Cicada Innovations

What do sending tech into orbit, raising $447M, and filling the Sydney Opera House (twice!) have in common? They’re all part of Cicada Innovations’ 2024 story. This year, we’ve witnessed breakthroughs that redefined what’s possible in deep tech—from transmitting electricity via lasers to water-emitting planes that could revolutionise aviation—and beyond. And the best part? We’re just getting started. Next year, we celebrate 25 years of shaping Australia’s deep tech future. 🎂 🎉 Take a look back at the moments that made 2024 unforgettable—and get a glimpse of what’s coming in 2025: https://lnkd.in/gk6-YY78 Don’t just scroll—tell us your favourite deep tech moment this year in the comments! #DeepTech #Innovation #YearInReview #FutureIsDeep

As we close out another year, we’re incredibly proud of our Tech23 alumni, with both the 2023 and 2024 cohorts pushing boundaries and achieving incredible milestones. Cicada x Tech23 is Australia’s biggest deep tech festival, offering startups unmatched exposure, curated networking, and a platform for thought leadership. It’s where bold, visionary entrepreneurs unite to tackle the world’s most pressing challenges with pioneering technologies. Several Tech23 alumni have made significant strides this year: Samsara Eco - Raised $100 million for infinite recycling of plastics Kapture - Successfully embeds carbon emissions in concrete Xefco - Raised $10.5M seed extension led by Main Sequence ElectraLith - Named 2024 AFR BOSS Most Innovative Company in the Agriculture, Mining, Engineering and Utilities sector. Stralis Aircraft (YC W23) -  Pitched at TechCrunch Disrupt & featured on Channel 7 Convergence Medical ’s Founder & CEO, Chris Jeffery awarded the 2024 Australian Deep Tech Entrepreneur of the Year by the Australian Young Entrepreneur Awards! Dovetail Electric Aviation - Were Featured on Nine News Misti - Joined our bio incubator, Jumar Bioincubator, in Melbourne, and was a finalist for the inaugural "Innovator Award" from the Stem Sisters Dilji Labs  - Founder, Kado Muir, was one of the keynote speakers at the inaugural Impact Economy Forum in Perth Uluu - Announced its first commercial collaboration with Quiksilver Syenta - Grant winner of NSW Physical Sciences Fund Alt.Leather -  Successfully closed an oversubscribed seed funding round, raising $1.1 million Analog Quantum Circuits - Partnered with Australia's Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator (ASCA) to develop their superconducting microwave technologies. Rainstick - Nominated by growᴬᴳ⋅ for the Earthshot Prize 2025  VetChip -  Winners of the National Winner Chief Judge Innovation Award and the National Merit Award for the Not-For-Profit & Community at this year’s iAwards Rux Energy -  Founder, Dr Jehan Kanga recognised by The Australian as one of Australia’s top 100 Energy Players!  Pending AI, Aquila, Syenta, Xefco, Kapture, ElectraLith, Endua - Featured in 2024 Australia’s Top 100 Innovators!  Thank you to our incredible sponsors who helped make CxT23 possible: Main Sequence, Department of Industry, Science and Resources, Investment NSW & Tech Central Sydney, University of Technology Sydney, CSIRO, University of Sydney, South Eveleigh, KPMG High Growth Ventures, CFO Plus - Your Outsourced Finance Department, City of Sydney, Addisons, Radium Capital , Monash University, Techvisa. More than just an event, Cicada x Tech23 is a movement, connecting founders with investors, industry leaders, and a community ready to turn ambitious ideas into reality. Everyone has a role to play at Cicada x Tech23. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gHVsnSGH #tech #deeptech #australianstartups

This year has been nothing short of extraordinary for our resident community of 46 game-changing deep tech businesses. In 2024, they achieved remarkable milestones and celebrated outstanding news, while we also welcomed incredible new additions to our growing community. Together, we’ve welcomed 12 new companies to Cicada Eveleigh: Rhizocore Technologies, METASORB, Deneb Space, Quantum Motion, Crest Robotics, MP Space, newera.bio, X-Centric Sciences, Emergentia, Inc., CruxML, and the return of InvertiGro. $447 Million (that’s nearly half a billion dollars!) was raised by residents and alumni, including Clarity Pharmaceuticals, Xefco, VXB Aerospace, MILLIBEAM, Rux Energy — plus alumni like Aquila or Morse Micro. Huge congratulations to everyone involved! 🛰️ 6 of our residents literally reached new heights this year, with their tech now in orbit, passing overhead every hour. A massive shoutout to Contactile, Deneb Space, ANT61, Spiral Blue, Mawson Rovers, and Extraterrestrial Power! This year, we also came together more than ever, hosting regular community breakfasts to connect and inspire collaboration among the 46 resident companies, alongside workshops to help upskill and grow their teams. We’d like to celebrate even more achievements from our residents: - Navbit: Winner of the InnovationAus Health Tech category. - Syenta: Secured $2M from the NSW Physical Sciences Fund! - Osara Health: Awarded MRFF funding. - Crest Robotics: Signed partnerships with TransGrid and featured on Channel 7 News. - X-Centric Sciences: Finalist in the PepsiCo Greenhouse Accelerator! - Rhizocore Technologies & Quantum Motion: Established Australian offshoots here at Cicada. - CALUMINO: Brought their thermal sensors to mass-market applications. - Gelion: Secured first commercial orders and expanded partnerships. - Aquila & Spiral Blue: Participated in the US Techstars Space Programs. Not to mention, 7 of our residents were included in the Australian 100 Innovators list! Congratulations to Pending AI, SpeeDx Pty Ltd, Aquila, Syenta, Contactile, Xefco, and Mawson Rovers. Thank you to each and every one of you for making 2024 such a memorable year. We can’t wait to see what 2025 will bring for our incredible deep tech community. Want to be part of Australia’s leading deep tech community? Find out how you can join Cicada Innovations here: https://lnkd.in/gaBK7MWc. #deeptech #australianstartups #community #incubator

What an incredible year it has been at Jumar Bioincubator! From filling the incubator with game-changing biotech ventures and hosting impactful ecosystem events to welcoming leaders from across ecosystem, here are a few highlights that have made 2024 truly memorable: ⭐ Welcomed 24 new resident companies, increasing the total to 30 biotech and medtech ventures now calling Jumar home.️ These companies have been driving innovation in areas such as wearable infection defense, bio-sensor patches for continuous ovulation tracking, and groundbreaking treatments for mental health and cancer. 👥 190+ residents are now part of the Jumar community, including founders, lab technicians and data analysts. 🧡 Fostered stronger connections within the Jumar community through various resident events. Thank you to our amazing residents for their vibrant energy and enthusiasm! ✨ We had visits Sally Capp AO, former Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Paul Fletcher, Shadow Minister for Science and the Digital Economy, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, the AusBiotech team, and many more. 💰 Over 10 investors, including Tenmile, Tin Alley Ventures, Brandon Capital, Main Sequence, IP Group plc, Breakthrough Victoria, Boson Ventures, PAN Group, WEHI Ventures, and Horizon 3 Healthcare  have connected with our residents. 💡 Delivered 10 Jumar Masterclasses on topics like legal considerations, funding, and pharmaceutical partnerships. These sessions attracted over 200 attendees and featured insights from more than 30 industry expert speakers, including Marthe D'Ombrain, Tam C. Nguyen, Janette Dixon, Michelle McIntosh, Tim Hynes, and more. 🎓 55 people graduated from BioElevate, our commercialisation workshop, and BioAccelerate, a 6-month bespoke coaching program. 🙌 Attracted over 500 attendees, including founders, researchers, and investors, to co-hosted ecosystem events in collaboration with partners such as What The Health, Victorian Medtech Skills and Devices Hub, and the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences. 🤝 Brought together 21 leading experts for the inaugural Jumar Mentor Lunch & Learn — an exclusive opportunity for Jumar residents to connect with mentors from across areas like venture capital, IP, HR, and lab operations. This year has been filled with exciting milestones, and we deeply appreciate the interest and support of the broader biotech ecosystem. Thank you to Jumar’s founding partners: CSL, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research) and The University of Melbourne, as well as our funding partner Breakthrough Victoria and operator Cicada Innovations, for their dedication to Jumar’s shared vision of supporting biotech startups. This is just the beginning! Next year promises more impactful events and valuable connections. Don’t miss out on what’s happening at Jumar in 2025. Join our mailing list to stay updated: https://lnkd.in/guDy4SCg #JumarBioincubator #BiotechInnovation #biotech #startups #innovation #incubator

Wow, what another incredible year, working with NSW Government on the NSW Health Commercialisation Training Program (HCTP)! We couldn’t be more thrilled to share the tremendous amount of growth HCTP has created during its almost 4 year run with Cicada Innovations in the current iteration. The NSW Health Commercialisation Training Program, from NSW Health, presented by Cicada Innovations, offers researchers, scientists, clinicians, and entrepreneurs working on medtech and biotech innovations a flexible, stage-specific approach that allows participants to join at any point. This year, we had the honour of celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the NSW Health Commercialisation Training Program through the NSW Health Showcase! And witnessed in those 10 years: - $134 million generated in funding through grants or private investment  - 350+ medical entrepreneurs enrol in  HCTP - 40 companies launched, taking 67 technologies to market  - 3,400+ participants join our HCTP cohort - 31 initiated clinical trials  - And over 23,000 patients have benefitted from the cutting-edge technology nutured in these programs! This year, we delivered 10 seminars and courses across the HCTP, that’s 26 days spent thinking of innovation… literally…. enough hours to fly to London 26 times! We also had over 400 people join our cohort this year. The equivalent of an Airbus A380! We would also like to extend our congratulations to our NSW Health Commercialisation Training Program alumni John Shanks 🦑, Luca Modenese and Martina Barzan on winning the 2024 Innovation Catalyst Awards from UNSW Tyree Foundation Institute of Health Engineering! 🎉 Congrats to Desiree D. for winning the national pitch competition in the area of ‘Women's Economic Empowerment. Shoutout to ShanShan Wang, from Roam Technologies (roamtech.ai) who was a Tech 23 Alumni this year and won the Future Leader Award at the 2024 HCTP Showcase awards. We would also like to congratulate the other HCTP Showcase award recipients, Veysel Kayser, who won the Emerging Innovator Award and Danielle Fisher GAICD from BIENCO, who won the Best Innovation Award. We would also like to mention Outcomes Nutrition (Tummily), who joined us through the HCTP program and has gone on to become a Cicada Innovations Health Tech Hub resident!  Thank you to the NSW Government, NSW Medical Research,  Jean-Frederic Levesque, Anne O'Neill FTSE and the OHMR HCTP team. None of this would have been possible without the hard work of the Cicada Innovation team Dr Katja Beitat, Alex Vellere, Beatrice Carmen, Archie Dell.  We are grateful to our partners for their support, and a huge thank you to all our mentors, speakers, and facilitators for helping platform healthcare entrepreneurs at every stage of their commercialisation journey. Learn more about the HCTP program here: https://lnkd.in/gB7feiBz #health #healthcare #deeptech #innovationtech #HCTP #NSWHealth #australianstartups #NSWGovernment

Last week I was on a panel at National Health and Innovation Precincts Summit on 'Start ups, commercialising innovation and bringing entrepreneurship into precincts'. Cicada Innovations has been part of precinct activation for 24 years through it's deep tech incubators. Infrastructure is a critical part of successful precincts but it is the people and the connections between them that make for vibrant innovation precincts. My key takeaways were: - within precincts what get resourced and measured, gets done - activating innovation within precincts needs to respond to the local context  - deep tech innovation emerges from industry experience, dogged curiosity, study and research and precinct activation needs to cater to these diverse pathways. Thanks to my co-panellists Claudio Pizzolato, Leong Mar, Samuel Jesuadian, moderator Petra Andrén and conference organiser Frankie Brewer.

Congratulations to our NSW Health Commercialisation Training Program (HCTP) alumni John Shanks 🦑, Luca Modenese and Martina Barzan on winning the 2024 Innovation Catalyst Awards! 🎉 Cicada Innovations is delighted to have been able to support their journey through the NSW Health Commercialisation Training Program. The NSW Health Commercialisation Training Programs presented by Cicada Innovations offer researchers, scientists, clinicians, and entrepreneurs working on MedTech and biotech innovations a flexible, stage-specific approach that allows participants to join at any point. If you or someone you know has a health tech idea and is looking for industry guidance, head here: https://lnkd.in/gB7feiBz #Health #Healthcare #LifeSciences #TechInnovation #AustralianStartups

And that's a wrap! Thank you to all our residents who attended our End of Year Resident party! 🎉🎉🎉 As we bonded over the Backstreet Boys....Britney.. remembering the good times, we also reflected on our highlights of the year together! Shoutout to our 90s party winners of the Lego building competition Syenta, and our best-dressed Clarity Pharmaceuticals! You absolutely smashed it 🧱 👗 Another shoutout to our incredible photographers Sydnie Lei, Cheng Cheng and Khit Nay for capturing all the fun and memes! 🕷️🕸️📸🤳 And a big thank you to the incredible people who organised this event Cristina Casaprima Ferrer, Kimberley Steel, Britt Hartnett, Mathew Muratore, Sydnie Lei, Cheng Cheng, Sian Priest, Tegan Thorpe and Laura S.. If you want to join in on the fun, head here to become a Cicada Innovations resident: https://lnkd.in/gaBK7MWc Or learn about the incredible work of our residents and their journey here: https://lnkd.in/gxFRNY4e #deeptech #startups #australianstartups #90s

Your journey to health tech mastery starts here! We’re back and ready than ever to kick off another HCTP Specialisations series!  With over 2000 participants since 2021, the NSW Health Commercialisation training program paved the way for health tech innovators from around the state to commercialise their ideas successfully. In 2025, we will commence four specialisation courses for innovations that have been established and validated.  These 3-day workshops deep dive into your specific sector when you are planning how to access your chosen market.  You will walk away with new connections and strategies to accelerate your growth. Does this sound like you? Sign up today: https://lnkd.in/g3VDWpm7 #medicaldevice #commercialisation #healthtech #healthcommercialisation #medtech NSW Medical Research NSW Government

📃🖊️ Latvia's trade mission to Australia concluded with a major milestone: Laura Štrovalde, Deputy Director General responsible for Investment and Energy at Invest in Latvia, signed a letter of intent for collaboration with Australia’s leading deep tech incubator Cicada Innovations. This agreement highlights a shared commitment to advancing deep technologies, particularly in the space and defense sectors, and lays the groundwork for an even stronger partnership. 🦾 During the visit, Cicada Innovations facilitated productive meetings between Latvian entrepreneurs and the incubator’s heads, exploring potential collaborations and the possibility of a follow-up visit to Latvia in 2025. Additionally, the delegation, including Airis Rikveilis, the National Security Adviser to the Prime Minister of Latvia, Margers Krams, the Latvian Ambassador to Australia, and representatives from Rīgas Tehniskā universitāte (Riga Technical University), also visited the Cybersecurity and Defense Division at the University of Technology Sydney. Discussions centered on innovative approaches to enhancing technological capabilities, reducing national risks, and driving cutting-edge innovation. 🛡️🚀 #InvestinLatvia #EUfunds #EUinmyregion #InvestEU #DeepTech