KPMG Australia and Innovation Bay are calling for startup founders and investors to participate in Startup Navigate, a landmark new research initiative by the two organisations which aims to capture the issues facing Australia’s startup eco-system through the coming months.
In collaboration with impact management software Social Suite, the two organisations will deploy fortnightly surveys to startup founders and VCs from May to July 2020. The questions will focus on the business and personal impacts resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. All the information captured will be then be aggregated, analysed and made publicly accessible via a special dashboard.
Amanda Price, Head of KPMG High Growth Ventures, commented: “Scale-ups and startups are constantly balancing growth, investment and cash flow, and face a unique set of risks and challenges due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Policy makers, startup advocates and investors want to help Australian startups through these tough times, but there is simply not enough facts to inform their decision-making.”
“That is why we are launching this initiative – by capturing the issues and sentiment of founders and VCs as we progress through, and hopefully out of, lockdown, we will have the data we need to understand and support Australian start-ups,” she said.
To join the research panel, founders need to sign up. They will then receive the fortnightly surveys, which should take no longer than 10 minutes to complete.
Ian Gardiner, Co-founder of Innovation Bay, said: “We hope to track over 50 start-up founders as well as cover the majority of the VC sector in this research. By creating an open data platform for the startup eco-system we will no doubt help startup founders to think differently about their own approach. We also aim to show investors and government how they can better help Australia startups navigate the pandemic.”
Startup founders and investors can sign up to participate in Startup Navigate here.
