Turning on the waterworks in the Water Action Decade
Small Steps Vol. 69: Tracking water tech in Impact Futures #2 💧, ChatGPT in healthtech 🚑, and gravity-defying climate funding 🌴
"Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning."— Gloria Steinem, Journalist
Kick start
🚰 Water presents both the world’s greatest resource challenge and one of the greatest opportunities. Half way through the UN’s Water Action Decade, we felt it worthy of exploring in our latest impact future piece - check it out below.
What we’re thinking about
🤖 Bots boon for medicos. 2022 will be marked as the year AI generators like ChatGPT and Midjourney launched into the zeitgeist with endless clever and occasionally absurd (see John Oliver marries a cabbage series) responses to prompts. While their coherency can be unsettling, we’re intrigued by generative AI’s potential to enhance human capability. In healthtech, for example, ChatGPT has proven particularly adept at delivering real-time decision support for clinicians, translating or tidying up medical records, and building computer programs to apply clinical rules - all of which could generate step change reductions of clinical admin and improvements of patient outcomes.
🏥 Health everywhere to health efficacy. Times have changed since the heady days of virtual care during the pandemic, forcing healthtech founders to take a closer look at their healthcare outcomes. In a tight and increasingly remote labour market, a wave of healthtech startups emerged serving the enterprise market hungry for quick drivers of employee retention. But as the global economy sours, enterprise sales have dried up or applied greater scrutiny to the true return on investment of health benefits platforms. While funding in the space is in decline, with Silicon Valley Bank predicting half the funding in 2023 compared to 2021, we’re optimistic about the long-term impact and market opportunity in insurance buyers (who require evidence of efficacy) for startups that can prove they deliver real healthcare outcomes.
🌏 Climate tech defies gravity. VC funding for climate tech has bucked a global downturn, with global funding exceeding US$70b in 2022, up 89% on 2021 levels. This was likely driven by positive regulatory and economic drivers, with 2022 also being the first year in which investment in clean energy matched global investment in fossil fuels. While all major funding markets have seen significant growth, European growth was particularly rapid driven by aggressive policy to end reliance on Russian gas. Predictions for 2023 suggest a plateau in overall funding in light of the economic challenges to come, but that the resilience of climate tech will continue.
New paths
👨💻 Australian Impact Investments is on the hunt for a Senior Associate (ESG)
🧑🏽💼 Academy Xi is looking for a Lead UX Course Mentor
💻 Like Family is seeking a Lifecycle Marketing Manager
✈️ Swoop Aero is after a 3D Printing Technician
🧠 Seer is searching for a Senior IT Support
🔥 Also, check out our Giant Leap Fund jobs board for over 80+ available positions or fill out our expression of interest form. There’s even more jobs at ethical companies on the global B-Work job board.
Giant leaps
👩🏻💼 We’ve welcomed a new Associate, Katarina, to Giant Leap! Get to know her here.
🎉 Congratulations to Seer Co-founder and Chief Medical Officer Professor Mark Cook who has been appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia. Seer’s Dr Pip Karoly also won one of the 2022 Prime Minister’s Prizes for New Innovators.
♻️ Great Wrap’s Julia and Jordy Kay scored coverage in the AFR over the new year period.
🧻 Who Gives A Crap surpassed $11 million in donations.
🇦🇺 HEX landed coverage in SmartCompany for its stance on changing the date of Australia Day.
🔬 Research into the effect of Mindset Health’s hypnosis product on gut-related diseases has been published.
🎙️ The History of Australia’s Startup Ecosystem podcast released their documentary series compiling the Aussie startup journey to date (featuring Our partner, Rachel Yang!)
🤩 Giant Leap was put at the top Seed Round’s list as one of the best Early Stage Investors in Australia.
For the road
🫀 The tech that will revolutionise 2023. MIT’s annual list has some surprising inclusions this year, such as organ printing, battery recycling and breakthroughs in mapping our DNA. One exemplifying company, LyGenesis, is conducting a trial to grow a brand new organ inside a human being.
🗓️ Change the Date! Leaders in the music industry including Unified Music and Music Health are the latest to throw their weight behind the movement to change the date of Australia Day.
🎂 MAP turns 10. The Melbourne Accelerator Program -- which put so many Australian startups on the map -- has hit yet another huge milestone. They’ve put together a quick video to celebrate (with a sneak cameo from our Partner Rachel Yang).
👩💻 Is your business the next healthtech breakthrough? Fishburners and Microsoft for Startups are hosting a HealthTech pitch night in Sydney on Friday February 17.
🌍 Climate crypto accelerator. Apply to Subak’s accelerator program for data-driven NFPs targeting innovative climate solutions, offering up to $15k non-equity grant funding.
☕ Try stealing this coffee mug. The Ember2+ digital coffee mug promises to catch out even the most savvy office mug thief and lets you control the temperature of your drink.
📚 Handy to know, hard to live by. The School Of Life has collated 26 realisations that add up to being emotionally mature. There’s some tall asks in here, but if you were looking for a goal in 2023, well, here it is.
♻️ And starting off the year with a powerful message of sustainability.
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