StartMate, a new seed fund that has brought the Y Combinator-model of incubator program to Australia, has just graduated its first class of startups.
StartMate’s three-month program offers mentorship and investment to five selected startups. The program culminates in a two-week trip to Silicon Valley, which the startups are now in the middle of. And like most incubators, StartMate culminates in a Demo Day, one in Sydney and one in Silicon Valley, where participants in the program get an opportunity to present in front of early stage investors.
StartMate’s first graduating class includes:
Chorus: a service that lets you prioritize your response to customer service emails based on level of anger and PR fallout.
Noosbox: a Gmail add-on that lets you share and search emails with work colleagues, so that important conversations are visible to others.
IRL: a location-based zombie survival game for iPhone game. That’s zombie survival IRL – in real life.
Grabble: a mobile app for recording receipts, to help you avoid keeping and tracking paper copies.
BugHerd: a simple bug tracker that overlays a webpage, aimed at developers and designers alike.
The five companies are now in the Silicon Valley, and they will be participating in a panel on Monday, March 28 at Pier 38 in San Francisco. The panel will be hosted by StartMate mentor Julia French and Australian serial entrepreneur Martin Wells.
Tickets for Monday’s event are available here, and those interested in meeting the companies are invited to attend.
