The University of Queensland’s (UQ) Ventures ilab Accelerator Pitch Night at The Tivoli transformed the stage into a battlefield of ideas, where 12 startups from UQ Ventures’ ilab Accelerator's second cohort of 2024 vied for the spotlight. Each team had the opportunity to showcase their business to a live audience and a judging panel of industry experts.
Amid the electric atmosphere of Pitch Night at The Tivoli, Blunge emerged as the ultimate champion. This innovative platform empowers businesses to create custom AI models for generating unique visual assets.
By addressing the limitations of generic AI-generated images and the time-consuming process of working with graphic designers, Blunge offers a solution that caters to the specific needs of businesses. The Blunge team – consisting of Samuel Davis, Mina Na, Tobias Chien, and Petro Salema – has developed a platform that is revolutionising the way businesses create visual content.
Samuel Davis, a co-founder of Blunge, shared the inspiration behind the startup, "We noticed a recurring theme among businesses: frustration with the traditional methods of obtaining custom visuals. AI-generated images often lack the specificity required by brands, while working with graphic designers can be a time-consuming and often unsatisfactory process."
Blunge's platform addresses these challenges by allowing businesses to upload their brand's visual assets and receive a private, custom AI model. This model can then be used to generate an unlimited number of visuals for marketing, branding, social media, website design and packaging.
UQ Entrepreneurship Head, Mr Nimrod Klayman stated, "We are incredibly proud of Blunge.ai for their outstanding performance and well-deserved win at ilab's Chapter 2 pitch night. Their innovative approach to AI-driven content creation is a testament to the quality of founders and ideas we nurture through our accelerator program. This achievement highlights the strength of Queensland’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, and I’m excited to see Blunge.ai's continued success as they scale and make a lasting impact."
Samuel headed up the Blunge involvement with the ilab Accelerator Program and the timing of the program was one of the things that drove them to apply. “We applied to get the $15,000 to accelerate our startup and for access to the shared office space at UQ Ventures Long Pocket, which has been hugely beneficial."
Samuel highlighted the benefits of participating in the ilab Accelerator Program: "Through our interactions with guest speakers and investors, we gained valuable insights into the Australian startup ecosystem. We learned about the challenges of securing funding for early-stage ventures and the conservative mindset of local investors.
“The program's greatest benefit was the network we developed. We connected with numerous high-quality individuals in the Brisbane startup ecosystem who offered us invaluable advice and support."
As Blunge prepares to launch its product and raise capital, Samuel expressed his gratitude for the support he received from the ilab Accelerator program and his team. "Our goal is to revolutionise the way businesses create visual content, and Blunge is well-positioned to achieve that," he concluded.
Congratulations to all our ilab teams!
- 1st Place Winner: Blunge
- Runner Up: Apex Fitness
- People’s Choice: Fortus
Ventures is already planning 2025 – Ventures ilab is returning in January.
During the 3-month program, each startup receives a $15,000 investment to prepare for the market. Founders work closely with Entrepreneurs in Residence, accessing extensive mentor and investor networks, workshops, industry events, and co-working spaces. Founders from all disciplines are encouraged to apply to this program which is open to all UQ students, alumni, and staff.
Interested? Join our upcoming information session on Thursday 31 October to meet the team and gain insights into the ilab Accelerator proudly delivered by UQ Ventures.
ilab Accelerator 2025 applications close on Monday 18 November 2024.
Media contact
UQ Entrepreneurship Head, Mr Nimrod Klayman, ventures@uq.edu.au, +61 7 3443 2739
UQ Global Partnerships media, Olivia Adlard, o.adlard@uq.edu.au
