Media Release

St.George Bank today announced the five Australian businesses that have each received $25,000 cash grants to help turn their business idea into reality. The winners were awarded the grants after each delivering a ‘fast pitch’ at this week’s TEDxSydney conference held at the Sydney Opera House.

The winners of this year’s St.George Bank Kick Start Your Start-Up Grants program are:

·        Sleepy Bub: SLEEPY BUB is a new business launching mid-2016 to bring sleep back into the family home, with a core product designed to help babies sleep safer and remain swaddled all night long.

·        AirBuddy: AirBuddy provides the freedom to dive whenever you want without the hassle or the restrictive bulk of SCUBA gear. AirBuddy doesn't require any air tanks, yet still offers 45 minutes of diving time at a depth of up to 12 meters (40 ft).

·        Conweigh: Conweigh is a new on demand, on site mobile container weighing service that provides shippers with the perfect balance of convenience, efficiency and affordability.

·        Iridium Dynamics: Iridium Dynamics are developing a novel, highly-efficient unmanned aircraft specifically for the agriculture industry.

·        BRiN: BRiN is a smart-phone app that uses the power of Artificial Intelligence to provide human-like support to millions of business owners simultaneously.

Cathy Yuncken, General Manager Business Banking, St.George Banking Group, congratulated each of the winning entrepreneurs, as well as all of this year’s finalists, for their innovative ideas and engaging pitches at TEDxSydney.

“The quality of all of this year’s entrants, and especially the five winning businesses, has been outstanding. The ideas presented cover varied industry sectors, from agriculture to business advice, and they highlight some of the incredible innovation alive among Australian small businesses,” Cathy Yuncken said.

“TEDxSydney is such a fantastic showcase of ideas and innovation and St.George is delighted to have given these Australian entrepreneurs a platform at this event to help get their creative concepts noticed.

“At St.George, we’re committed to helping our customers start something and turn their ideas into reality. The winners of our Kick Start program now have a terrific cash boost to help take their business idea to the next level.”

Each finalist received pre-event presentation training from the TEDxSydney team to prepare for their pitch. The five winning businesses were selected by a panel of industry experts including: General Manager Business Banking, St.George Banking Group, Cathy Yuncken; TEDxSydney Founder and Licensee Remo Giuffré; and Founder and CEO of The Entourage, Jack Delosa.

Since 2014, the St.George Kick Start program has helped small business owners by providing a total of $200,000 in grants to back great Australian ideas. In 2016, St.George increased its grants from $10,000 to $25,000 to a total of $125,000 as part of its continued commitment to Australian small businesses.

Notes:

About TEDxSydney: TEDxSydney is an independently organised event licensed from TED by longtime TEDster, Remo Giuffré (REMO General Store, General Thinking network) and run by the TEDxSydney organising team, volunteers, directors and founder. This group began the current iteration of TEDxSydney at Carriageworks in 2010, with a single day of ideas and performances. After another two great Carriageworks events, TEDxSydney moved to its current home at the Sydney Opera House, allowing for a significant increase to the amount of people who could experience this extraordinary event.

TEDxSydney has become the leading platform for the propagation of Australian ideas, creativity and innovation to the rest of the world. We aim to create and foster a sense of community amongst the people and organisations who have gathered (and continue to gather) around this event; and to provide a cultural focus and impetus for conversation and debate.

More information visit http://www.tedxsydney.com