Grow your social enterprise with Ventures
It’s exciting to see the announcement of Queensland’s Office of Social Impact earlier this month! With $20 million allocated annually over the next four years, the Office will support the growth of social enterprises and expand impact investment opportunities across the state.
This is a big win for our UQ Ventures team, as one of our core goals is to empower students to design, develop, and launch social enterprises through our programs and activities. To inspire our community, we caught up with two UQ alumni and students, Jed, Ahn, and David, who are making waves in the social impact startup space. Grab a cup of tea or coffee and get ready to be inspired by their stories.
UQ Ventures Social Entrepreneurs
Jed Hoo, Founder PURESORT
In his first year of computer science, Jed Hoo founded PURESORT, a waste-tech startup, after feeling uncertain about his career direction. “After intense exploration, I felt lost and began studying philosophy, thinking deeply about my purpose. I realised I wanted to maximise long-term fulfilment through social impact.”
Although he initially lacked expertise in waste management and recycling, his passion for the problem drove him forward. “Being your own customer and having domain expertise is an advantage, but young entrepreneurs often start without it. Your skills won’t always align perfectly with your idea, but the key is learning and making decisions.”
Jed highlights the value of a founder community. “The struggle is inevitable, but at least you’re not alone.” He also notes that being a student entrepreneur provides access to peers who may share the same challenges. Currently based in Shanghai, he gained experience in 2024 as an intern for a local startup through the Ventures Startup Adventure program.
Anh Van and David Sea, Co-founders La Foundary
Another social impact startup that was part of UQ Ventures programs like Curiosity, Validate, and Empower is La Foundary, co-founded by Anh Van and David Sea, who developed a sustainable packaging solution that uses farm waste to grow mushroom mycelium as a styrofoam alternative.
Anh and David’s inspiration came from their backgrounds in bio-chemical engineering and first-hand experiences growing up in South-East Asia, where plastic pollution and agricultural waste are major issues. “We saw so much plastic pollution and agricultural waste and asked ourselves, ‘What can we do for a change? We started researching and experimenting at home, looking for ways to turn waste into valuable materials.”
In 2023, La Foundary was selected for the Circular Economy Investment Program under the Queensland Government’s Circular Economy (Industry-Research) Program. Only six projects were chosen, each receiving up to $50,000 in funding along with strategic support. “This opportunity accelerated our research and our market-readiness. We recently partnered with the UQ School of Chemical Engineering to further refine our product formulation,” said David.
Your turn!
To kick off 2025 making a difference and foster more social impact startups like La Foundary and PureSort, we invite students to join our programs for 2025 and select 'Join UQ Enactus Club' – a community of students, academics, and business leaders focused on social entrepreneurship.
Join Ventures Semester 1 programs