By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
A NEW entrepreneurial investment program aiming to give sports technology businesses a head start hopes to generate 75 new jobs in Geelong.
Australian Sports Technology Network’s HeadStart program hopes to attract fledgling sports technology businesses to establish locally.
It is the first accelerator program in Australia focused on the development, growth and investment in sports technology start-ups.
James Demetriou, the chair of the Geelong-based network, said the city was in an ideal position to attract start-ups because of its skill base and advanced-manufacturing capability.
“We have a can-do culture, we have good infrastructure and there’s already a big capacity in sport locally,” he said.
“As an example, we have more than 200 companies in the surf industry supply chain in this region alone. That’s the kind of expansion we can encourage because sports technology globally is a $300 billion business.”
HeadStart has already identified seven fledgling sports technology businesses and plans to incubate and invest in up to 40 more over the next four years.
Mr Demetriou said the program gave start-ups unique access to the sports industry as well as connections to a local, national and international network of investors, mentors and advisors.
