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Midland: Landgate spurred on by technology

Sarah BrookesMidland Kalamunda Reporter

LANDGATE, which is based out of Midland, is fast developing a reputation as one of WA’s premier start-up technology hubs.

SPUR technology operates out of Landgate and offers office space and commercial mentoring to businesses to develop ideas using location-driven data.

The hub is offering grants of up to $25,000 to start-up businesses, a move that general manager Peter Markham says is helping to accelerate WA’s economic development in the digital economy.

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“We are bringing all these start-ups to Midland so we are developing a reputation as a tech hub,” he said.

“We are attracting people from other incubators out to Midland who realise they have this wonderful resource on their doorstep.”

Mr Markham said last year’s inaugural SPURonWA program generated 47 applications, with nine businesses awarded grants to help them progress their ideas.

“The grants can be used towards development costs, intellectual property protection, obtaining business, financial, or marketing advice and accessing location data,” he said.

“Those who are successful we mentor and give them space to work in our Midland office which allows them to work side by side with our tech employees.

“Instead of them waiting weeks and weeks to talk to the people they need to, they are right here.”

Mr Markham said SPUR was born out of frustration from businesses who were hampered in their efforts to access government data.

“We saw all these people wanting access to government data and not being able to do so or experiencing the frustration of going from agency to agency and facing long waits to obtain the information,” he said.

“So we thought, let’s open up our data and use our platforms as a one-stop 24/7 shop.”

Businesses can apply for the second round of SPURonWA grants, until October 6.

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