Six hopeful startups pitched their business ideas for the Business Centre’s Pitch Night at the newly renovated Newcastle train station – The Station - last night as part of the Spark Festival.

In front of more than 60 industry leaders, investors and members of the business community, startups including Augr, Jazoodle, Corethics, Voakltyme, MGA Thermal and CMGi all vied for the next big break moving forward with their ventures.

With globally scalable ideas in the areas of social enterprise, wind energy, augmented reality and business analytics, these startups, powered by the Business Centre, are evidence that the pool of innovators is deep in the Hunter.

This cohort judged by Jim Garis, Founder of The Garis Group, Jessica Koncz Founder of Crave App and Brendan Yell from SendGrid, is the 3^rd in 18 months curated by the Business Centre and runs parallel to equity-based accelerators across the Hunter.

“Since the early 2000’s the Hunter has redefined itself and diversified its sectors in an impressive way,” said Mr Malou.

Chief Executive Officer of the Business Centre, Pierre Malou has been working with startups in biotech and big data for more than 15 years and has observed the special components of the Hunter’s unique innovation ecosystem.

As a Director of the not-for-profit The Hunter iF Project, along with Gunilla Burrowes, Grant Sefton and Tim Cotter, Mr. Malou commented that the Hunter has come a long way.

“Since the early 2000’s the Hunter has redefined itself and diversified its sectors in an impressive way,” said Mr Malou.

“Today we see a rich ecosystem of support organisations, co-working spaces and targeted services in our region. They are working well together to support a broad market of high value startups and innovative SMEs.”

The Hunter has seen exciting businesses like Camplify, the Crave App, LiftanGo and Social Pinpoint make great waves internationally and there are more to come.

This pitch night is a sign of the Business Centre’s commitment to supporting high value businesses in the Hunter and not only supporting new ventures but also offering high value corporate services to large existing organizations.

For more information on services offered at the Business Centre, call (02) 4925 7700 or info@businesscentre.com.au