Founder & CEO of Relievables, Victoria Edghill, accepted the prize on behalf of the team, competing against six other startup founders for the award.
With businesses facing more pressure to operate responsibly, Victoria saw a gap in the market to develop a platform that aggregates all impact-related activities for businesses, empowering them to improve their social and environmental impact.
The Relievables platform offers businesses the opportunity to seamlessly manage their responsible business practices (from metrics, standards, projects and reporting) in a user-friendly and integrated way.
Victoria Edghill was the 1016th participant in the Sydney Genesis program.
“The idea for Relievables came from working with organisations across a vast array of social and environmental issues and seeing the lack of standardised, integrated and user-friendly solutions. I started working on my own ethical fashion label using the principles and features our Relievables platform now offers and realised the value this would provide to all businesses,” said Victoria.
Graduating with a Bachelor of Economics and Social Science from the University of Sydney, Victoria has 15 years experience in the social impact and sustainability sectors. She then went on to forge a career delivering technology solutions for multinationals including eBay, DHL, BP and Fedex, putting her in good stead for developing the Relievables technology solution.
“Businesses play a pivotal role in solving many of the problems we face globally. Responsible practices, transparency, tangible action and accountability are essential to achieving this. We built the Relievables platform to accelerate this transition and support businesses through this process,” Victoria said.
Since starting in the Sydney Genesis program as a pre-revenue company, Relievables has secured customers across three markets; Australia, the UK and US.
Professor Leanne Cutcher awarding the 2019 Sydney Genesis prize.
Open to University of Sydney staff, students and alumni, Genesis accepts the best startups twice a year to accelerate their commercial and social enterprises.
“Building a business from the ground up has many challenges, which have only intensified since the global pandemic. Despite these challenges, this cohort of the Sydney Genesis startup program have continued to thrive and innovate and I am in awe of their creativity and tenacity,” said Professor Leanne Cutcher, Head of the Discipline of Strategy, Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
“Over 12 years, Sydney Genesis has supported the most promising startups through mentoring from experts, creating a local and global community of entrepreneurs who support one another and celebrate each other’s success.”
Genesis has supported more than 1,000 startups since it was established and has an extensive number of industry mentors involved in the program. Relievables is the 1016th startup to complete the program.
One of the reasons we run Genesis is to build a deeply supportive entrepreneurial community based on empowerment and respect.
Manager of the Genesis program, Alex Carpenter, said the final pitch night was a shining example for the next generation of leaders who are contributing to solutions to real-world problems.
“One of the reasons we run Genesis is to build a deeply supportive entrepreneurial community based on empowerment and respect,” Alex said.
“This year’s program has surely been the weirdest in our 12-year history. We’ve seen many startups fail, pivot and grow but in a way, that’s no different to any other year when entrepreneurship is a real rollercoaster.”
The Genesis community collectively employs over 700 people and has raised over $40 million.
