Mandalay Venture Partners

Phil is Partner at Mandalay Venture Partners and an active venture and ecosystem builder investing in innovation from farm to fork. As Mandalay’s Head of Platform he leads deal origination, partnerships, co-investment opportunities and ESG. He is also Managing Director at Innovation Architects, a boutique advisory firm specialising in venture building, ecosystem development and investment.

Birchal

As the leader of crowdfunding platform Birchal, Kirstin is at the forefront of helping founders unlock new pathways to capital. Her career spans high-impact roles including Managing Director at Techstars, co-founder and CEO of Future Super and executive roles at Brighte. She is also a sought-after mentor and panellist, passionate about purpose-driven business, ethical investing and supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Hunter Angels

Prem brings a rare combination of experience as an angel investor, global business leader, advisor and startup founder. As Chair of Hunter Angels and a key contributor to establishing Angel Australia, he operates at both regional and national levels of the angel investment ecosystem.

Prem has held leadership roles at Nokia, advisory work with PwC and successfully exited his own company Next Nine Corporation.

HMC Private Credit

Rory brings a wealth of expertise in private wealth management, funds distribution, and commercial lending to the HMC Private Credit Investor Services Team. He has built strong relationships with high-net-worth clients, family offices, and wholesale investors, and his experience spans multiple asset classes, including property funds, structured products, and private credit opportunities.

In his role at HMC Private Credit, Rory works with investors to assist them in crafting their wealth by building their Private Credit investment portfolio.

SEFA

Renee is the Head of Impact & Engagement at Sefa, where she collaborates with impact-driven organisations and government partners to design strategies that drive meaningful change. With over 25 years of experience, her career has taken her across Australia and overseas, spanning public health, government policy, and impact advisory.

She has supported vulnerable communities in Asia and the Pacific, advised the Australian Government on health policy and led multidisciplinary teams at a large consulting firm. 

Blue-X

Jim is General Manager of Blue-X (North America), an innovation and venture advisory firm operating at the intersection of climate, applied science and primary industries. With over a decade of experience building and leading accelerators across Australia, the US and Canada, he has supported hundreds of startups to commercialise research and scale climate and ocean technologies. Jim also advises government and university innovation programs and mentors founders globally.

Goterra

A trailblazer in innovation and sustainability, Olympia designed and commercialised the world’s first decentralised, autonomous insect farms, technology now deployed across Australia to process food waste at its source.

Recognised globally for reshaping agriculture and food waste management, Olympia even has a newly discovered species of soldier fly named in her honour.

Pairtree

CEO of Pairtree Intelligence and a fifth generation farmer, Hamish channels his deep agricultural roots into driving ag-tech innovation. 

A leader in trust and transparency, Hamish guided Pairtree to be the first platform certified under the National Farmers Federation’s Farm Data Code. 

Cauldron

Michele leads Cauldron and was the driving force behind Cauldron’s management acquisition of Agritechnology, a regional bioscience company that developed the proprietary hyper-fermentation technology at Cauldron’s core. 

With over a decade as General Manager of Agritechnology producing vaccines, food, feed and fuel, Michele brings industry-leading expertise in scaling and commercialising continuous fermentation biomanufacturing.

Cake Equity

Teala is a startup operator, angel investor and community founder who loves connecting founders with the resources they need to grow. At Cake Equity she helps startups accelerate team motivation through equity ownership using the company’s leading cap table and equity management platform.

Known for making complex ideas simple, Teala’s superpower is translating all things startup equity into clear, human-understandable concepts that empower founders to scale with confidence.

Advanced R&D

Pat leads national growth strategy and partnerships for Advanced, the fintech revolutionising innovation finance by helping founders unlock their R&D refunds early and turn government incentives into a genuine growth engine. With a background in alternative capital and a track record of scaling financial services from startup to institutional, Pat brings a deep understanding of how founders can fund growth on their own terms.

Vested Impact

With a career spanning two decades in global technology at companies like Apple and Microsoft, Sinéad is reimagining how capital flows to women-led, impact-driven ventures in tech and STEM. 

Through Vested Impact she is building pathways for professional women to become confident investors while unlocking the early capital women founders need to grow, employ and thrive.

NOAH Connect

Maggies is a Director at NOAH Connect, with a PhD in Chemistry and over a decade of global experience, Maggie helps businesses unlock the power of the R&D Tax Incentive and competitive grants to fuel growth. 

She specialises in translating complex R&D activities into clear commercial outcomes, working closely with founders, executives and technical teams across diverse industries.

Venture Affairs

Nicholas leads Australia’s first lobbying and government relations firm dedicated to startups and scale-ups, helping founders decode public policy, gain credibility and influence the right decision-makers. 

With nearly a decade in federal and state governments and experience in deep tech, he brings an insider’s understanding of how to connect innovation with policy and regulation.

SparkLabs Cultiv8

Tiffany specialises in fostering new strategic collaborations and nurturing our cohort companies. An ecosystem connector, she seamlessly orchestrates the integration of diverse stakeholders, identifying avenues for value creation across the industry and forging essential partnerships to expedite commercialisation for our cohorts. 

Good Goods

Entrepreneur, mentor, and speaker, Kristy Withers built multi-million-dollar brands from the ground up, including Incy Interiors, which grew to over $50M in sales. With a career spanning global giants like eBay, Commonwealth Bank, and St. George, she now runs her signature program Idea to Empire whilst guiding some of the country’s favourite brands. 

Kristy has recently launched sourcing agency Source Haus to help product founders find world-class manufacturers, and later this year will unveil Good Goods — a colourful jewellery brand born from her lifelong passion for design.