Founder, Built for our Kids · Queensland ecosystem builder and connector

Laura Ashmole brings energy, warmth, and deep roots in Queensland's tech community to the stage on 9 July. As Founder of Built For Our Kids, she connects families raising children with complex needs with the innovators and entrepreneurs who can help co-design solutions that make a real difference. Her path there came through years spent at the heart of Queensland's startup scene, including leading growth at River City Labs, where she built her reputation as a connector of founders, talent, and organisations across Australia and beyond. Laura is also an author, with her poetry collection I See You Mama giving voice to mothers of children with high support needs. She brings that same honesty and warmth to everything she does. She will be your guide through the evening.

Pauline Fetaui

Director, Perspective X

Pauline Fetaui is a serial founder, angel investor and ecosystem builder, with twenty years of digital and transformation leadership across financial services and government behind her. She currently sits on the Advisory Board of Silicon Catalyst Australia, the country's leading Semiconductor and Quantum Accelerator, and is Co-Founder of Something Tech, Australia's Digital, Innovation and Technology Festival, and Host of Perspective X, a long-form podcast on the Day One Network.

Craig Josic

Managing Director | GEN Australia & Australia GEC Ambassador | Global Entrepreneurship Network

Craig Josic (CJ) is a serial entrepreneur and ecosystem builder who co-founded Silicon Coast, leads the Queensland AI Hub Sunshine Coast and GEN Australia, and has spent over a decade connecting founders, investors, and communities across Queensland and beyond.

Audun Fiskerud

Program Lead | EnergyLab

Audun helps startups get investment ready, and he helps established companies develop cultural and systemic enablers of innovation. Exited founders with 20+ years in start-ups, innovation, strategy, research, and learning programs.

Peta Ellis

General Manager | Beaten Zone Venture Partners

Peta Ellis is an executive coach, keynote speaker, and Defence innovation investor with nearly 30 years' experience turning vision into execution for leaders, startups, and future-focused ventures.

David Jakic

Global Managing Partner | BlackStar Partners

Bringing deep experience in corporate advisory, international trade, investment due diligence and deal negotiation across Australia, the Middle East, Europe, the UK and the US. He works with founders and investors to shape growth strategies and market expansion plans, with a particular focus on helping strong local businesses scale into genuine cross-border opportunities.

Annie Lawrence

Head of Industry Advancement | City of Moreton Bay

Annie Lawrence leads a diverse team delivering on an ambitious economic development agenda for Australia's third largest local government. With a career spanning both private sector and senior government roles, she sits on the Queensland Minister's Advisory Council for Innovation.

Julien Taylor

VC Investor | QIC

Julien is a VC investor at QIC Ventures with 15+ years of global experience in venture, strategy and scaling startups like Go1 and Sonder.

Hailo Solutions

Hailo removes the hidden barriers that stop people from using public transport with confidence, providing intelligent two-way communication between passengers and operators regardless of language, ability or familiarity with the system. The company is building the missing layer of clarity and trust that makes every journey possible.

Vertical: Transport / Accessibility Tech

Founder: Santiago Velasquez

ProcurePro

ProcurePro brings construction procurement, currently scattered across spreadsheets, email and phone calls, into one connected platform, giving commercial teams the visibility and governance to make smarter decisions before spend is committed. With up to 80% of project spend flowing through the supply chain, the company is aiming to save the construction industry a billion admin hours.

Vertical: Construction Tech / AI

Founder: Tim Rogers

Rocket Fast Drones

Rocket Fast Drones builds tube-launched, vertically-recovering electric drones that fly roughly twice as fast as anything else in their class, with a demonstrated cruise speed of 170 km/h. Its flagship AEROMed mission delivers blood and medical payloads to trauma sites inside the “Golden Hour”, reaching a 30 km radius in around 13 minutes where conventional drones take over 20.

Vertical: Medtech / Drone Logistics

Founder: Dr Joni Sytsma

StatDoctor

StatDoctor is building the technology layer that connects healthcare facilities and doctors directly, replacing a recruitment process still largely run on spreadsheets, email and phone calls. The platform is designed as AI-native infrastructure for how the healthcare workforce moves, covering rostering, credentialing, recruitment and pay.

Vertical: Healthtech / Workforce Infrastructure

Founder: Dr Anurag Ganugapati

UVSentry (GenAqua)

GenAqua makes waterborne pathogens like Legionella a solved problem for hospitals and aged care, with UVSentry devices that fit existing taps and showers to deliver point-of-use UVC disinfection. The technology has demonstrated a 140-fold reduction in Legionella in a Brisbane hospital trial, while its IoT platform automates compliance reporting in real time.

Vertical: Healthtech / Water Safety

Founder: Scott Goulter

Fempro Armour

Fempro Armour designs purpose-built protective equipment for women and girls in sport, healthcare and high-impact environments, engineered around female anatomy rather than adapted from male-based standards. The company is working to change how entire industries think about protection, so women can compete, work and recover with confidence.

Vertical: Sports Tech / Safety Equipment

Founder: Stephanie Bofinger

Urban Inventors (Smart Drain)

Urban Inventors is reimagining the world’s drainage infrastructure through Smart Drain, a patented hardware and IoT platform built for open, closed and hybrid drainage networks. By preventing blockages, reducing flood risk and generating real-time infrastructure intelligence, the company is helping cities move from reactive maintenance to predictive management.

Vertical: Climate Tech / Urban Infrastructure

Founder: Dr Nadeesha Chandrasena

Fidestra.ai

Fidestra.ai is building the trust infrastructure for the synthetic media era, turning suspicious digital content into defensible evidence for governments, platforms and financial institutions. As deepfakes and AI-enabled fraud become cheaper and faster to produce, the company positions itself as the proof layer needed to restore confidence in a world where seeing is no longer believing.

Vertical: Trust & Safety Tech / AI

Founder: Tim Lea

ID/Ai

ID/Ai is a deepfake detection and content verification platform built around seven priority models that distinguish real content from synthetic. The company works across media, government, finance, professional services and high-net-worth individuals, addressing a problem that is only growing as synthetic content becomes harder to detect by eye.

Vertical: Trust & Safety Tech / AI

Founder: Judy Sahay

Phantom Dynamics

Phantom Dynamics is developing an autonomous drone swarm system designed to give emergency responders a complete picture of any scene, helping them locate and assist people faster while staying out of harm’s way. The company describes it as the unfair advantage Australia’s emergency services need.

Vertical: Defence Tech / Autonomous Systems

Founder: Hamilton James

inaam

inaam is the impact investing app that shows young Australians exactly where their money goes and the difference it makes, for ten dollars a month. The ASIC-regulated platform builds a portfolio of listed impact companies from around the world, and has grown to a community of 200,000 in seven months, entirely organically.

Vertical: Fintech / Impact Investing

Founder: Arjun Agarwal

ScreenCoach

ScreenCoach is a family technology platform that helps parents move past screen time battles by combining screen time management with routines, rewards, goals and allowance management in one gamified system. Rather than relying on restriction alone, it is built to help children develop responsibility, self-discipline and healthy habits.

Vertical: Family Tech / Consumer

Founder: Peter Kakris