Frequently Asked Questions
Does Blue Gravity have an open and close date or other limits?
The subsidised Diagnosis process is limited to 35 ventures. This is forecast to last until 1 December 2023.
How much money is in the fund?
There is enough for 8 ventures to receive funding of up to $10,000 each.
How much time do I have to put in?
1. EOI: 5 minutes
2. Diagnosis self-assessment: 30 minutes
3. Call to review draft report and recommendations: 30 minutes
4. Complete an evaluation: 10 minutes
Are businesses or NFPs that are registered interstate or overseas able to apply?
Yes, if they are, or plan to: be based in, operate from or benefit the Western Australian economy, community or environment. In the case of the number of EOIs exceeding expectations, WA-based, owned and operated ventures will be prioritised.
What’s the benefit of the Diagnosis process?
The Diagnosis process involves experienced experts assessing twelve aspects of the venture. This is combined with the innovator’s self-assessment, and benchmarked against anonymised results from a database of other ventures. The resulting report is a sound basis for reflection, strategy development, and sharing with investors.
This method of assessment is superior to advice from self-interested advisors, self-assessment without the benefit of hundreds of precedents for comparison, or trying to use a generic framework ill-suited to the specifics of ocean innovations.
How are recommendations made?
Recommendations made through Blue Gravity are specific to the stage, type, geography, strengths, technology and team. They are actionable within 3-12 months and designed to maximise the progression, increase in valuation of the venture and be the highest-leverage use of the venture’s available resources. Based on the recommendations ventures can access a curated, prioritised selection of: service providers, customers and collaborators, and sources of funding and investment.
This approach to recommendations saves the innovators the time and cost of reviewing dozens of potential providers, thousands of blue economy contacts or hundreds of different types of funding. It also assists ventures to prioritise limited resources and have a pre-built scope for use of funds, which can be taken to boards, funders or investors.
What sources of funding are available?
For your benefit, we review thousands of potential sources of funding, subsidies, and investment to create an up-to-date database of three hundred suitable options for different ocean innovations. We use the Diagnosis and recommendations process to further filter this list and provide you with a succinct top list of options that are suitable for your venture. We also have our own small fund that invests equity-free capital in a small number of ventures each year, which you might find interesting.
We understand that filtering public databases can be challenging, especially without understanding the detailed conditions. It can also lead to making applications with a low chance of success or engaging with investors at the wrong time, wrong angle, or with no experience, understanding, or track record of engaging with similar ventures. So, we are here to help!