RIVERPITCH READY TO RUMBLE

APPLICATIONS are now open for Queensland's leading startup investment event, RiverPitch, hosted by Brisbane co-working community River City Labs. 

Seven investment-ready start-ups across Australia have until September 25 to apply on the RiverPitch website to potentially have the chance of pitching to early-stage investors.

Start-ups are pre-screened before pitching at the Morgans-sponsored bi-annual event, which attracted a crowd of about 70 investors at the last event in June.

River City Labs general manager Peta Ellis (pictured) says the casual, social-oriented RiverPitch atmosphere is changing how investment meet-ups take place in Brisbane.

"Our main goal in hosting an event like RiverPitch is to help facilitate a mutually beneficial relationship between leading investors and Australia's up and coming tech start-ups," says Ellis.

"We feel confident that the way we reformatted the event in June, to make it an informal, networking occasion was a positive move for this facilitation process, so we eagerly await the sort of business discussions that are sure to come out of October's RiverPitch."

Previous graduates of RiverPitch events include traveller social network Outbound, mining and resources division mobile environmental monitoring tool Obzervr and street-food ordering and payment app StreetEats.

"RiverPitch was an unbelievable event for Outbound. In one afternoon, it gave us access to more local investors than we could have hoped to access in six months, and they were all in the same room," says Outbound co-founder Ryan Hanly.

"The experience of pitching in front of 70-odd investors was also incredible on a personal level and the networks we made immediately after the event were substantial to say the least.

"We had a number of follow-up meetings and months later we are still being contacted by investors that saw us at the event. RiverPitch is something I would recommend to anyone in the start-up scene."

Want to give RiverPitch a shot? Click this way.