Melbourne, capital city of Victoria
LaunchVic, Victoria’s $60 million start-up fund, has launched an accelerator program to help start-ups gain better access to lucrative government contracts.
In a bid to level out the playing field between established private companies and start-ups, the Victorian government has invested $2.5 million in the pilot program, dubbed CivVic.
The move comes in response to complaints from the start-up community of the difficulties they face in accessing procurement for state government projects.
“Lack of access to government procurement for start-ups is a common problem we hear from Victorian startups and something LaunchVic has been seeking to address,” said Kate Cornick, CEO at LaunchVic.
“CivVic Labs Accelerator will open up a world of new opportunities for start-ups to access lucrative government procurement opportunities.”
Launched initially as an intensive pilot scheme for 16 start-ups, the full CivVic program will run once a year between 2019 and 2020.
LaunchVic will fund and lead the program with additional funding from the Government’s Public Sector Innovation Fund.
“Start-ups are growing in Victoria and this initiative will help them create more jobs as well as offering government alternative options and different ways of doing things,” said Philip Dalidakis, Minister for Innovation and the Digital Economy.
“We’re quickly becoming the start-up hub of the Asia Pacific and this is yet another initiative that will make Victoria an attractive place to start and scale a start-up."
