At the Igniting METS Accelerator program’s graduation night in Brisbane, Mackay-based Vayeron from took home the Customer Pitch Award, Whitsunday Islands-based Artemis Intelligent Robotic Systems won the Program Choice Award, representing the most promising scale-up and Ipswich’s XDR took home the Investor Pitch Award.

Artemis offers complete through-wall analysis of tubular structures with three-dimensional reporting using next generation sensors to move reporting and prediction from best educated guess to quantitative knowledge.

Vayeron is an ‘internet of things’ company offering a sensor technology for monitoring and predicting conveyor roller failure in high capacity, time critical bulk materials handling conveyors used in mines, ports and processing plants. 

XDR designs and sells onshore oil and gas well workover rigs.

“The Igniting METS pilot program has assisted the latest wave of innovation within the sector,” METS Ignited CEO Ric Gros said.

“The achievements of our excellent participants in securing interest from large clients and investors demonstrates the wealth of opportunity in the sector. 

“The program has shown the depth of innovation to provide a rich source of ideas and capability to solve industry challenges. Our role has been to assist these companies in turning their innovative ideas into commercial realities quickly and effectively enough to ensure they can grow and scale-up in a sustainable way while maintaining their competitive advantages.”

The accelerator is backed by the Commonwealth and the Queensland government and offered eight companies access to financial, marketing and technical advice to commercialise their products and services and gain additional traction in the mining sector.

The program offered workshops, mentoring and support from industry leaders, entrepreneurs and experts.

In addition to the winners, the graduating class included software firm Commit Works, coal tailings technology developer FDP Mining, the developer of the Jibaroo underground maingate transfer system Mackay Conveyor Equipment, pit-to-port planning and scheduling cloud platform developer Paradyn Systems and electrical industry compliance and liability software firm Quick Safety.

KPMG Energise program director Ashley Brown said the pilot program was conceived to test the ability of an accelerator to supercharge the growth of new scale-ups.

“Our program has confirmed our hypothesis about the innovation that sits within our regions, just waiting to be unlocked,” he said.

“By growing these companies, we can bring new jobs and industries to Australia’s regions. The potential is massive and we look forward to seeing how the first Igniting METS cohort progress in the months and years to come.”