the time it takes for authorities to take action by providing them with accurate information and insight. Illegal fishing is thought to cost the global economy $36.4b a year.

The SPURonWA grant has enabled us to compete on the global geospatial analytics stage. It has enabled us to build out capability that allows us to stand alongside global heavyweights in the geospatial intelligence industry. - Dave Newman, Founder & CEO

Laconik used the SPURonWA grant to develop the user interface for Play’N To Win, a dynamic, spatial and real time product that maximises nitrogen fertiliser efficiency, profitability and environmental stewardship.

It combines various and disparate sources of location information with internally developed nitrogen response algorithms to deliver easy-to-understand maps of profitable nitrogen fertiliser rates at any time during the year.

There is no other product currently in the market which can be run and rerun throughout the season using multiple sources of location data.

Laconik also accessed a number of additional SPUR services during the grant project period including co-working space, location data made available through the Open Data policy, and collaborated with Landgate spatial experts regarding data and analysis. It secured its first commercial sale as a direct result of the SPURonWA grant.

Farmers in Western Australia and South Australia are using the technology in 2018 and this will bring new economic activity and employment into WA.

Developing new and innovative ways to use data will increase the productivity and profitability of agriculture. Western Australian agtech start-up Laconik, received a SPURonWA grant in 2017 and used it to develop Play’N To Win, new technology which helps farmers improve nitrogen fertiliser decisions. As a direct result of the grant Laconik secured its first commercial sale to farmers in WA and SA. Laconik plans to continue developing a suit of new technologies fit for purpose. This will bring new economic activity and jobs to WA. Laconik encourages any start-up considering a SPURonWA grant to apply. It has provided real benefits to Laconik. - Darren Hughes, Managing Director

Born out of the Ministry of Data Hackathon, Smart Vision AI is a computer vision startup, looking to help businesses capture and analyse road video data to provide intelligent, actionable insights. The system utilises depth sensing and location-aware hardware, combined with computer vision and machine-learning algorithms to automatically detect roadside hazards from real-time or recorded video feeds.

We approached SPUR very early on, with really just a prototype, some optimistic goals and a determined team. With the early support from SPUR, not just financially, but through their expertise and data, we believe our team will be well positioned to launch our product to market later in the year. SPUR has been tremendously supportive of our company’s objectives and we’re extremely grateful that this grant exists, as without it, our beginnings would be far more difficult, challenging and more worryingly, slower. We encourage others with spatial/ location based start-ups to get in touch with the SPUR team to see in what ways they can help. - Ryan O’Sullivan, Co-Founder

In 2016 SPUR helped Moneycatcha Pty Ltd with a SPURonWA grant and access to data using a SPUR Developer’s Licence to test its idea before going to market.

Moneycatcha Pty Ltd used a SPUR Developer’s Licence to test API calls for client information to Landgate’s Land Titles Register. This location information component of the process is highly important as it ensures validity and ownership of the customer assets and security to be taken by the financial institution, creating a smooth end to end link with PEXA to ensure the correct security property is identified. Funding from a SPURonWA grant assisted the team to complete development of the Homechain prototype in February 2017 and initiate pilot programs with two financial institutions.

Moneycatcha is highly appreciative of all the support provided by SPUR which has been instrumental to our ongoing growth and success. - Ruth Hatherley, Founder and CEO Moneycatcha

SPUR is pleased to be helping Western Australian start-up BuildingApprovals.com (now BuildSort.com) drive its business forward.

Structural engineer Chris Dorian founded BuildingApprovals.com two years ago after becoming frustrated with the complexities and inefficiencies associated with obtaining building plan approval.  His goal is to develop a fully automated online building approval system ensuring consumers enjoy a smooth, effortless experience during the planning process.

BuildingApprovals.com has launched Builder’s E-Commerce, a customisable online platform for builders.

SPUR is helping BuildingApprovals.com with its idea for development of the complete online building approval process through access to Landgate data and funding. A co-working arrangement means the team enjoys regular one-on-one consultation with our data and commercialisation experts at Landgate.

This was the SPUR team's first co-working collaboration and proved beneficial to everyone involved.

In 2018, Chris began investigating the potential of blockchain technology to improve his business model. In April, he and his team were awarded BlockEngine Winner of Best Blockchain Solution at Melbourne’s Blockchain Centre. BuildingApprovals.com officially pivoted to become BuildSort, with a projected global launch in June 2019.

The SPURonWA grant assisted us to get our much needed marketing strategy ready for launch. The help Landgate and the SPUR team have provided has been so valuable. - Chris Dorian, Director

WA tech start-up Landguide teamed up with SPUR to create a new comparison website which helps first home buyers and investors save time and money when choosing where to live or invest.

Founded in 2015, Landguide was created to educate and empower land buyers by improving transparency and simplifying the process of finding your dream location to live.

The recipient of a SPURonWA grant, Landguide embarked on a journey to collate the overwhelming amount of real estate data available and build an innovative new style of comparison website. Making use of a SPUR Developer’s Licence, specifically designed for start-ups, Landguide leverages real time location data to give a true perspective of a block of land and the surrounding location, allowing land buyers to compare features like local amenities, schools and transportation services.

The website Landguide.com.au, launched in April 2017, lets buyers directly compare land from different sellers across the state. It also offers the ability to review the environmental rating of new land estates using both the Green Build Council Australia and the EnviroDevelopments rating systems. Through the use of these insights, the Landguide team believes it will drive land sellers to be more competitive on price and features while encouraging the land buyer to consider the long-term value of the property they are buying.

Landguide stimulates the potential for affordable living, lifestyle and sustainability by putting the power back into the consumer’s hands.

Encouraging buyers to think more about value, the ultimate mission of Landguide is to improve housing affordability and promote liveable communities in Western Australia.

As a start-up, often the first few steps are the hardest and for anyone looking at getting involved in spatial/location data space SPUR should be your first stop. For us as a start-up we not only got expert advice but also got excellent networking and meeting opportunities. Landguide would highly recommend the SPUR team to help you leverage data today. - Chris Bashall, CIO

PropertySMS is an app that is changing the way real estate professionals are communicating with their clients.

The app allows agents to maintain a consistent flow of personalised, relevant communication on local property sales with their contact list of potential sellers or buyers. Whenever a home is sold near a property that is owned by one the agents’ contacts, a text message is generated on the agents’ behalf advising of the sale price along with other property details.

This technology enhances the agents’ professional service increasing their chances of business in their local neighbourhood.

PropertySMS took advantage of access to a SPUR developer’s licence from Landgate. This allowed PropertySMS to integrate Landgate’s property and sales data, at a reduced cost during the engineering and market validation stage of their app development.

Find out more about PropertySMS, watch a demonstration video or download the app by visiting PropertySMS.com.au

yStop is Australia's first, broad-scale, smart furniture provider.

Combining modular design, patented technology, new reporting systems and a community-first business model yStop brings a new way of seeing and sensing cities - through world-first 'Connectors'.

Each Connector works as part of a clever productivity and community engagement platform. Most are solar powered to provide features inc:

• phone-charging seats + shelters
• waste-sensing bin surrounds and
• a micro-donation + way-finding platform called 'Dwell'

The yStop Dashboard, meanwhile, 'learns' the most efficient maintenance schedules and remotely updates community event notifications. Using the LoRa network (low power, wide range communication) and Australia’s best route-mapping software, maintenance teams are instantly connected with real-time needs. yStop have installed one of Perth’s first LoRa gateways which is also open for community use. Together, these systems go towards providing world’s-best waste and maintenance fleet management - currently under trial with a local Perth council.

Other Dashboard applications include air sensors that provide hyper-local monitoring which can alert to high diesel emissions. Currently a program is being developed - together with Perth schools and university's - to help students teach parents about the dangers of idling vehicles at school pick-ups - with other community IoT applications to be announced soon.

All of this through an innovative business model where start-up precincts, charity campaigns and creative networks can be showcased - without cost.

For more information contact yStop on 1300 236 242 or check out the new website.

The SPURonWA grant has raised our profile as well as providing some much needed funds for development costs. The management and leadership course was great. Thanks for the support. – Len Luxford, Director

Instatruck is an online truck-matching platform with the potential to completely reconfigure the current land transport industry in Western Australia. By leveraging new technology, Instatruck significantly improves system efficiency by simply allowing customers to source the closest, most suitable truck for their needs whilst maintaining high standards of safety.

Instatruck used their SPURonWA grant funds to develop an android platform for use in their load-to-truck matching and tracking business. Since launching in 2015 they have helped fill gaps in the schedules of truck drivers by serving customer’s specific and immediate courier needs.  Customer and driver apps talk to each other, matching load size to truck type and journeys are tracked using an innovative online system for mobile devices. Over the course of the last year, over 93% of trucks arrived at the pick-up location within half an hour of booking.

The outstanding success of their Perth based operation means that the business is expanding to the east coast of Australia.

Instatruck was named in the top 20 finalists of the Oz App Awards 2016 and was the Growth Category winner of the Western Australia Innovator of the Year 2016.

The SPURonWA grant contributed significantly to the budget for developing what we consider to be a piece of cutting edge technology in the development of our Driver Android App. The funding has been significantly beneficial to our company as it has assisted us in meeting our commercial needs and objectives. The funding has been one piece of the many required to successfully commercialise a project such as Instatruck. – Siobhan Lancaster, CEO

Founded in 2016, Cultured Cities aims to enhance the experiences of young travellers arriving in Perth.

They do so by gathering information curated by local students, and pass this knowledge onto young travellers such as backpackers and international students. Their aim is to provide a genuine experience of the city’s culture, and assist visitors in exploring a city beyond the tourist traps.

Jacinta Houzer, a co-founder of Cultured Cities, was the recipient of the 2016 Curtin Ignition Scholarship awarded by Landgate - a program that assisted the team in transforming their offering from physical paper maps, into the location based platform it is today.

Community Insight Australia enables users to select an area and generate in-depth social profile reports in under 10 minutes. It is the only off-the-shelf software that enables users to define their own areas and access the available data on the people within them. The Community Insight Australia tool is a user-friendly solution for people making location-based decisions in government and not-for-profit organisations, with all data accessed through a map, rather than a spreadsheet.

Community Insight Australia used the SPURonWA grant to achieve their short term objective of developing the report-generating functionality of the tool.  While the application can now generate reports based on user defined areas, market launch is some months away.

The benefits of Community Insight Australia’s product are twofold. Community Insights Australia visualises publicly available data so that government and not-for-profit organisations can deliver services tailored to geographic communities. The tool also enables organisations to map their own data, to understand the spatial relationship between their services and community need.

The long term outcomes for Community Insight Australia include improving outcomes for disadvantaged West Australians, as targeted information leads to more efficient and more effective services.

The SPURonWA grant helped fund the development of our automated report functionality. This report is a massive game-changer in terms of the amount of information that can be accessed on any Australian location, by anyone, within 10 minutes. - Emma Tomkinson, Director

InFarm is a drone to tractor data processing solution that allows farmers to spot spray fallow weeds using their existing farm machinery. Drones images, collected from the paddock, are uploaded into the InFarm processing platform where our unique weed identifying algorithm is used. The result is a tractor ready file that can be uploaded into farmers standard tractors. Our data then controls the nozzles turning them on and off depending on the presence of weeds.

The result is a reduction in chemical usage, which is financially beneficial to the farmer and has numerous positive environmental benefits.

SPURonWA funding was used to develop and secure an intellectual property strategy surrounding InFarm’s innovation.

The team at SPUR are extremely understanding and easy to work with. We hope that this grant continues into the future, helping the commercialisation of many more companies, products and ideas like ours. – Jerome Leray, Chief Pilot and CEO