An Advance Innovation Program providing Australian entrepreneurs with the resources, expertise and international connectedness they need to build large, globally significant and sustainable companies.
Our focus is to enable you to learn from Silicon Valley’s mindset and culture, and most importantly provide you with direct access to tier one US Venture Capitalists for potential fund raising.

The elevate 61 program (now PROPEL USA) – by Advance, is the opportunity of a lifetime for any Australian start up or entrepreneur.  Excitement built around the 2017 program early as Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, gave a nod to the elevate program at the 2016 Advance global Australia awards. When applications opened on October 25, 2016, the pressure and enthusiasm was growing around the event.

From over 80 entries only 10 start-ups would be selected to work shop and of those, only 6 would have the opportunity to join the US acceleration tour. Competition was tight and the possibilities were endless – the PAM team was determined to have their chance. For a chance at winning, a startup must be in its later stages, having secured seed funding and built traction in local and international markets. Following in the footsteps of SimPro and Cover Genius – two successful 2016 participants – we felt we were up to the challenge.

The two phase elevate program was designed to support high performing business on their path to growth in the US and beyond.

Phase 1 – The workshops

Workshops were opportunity for PAM to show how they work together to create a value delivering product. In our case this meant demonstrating what the team had created together to drive change in the wayfinding and design communities. Throughout the workshops we had the opportunity to show how the company had built traction in the market while taking insights from KPMG on market reach and pitching. As an Australian founded company with US hopes, this was a chance to explore the US venture capital landscape and understand the difference between the US market and our own.

Phase 2 – The tour

With only 10 of the 15 workshop teams joining the US tour, we were very pleased to find out we were 1 of 6 tech start-ups to be selected. The tour gave first-hand experience of the US funding landscape and to develop each team’s approach to enterprise buyers. From April 2nd -12th 2017 PAM joined in 10-day mission through San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York. Joining us along the way was Adepto, Bookmarc, CancerAid, Mash in Music and Metigy (then Scrmhub). Together this group of Australian start-ups toured the US for mentoring, networking and sessions with top VCs and industry experts, all organised as part of the elevate program.

Check back next week to find out about our tour of the U.S.!