5 top startup news stories in Australia (August edition)

August is almost over, but not before our monthly Australia round-up pops up.

1. Muru-D graduates 9 startups

The first batch of startups from the Muru-D accelerator program has graduated. There was a demo day in Sydney that showcased the nine startups. Muru-D is an accelerator backed by Australia’s largest telecommunications carrier, Telstra. The full list of startups can be found here (disclosure: I’m a mentor in the accelerator program).

Muru-D is essentially a startup inside of Telstra which is running the program for the first time. I’ve been very impressed with how it’s been run, the people involved and the calibre of the startups in its inaugural class. All of the startups have paying customers or paid trials at the end of the six-month program. Mick Liubinskas, entrepreneur-in-residence and startup coach, has the startups focused on global sales.

On the demo day, the standout pitches were by Farmbot (a monitoring system for farms), Safesite (mobile app for construction site workers), and Zed (a platform for patients to view, share, and store their X-rays).

2. C8apps raises funding for fantasy sports games

I am a big fan of Yahoo fantasy basketball. I can often spend hours during the week and sometimes each day managing my fantasy team when the NBA season is on. However, you can’t play during the off-season as it’s dependent on real-time stats. Plus the mobile experience leaves a lot to be desired. A startup called C8apps has developed sports fantasy games that can be played throughout the year using simulations – and they’re designed for mobile. You can also choose sporting legends who have retired.

I met the founders Bao-Minh Tran-Vo and Charles Noble when they started working on these sports games three years ago. They were the first people I met in Melbourne, at a Jelly co-working event. Since then C8apps graduated from AngelCube’s 2013 accelerator program and developed the successful AFL fantasy sports game Footy Coach. Last year they launched League Coach for rugby league in partnership with Australia’s largest magazine publisher, Bauer Media.

The latest news is that the team has raised a seed round of AU$400,000 (US$375,000) from a group of investors including Adrian Stone, co-founder of Angelcube, Domenic Carosa, founder of Future Capital, Michael Fetter, and Adam Krongold. This has enabled the startup to launch FranticFC (pictured above), a new global soccer game which has become a become a top 10 ranking mobile sports game in the UK.

3. Cammy, a new mobile home security solution

Cammy is a startup based in Sydney that makes home security more affordable and easier to manage. Cammy has a mobile app that lets you connect to any IP camera, allowing you to monitor your home or office from your smartphone. You can view the videos or still images where motion is detected, which saves paying for expensive HD cloud recording.

The Cammy team has released a new iOS app called CammyCam which turns your device into a camera for monitoring. Competitors include US-based Dropcam.

4. Upcoming startup events

There are several important startup events coming up on the calendar. This includes SydStart, Australia’s largest tech conference and expo on September 2. The speakers include Mike Cannon-Brookes (Atlassian), Matt Barrie (Freelancer), Murray Hurps (Fishburners), Bosco Tan and Alvin Singh (Pocketbook). Disclosure: I’ll be speaking in a masterclass session.

There will also be pitches from 10 up and coming startups. Sydstart is my favourite Australian startup event and I’ve been attending it for the past four years.

Lean Startup Machine Sydney is a three-day workshop that focuses on business idea validation. The founder Trevor Owens will also be present (disclosure: I’ll be a mentor at the event).

See: Sydstart founder: Australia’s startup ecosystem can’t be the biggest but can be the best connected

5. That Startup Show airs first episode