Hunting unicorns at UNSW

Startups that become the next billion-dollar business are known as "unicorns" because they are extremely rare and unusual creatures. And like the unicorn, finding one is no easy feat.

But Chinese reality TV program ‘The Next Unicorn’, which will screen on CBN – China’s largest finance channel – thinks it knows where to look. The crew visited campus recently to film UNSW’s StartUp China pitching competition.

They are hoping to uncover the next Atlassian – the company founded by two UNSW alumni that recently listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange with a market value of more than $6 billion.

UNSW’s StartUp China competition aims to help entrepreneurs interested in doing business in China get a foot in the door, with the top three startups winning a trip to China and introductions to Chinese investors and potential partners in government and industry. 

Elisa Mokany, winner of the 2015 UNSW Startup China competition.

Ten finalists pitched their ideas to more than 100 guests and a panel of expert judges including Victor Jiang from Sapien Ventures, Benjamin Yuan from Leaguer Capital and Victor Wang from the Shenzhen Economic and Trade Office.

UNSW alumna Elisa Mokany took out first prize with her company SpeeDx, which aims to address the issue of antibiotic resistance, a huge global problem, with a novel diagnostic test to determine if bacteria have resistance.

Mokany said she was very excited be involved in the competition, and to have the opportunity to make connections with China. The media exposure from starring in ‘The next Unicorn’ should also help her business.

“It’s amazing for our company and it’s really going to help us progress our sales,” says Mokany.

“By using our technology we are able to ensure that people who have bacteria that are resistant are not getting treated with the wrong antibiotics, therefore getting treated more quickly and getting better more quickly,” she says.

Mokany developed the test during her PhD project with UNSW’s School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Science in conjunction with Johnson and Johnson Research.

Andrea Myles took out second place with the ‘China Australia Millennial Project’ (CAMP), which aims to bring together 200 young innovators from Australia and China to tackle global challenges and create solutions. CAMP co-founder, Rachel Walters is a UNSW graduate.

Third place went to UNSW MBA graduate Cate Hull, co-founder and CEO of FreightExchange, which brings carriers and shippers together to reduce waste, generate revenue, and improve sustainability.

Kevin Cullen, CEO of New South Innovations, said startups are a key priority for UNSW in terms of student experience, commercialisation, knowledge exchange and contribution to Australian society, economy and community.

“UNSW runs the biggest student startup program in Australia – and, I would argue, also the most successful student startup program. We also have the first university based startup legal centre in Australia.

“And, perhaps no coincidence, UNSW is number one in Australia for the number of millionaires among our alumni,” he said.

The UNSW Startup China program was developed by UNSW Innovations and the Student Entrepreneur Development (SED) team in partnership with the Shenzhen Economic and Trade Office, Zpark, Innohub and Leaguer Capital with support from PwC and UNSW International.

Investors involved in the competition include Fishburners Founder Peter Davison, Andrey Shirben from Follow the Seed, Steve Hoffman from Founder Space and Bob Xu from ZhenFund. 

Top Australian accelerator and incubator programs including H2, Slingshot, muru-D, and Springboard also helped support and develop the enterprises that might well turn out to be the next unicorn.