Leading International Innovation Hubs Unite to Create Pathways for Sportstech Entrepreneurs – The Gold Coast Innovation Hub
The Commonwealth Games will again welcome some of Australia’s best sports innovators thanks to a collaborative partnership between the Birmingham Enterprise Community and the Gold Coast Innovation Hub as part of the PLAY Accelerator series.
The partnership comes at a time when both the Gold Coast region and West Midlands region are emerging as hot spots for international trade in their respective countries.
Last week, new data released in the UK from the Department for International Trade revealed that the West Midlands has emerged as the UK’s leading location for attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) outside London and the Southeast for the fourth year in a row.
Daniel Evans, Chief Executive of the Birmingham Enterprise Community said the new partnership with the Gold Coast Innovation Hub formalised a great existing relationship and commitment to support business growth within our regions at a time of increasing activity and opportunity.
“Birmingham has proven to be a hot bed of business and investment activity and in the lead up to the Commonwealth Games this is only set to increase. The region provides an excellent landing pad for international organisations entering the UK and we see the partnership between the Gold Coast Innovation Hub and the Birmingham Enterprise Community as a crucial bilateral pathway between the Australian and UK markets for the technology and startup sector.”
Gold Coast Innovation Hub Chief Executive, Sharon Hunneybell said that the partnership was evidence of the commitment that the organisation has made to support global commercialisation of startups and technology from the region.
“Breaking into international markets is hard for early-stage founders that are still building their brand and reputation. The PLAY Accelerator series, which is commencing with a Sportstech Accelerator, has been designed to leverage the relationships built by the Gold Coast Innovation hub, its founders and board over many years to provide warm and welcome introductions into leading international sporting groups, events and investors.”
The PLAY Sportstech Accelerator is now open for applications will provide 10 companies with an opportunity form direct linkages with the Sporting Industry locally, nationally and internationally.
Delivered in a hybrid format, the program will be based from the home of the Gold Coast Titans NRL Team, The Club at Parkwood and provide a mix of online and face to face interactions over a 6 week period, with an option to for seed funding and an additional 6 weeks of investment readiness support provided to participants that meet key growth targets.
Participants will receive mentorship from industry leaders across major sporting clubs, sports management organisations and will be able to tap into strategic advisors from the Gold Coast Innovation Hub’s global network of partners.
The PLAY accelerator is supported by funding from the City of Gold Coast and the Department of Tourism, Innovation and Sport.
To find out more about the PLAY Sportstech Accelerator, visit www.playaccelerator.com