Launched in 2019, Nexus is a startup program jointly delivered by the City of Melbourne, Nanjing Pukou High-Tech Zone and Australia-China Association of Scientists and Entrepreneurs (ACASE), with support from the Victorian Government and startup communities.
It includes an ‘Asia Market Sprint’ capability-building program designed to help startups become Asia market-ready and to seek investment from Asia. It offers pitch competitions and summits to facilitate collaboration between Melbourne and Nanjing’s startup communities. Through the gateway of Nanjing, Nexus is able to provide Melbourne startups with an exclusive pathway to Asia market growth opportunities.
To date, there have been 10 rounds of Nexus series with participation from 216 start-ups and scale-ups. The majority of participating startups specialise in biotech/medtech, fintech, ICT and enterprise tech, representing Melbourne strengths in biomedical research and technology innovation in professional services.
It’s a wrap!
2023 has been a huge year for Nexus with much to reflect on and celebrate. Throughout the year, we hosted a series of events including:
- Nexus award ceremony for 2022 and launch event for 2023 with Nanjing Pukou High Tech Zone delegation (April)
- an information session for participating startups on 2023 Pitch Competition (July)
- 2023 Nexus Pitch Competition focusing on ‘Smart Solutions for Net-Zero Carbon Cities’ (September)
- a roundtable discussion on technology and commercialisation with Jiangsu Industrial Technology Research Institute (December)
- the finale of 2023 Nexus Alumni Night with shared key learnings over the four year program (December).
Two outstanding startups were awarded with the inaugural Nexus alumni prize for their progress in building Asia readiness, resilience during the pandemic and profiling Melbourne industry capability:
There’s more to come in 2024 so stay tuned!
