Just a few things that happened in 2022...

How far have things come since January 2022 when we were all preparing for COVID-19 to be let into Western Australia and events were ramping down, not up. With this in mind I wanted to send through a quick recap of the year!

2022 marked ten years since Spacecubed opened its doors in March 2012 and it was amazing to celebrate with so many of the people and organisations who have supported us on the journey to enable entrepreneurs, innovators and changemakers across Western Australia and now nationally. You can see the full overview of the startups and innovators over the last 10 years in our anniversary magazine here, produced in conjunction with members and designed by leadership team member, Lauren Quinn .?

After a quiet first six months of the year with COVID-19 impacting all businesses and their operations, we saw things really ramp up with the reopening of borders both nationally and globally, which allowed for more opportunities to travel and open up new frontiers. We were very pleased to announce Spacecubed was appointed as the operator of the Western Sydney Startup Hub, an amazing space that opened in October and already has some great members enjoying the space and building the Spacecubed community in NSW.?

Borders reopening has also meant we have launched the Perth Landing Pad with the Department of Jobs Tourism, Science and Innovation and the City of Perth to support innovative companies and startups setting up in Perth from around the world.?

At our 10 Year Anniversary, Innovation & Digital Economy Minister Stephen Dawson announced a $5.9m grant from Lotterywest for Spacecubed to enable a culture of innovation across Western Australia. These funds have already started to further enable the innovation ecosystem through Meshpoints which had its first Congress in November, enabling over 60 organisations to explore innovative opportunities and challenges.?

Current funding rounds (Round 1 and Round 2) have granted $434,883 which resulted in 13 projects funded supporting 31 new early-stage ideas to build an innovative society. An example of this is the St Hilda's Anglican School for Girls Project, where they will create a diagnostic tool that measures entrepreneurial mindset, with the intention to share and scale these learnings across other WA Schools. I am very excited about the potential of the strategic approach to building the ecosystem over coming years.?

Our members have had a massive year also with Tina Ambrose ( Valrose ), Michael Watts (ToBe Advisory), Kristen Turnbull (CoreData Group) and Dr Vanessa Rauland ( ClimateClever ) announced as Business News 40under40 winners. Morning Startup continues to be one of our longest running meetups, joined by other recurring groups including Digital Transformation Perth (run by JourneyOne ) and the AWS User Group. We’ve seen members and their teams grow, change and adapt over the year, and have enjoyed coming together monthly for our Networking Evenings, which have been hosted throughout the year by numerous members including Justin Barnes (Rocket Launcher), Vialto Partners , We Are Emersyn , Core Innovation Hub, Perth Networking Club and Women in Technology WA Inc. (WiTWA) .

Spacecubed programs have also continued to grow their impact with more partners joining the Plus Eight Accelerator and the teams able to head to Singapore this year, before wrapping up with Demo Night which attracted over 250 people during West Tech Fest . The Plus Eight pre-accelerator Sprints in City of Canning and City of Perth including the She Codes Female Founders programs supported 68 new ideas through 2022 and the program is set to grow in 2023. During West Tech Fest, our Office Hours Series coordinated over 100 meetings between investors and startups and the broader conference had thousands of visitors throughout the week.?

Plus Eight alum, IDEA , took over the FLUX basement this year with their first ever cohort of full-time students. Some of these students took part in our annual Startup Weekend, supported by City of Perth, with their startup Netic and came in third. Tender Relief was awarded $100,000 through the RED Grant initiative, and continues to call Fern home alongside other alum Fund My Dental . You can hear some of the stories from members, alumni and community on the Startup West Podcast.?

She Codes went from strength to strength, launching in Sydney while running concurrently in Perth and Brisbane. A full 2022 wrap up from She Codes Australia Founder, Kate Kirwin, has been published here, and as part of their 2022 Impact Report, She Codes has also launched an innovative Pay it Forward Model that enables past graduates and partners to support community places in the program. Full details can be found here and we would love your support.

Our programs wouldn’t be possible without the support of our partners, and the ecosystem thinking behind all of our partnerships. Thank you to Lotterywest , Hawaiian , Woodside Energy , RAC WA BetterLabs , Capricorn Society , Visagio , Radium Capital , Eastcourt , DFK Gooding Partners , Jackson McDonald, VGW , Auto & General Insurance , 华德士 , Queensland AI Hub , BHP , Cash Converters , City of Perth, Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation , Commonwealth Government’s Office for Women, and Investment NSW .

2022 also launched the Female Founders Hub, and WiTWA Hub at Riff, which have attracted new ideas and innovators to the space, and will continue to do so in 2023. In partnership with Edith Cowan University , the new year will see the launch of a Work Integrated Learning Hub to support students gain real world experience. Partnerships with Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand and Radium Capital have continued to provide support to our members, and will do so into the future.?

CORE Innovation Hub is set to open its first space at Lot Fourteen in Adelaide along with a new hub opening in Newman. It was also successful in gearing up to operate the Australian Automation and Robotics Precinct , a 51 hectare site to test and create autonomous vehicles and robotics for a range of industries.?

Now into 2023, which is looking like an even bigger year with Perth being announced as the location for the next MIT REAP - Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program workshop in June, along with opportunities for entrepreneurs, innovators and changemakers to go to _SOUTHSTART in March, Israel in June, Singapore in October and a huge opportunity for the ecosystem in Melbourne at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress.?

Our team and board have had a very busy few years dealing with COVID-19 impacts, the changes in how people work and also adapting our programs and spaces to better facilitate our members. The team has done an amazing job to ensure we have been able to keep delivering while evolving the model and expanding our spaces and programs nationally. I really appreciate the hard work they have put in to continue to grow our impact in such a volatile environment.?

Huge thank you to all of our members and partners who work with us to enable entrepreneurs, innovators and change-makers across Australia and we can't wait to continue our work with you into the next 10 years. Have a great holiday and see you in 2023! ?