Supply chain start-ups selected for KPMG and Stone & Chalk program
Five start-ups working on supply chain solutions for the Australian market have been selected to participate in a residency and support initiative launched by Stone & Chalk and KPMG.
Professional services firm KPMG has come together with start-up organisation Stone & Chalk to support local supply chain entrepreneurs through the Future Technology Program, with the inaugural cohort of participants already selected.
The five successful start-ups will now receive a twelve-month residency at one of Stone & Chalk’s three Australian hubs, as well as a tailored support package from the global accounting and consulting giant.
“Creating more resilient, more transparent, and more sustainable supply chains is one of the most important challenges of our time,” said Sarah Vega, national managing partner of KPMG Futures. “KPMG is thrilled to be bringing together this diverse cohort of exceptional entrepreneurs who are building new technology to drive real change for producers, for companies, and importantly for the planet.”
In addition to residency at one of Stone & Chalk’s hubs in Sydney, Adelaide or Melbourne, the founders and their teams will have access to tailored materials and mentoring in areas such as investor readiness, industry insights, connections to potential clients, and selling to large global companies, all designed to help their businesses rapidly grow and scale.
Future cohorts of the program will focus on startups solving problems in other sectors.
The selected participants include Adiona, which helps to move people and goods more efficiently in an increasingly urbanised world through the implementation of AI and commercial mathematics, and Versed AI, a Natural Language Processing technology to help organisations of all sizes identify the true scale of their supply chain. Notably, four out of five of the selected start-ups are headed by female founders and CEOs.
“We are honoured to have been selected for the first cohort of this program, set up shop at a Stone & Chalk startup hub and work alongside KPMG, who is a leader in supply chain management consulting,” said Versed AI co-founder and chief Fenella Boyle. “We plan on utilising the opportunity to build Versed AI’s cutting-edge tech to better shape the future of supply chain management and procurement in Australia.”
According to KPMG’s own research, some three quarters of Australian businesses have experienced substantial supply chain disruptions over the past year, with Covid-19 on the other hand exposing significant opportunities for innovation to help tackle supply chain challenge such as limited valuable data, insufficient risk management, and a fundamental lack of agility. KPMG says its clients are hungry for new solutions.
Stone & Chalk CEO Michael Bromley described the first cohort as a distinguished group of founders that represented the next generation of emerging Australian technologies. “We look forward to working hand-in-hand with KPMG to help these companies realise their ambitions, by providing access to a community that comes together to advocate and encourage one another in a way not possible anywhere else in Australia.”