River City Labs announces three month extension to its first muru-D accelerator program

The five startups taking part in the inaugural muru-D accelerator at Brisbane's River City Labs got an early Christmas present at last week's Demo Day, with River City Labs announcing that the teams will be eligible for a three month extension program and a further $20,000 in funding. The program, which began in September, is finishing up its first fourteen week run this week. The extension has been proposed as a way to give the teams speed to market through the continued features and benefits that come with an accelerator program, from a focus on accountability to connections and introductions, mentoring, collaborative peer-to-peer learning, and of course, the additional seed funding, which is being provided in exchange for 3 percent equity. The teams will again be hosted full time at River City Labs, with masterclasses and mentoring to switch to an on-demand, as-needed basis. The next three months will also see the teams taken on trips to Silicon Valley and to the UK to network and explore opportunities. The startups will be formally offered their extensions this week, with organisers expecting all five to accept. Aaron Birkby, entrepreneur in residence for the program, said that the decision to extend the program was made as all the startups were hitting the right targets. "In the first few weeks of the program the teams all set and agreed to 3 month program milestones.  These included requirements for teams to physically attend at least 75 percent of scheduled program sessions, and to commit to traction targets relevant to their specific startup, such as a certain number of transactions completed, number of paying customers, or number of active users," he said. "Most of the teams met those milestones by the completion of the first 14 weeks.  The teams which didn't meet their milestones were still selected into the extension program because they each had realised other metrics or achievements more significant than their original targets." Josh Anthony, general manager of River City Labs, added: “The bar has truly been set by the five teams of our first ever Accelerator program. It has been fantastic to see their consistent gains and achievements, and I am looking forward to their continual growth in the coming months and beyond.” The five teams in the program are: GreenSocks, an on-demand lawn mowing platform that connects users who need their lawns mowed with those who want to make some extra cash mowing lawns. The startup reported on Demo Day that it has achieved 646 percent growth on bookings and has doubled its team size. Outbound, an app connecting travellers, reported on Demo Day that it has reached 25,000 app downloads across 140 countries, growing its active monthly user count by 85 percent. ParkFit, an app that aims to make it easier for people to work out for free by helping them find public workout structures, such as those in parks, reported on Demo Day that it has secured endorsements from a number of Instagram influencers who have a combined total of 1.5 million followers. ProcessPA is an SaaS platform that aims to make it easier for associations to keep track of meetings, reported on Demo Day that its foundation membership is oversubscribed, with 12 paying associations on board ahead of an official launch in January. It also reported that it is set to raise over $90,000 in seed funding by the end of the year. Puntaa, a peer-to-peer social betting platform that aims to put the power back into the hands of the average punter by letting them bet against friends, reported on Demo Day that it has grown 54 percent week-on-week, and has secured commitments of $150,000 for a $750,000 capital raise.

Image: Aaron Birkby. Source: Kenneth Au