Transborders Energy (“TBE”) has participated in the inquiry process conducted by the Public Administration Committee (“Committee”) of the Parliament of Western Australia (“Parliament”) regarding innovation in Western Australia (“WA”).

The Committee inquired into and will report on WA’s innovation ecosystem, with reference to:

a. the current state of the innovation ecosystem;

b. the role of the WA government in supporting entrepreneurship, start-ups,
and small and medium sized enterprises; and

c. any other matters that the Committee considers relevant.

In TBE’s submission for the inquiry, which was prepared based on a joint effort with Future Energy Export CRC and deepC Store, TBE founder and Director Daein Cha states that “among the key matters raised in this Joint Submission, TBE especially highlights its first-hand experience of the following key barriers that hamper innovation in WA:

a. When introducing First Of A Kind (“FOAK”) products and facilities into market, there are actually two funding gaps (known as the “Two Valleys of Death”). TBE especially emphasise the challenge of raising funds for addressing the second funding gap of ~AU$10 million to ~AU$100 million due to the ‘caught in between’ dilemma where (i) on one side, the technology is not de-risked enough for infrastructure investors and other institutional investors; and (ii) on the other side, the funding amount is too big for early-stage technology VC funds to finance and too small for late-stage technology VC funds who tend to invest at ~AU$100+ million (image of this dilemma show below).

b. There is a lack of focus for “non-tech” innovation in WA, due to limited support being available for de-risking innovation in services, business model, and market adoption.

Daein also highlights that WA’s estimated R&D expenditure is only ~0.86% of WA’s Gross State Product (“GSP”). This is low relative to average R&D expenditure of 3.01% (% of GDP) spent by OECD members.

For full detail of TBE’s submission regarding this inquiry, see link.

For detail on submissions made by others, see link.