As a founder building in the sensory tech space with Auric Essentials, I spend most of my time immersed in the grind of early-stage company building—designing products, scaling tech, shaping teams, and crafting investor narratives. But occasionally, I carve out space to back other founders whose vision genuinely impresses me. BindiMaps is one of them.

This isn’t a passive investment. It’s a founder-to-founder backing of a company I believe is building a category-defining product with global potential.

A Founder’s Story That Sparked a Movement

I first met Dr Anna Wright, the co-founder and CEO of BindiMaps, back in 2015 at the SheStarts, an accelerator. Her idea was striking not just for its technical ambition but for its emotional clarity.

Anna—a confident finance professional with a PhD and decades of experience in valuations and corporate advisory—had recently been diagnosed with a condition that could lead to permanent vision loss. Rather than accept the limitations of existing tools like Braille panels, white canes, or guide dogs, she asked a deeper question: What if technology could offer genuine independence for people with vision impairments?

That personal insight became the driving mission behind BindiMaps: to make every space navigable—for everyone.

She wasn’t alone for long. Tony Burrett—another BlueChilli alum and one of the most experienced startup product leaders in the country—joined her as co-founder and Chief Product Officer. Tony is the kind of operator who not only ships product but builds platforms. His track record includes building MVPs for dozens of startups, including Australian unicorn EmploymentHero.

With Anna’s strategic clarity and Tony’s product execution, BindiMaps didn’t just emerge—it launched with purpose and velocity.

What They’re Solving (and Why It’s Bigger Than Accessibility)

At its core, BindiMaps started as an app to help people with low vision navigate complex indoor environments. But its implications go far beyond accessibility.

Most of us rely on Google Maps or Apple Maps to get around—but as anyone who’s tried to find a specific hospital wing, university lecture hall, or their car in an underground parking lot knows, these tools break down indoors. They simply weren’t designed for it.

What Anna understood early was that accessible design often leads to better experiences for all users. If you build a navigation system accurate enough to guide someone who can’t see, you’ve likely built the best solution on the market—period.

Hospitals spend hundreds of thousands each year directing lost visitors. Missed appointments cost billions. Complex venues—from universities to airports to stadiums—lose time, money, and trust every time a visitor can’t find their way. BindiMaps addresses this with elegance and precision.

The Technology: World-First Innovation Without the Overhead

BindiMaps

The real breakthrough came with Bindi 2.0, the company’s new infrastructure-free indoor positioning system. Traditional indoor navigation often requires costly hardware installations—Wi-Fi triangulation, Bluetooth beacons, ultra-wideband sensors. BindiMaps now needs none of that.

Instead, using a smartphone or GoPro, a trained operator captures a walkthrough of a venue. Their proprietary ML pipeline, Collie, turns that footage into a 3D point cloud. Then Affie georeferences it, while Landseer uses real-time computer vision to track user location to within 30cm—no GPS, no beacons, no wiring.

It’s technical wizardry with commercial scalability. It makes the product viable not just for massive public venues, but also for smaller retail spaces, clinics, and offices.

Where They’re Going (and Why I’m In)

BindiMaps already works with major Australian property groups like Lendlease, Mirvac, ISPT, and GPT, as well as hospitals, government departments, and events like the Australian Open and SXSW Sydney. They recently signed their first international customer—Budapest International Airport, and have active plans to expand into the US, Japan, and Singapore.

The business model is elegant too: a high-margin SaaS platform with a low churn rate, and deep value for asset managers. Venue owners pay a setup fee and a square-metre-based subscription, while end-users get free access via mobile, web, and kiosk.

But for me, the decision to invest wasn’t just about market size (though it’s big—projected to reach USD $20B+ by 2030), or even about traction (which is strong and growing). It was about backing a founder who’s walked the problem space personally, built an extraordinary team, and created real, defensible IP.

That’s the kind of company I want in my portfolio.

A Final Word

BindiMaps aligns with the same investment thesis I apply to my own work at Auric Essentials: building category-first products at the intersection of human need, data, and sensory technology. Just as we use scent and AI to transform mood and mental wellness, BindiMaps is using machine learning and spatial data to make the world navigable for everyone.

Proud to be a supporter of Anna, Tony, and the entire BindiMaps team. They’re not just solving a problem—they’re changing what we expect from public spaces.

Montu is on a mission to improve the lives of millions of Australians through medical cannabis therapies. As an early investor, I have seen firsthand how the company has helped thousands of patients.

Montu has built an integrated cannabis ecosystem, which streamlines the journey for patients end-to-end, and sets new standards in cannabis care. Montu has grown by 20,728% over the three years to 2022. This month, Montu was named by Deloitte as the country’s fastest-growing technology company and by the Australian Financial Review (AFR) as the fifth fastest-growing start-up.

The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 ranks the 50 fastest-growing public and private technology companies in the country based on minimum cumulative revenues of A$8 million over three years. Montu took out first place, growing by a massive 20,728% over the three years to 2022 – the fastest growth of any tech company that has made the list since 2004.

Patients have more control over their medication ordering and cannabis care consultations with their own personalised portal.

Cannabis is the fastest growing industry in the world, resulting in a US$150bn global market over the forthcoming years.  Changing cannabis legislation in Australia and New Zealand opens a new chapter in healthcare with access to safer and healthier medication, and ultimately the road to a wellness and recreational market.

Montu connects Australians to highly qualified doctors via our Alternaleaf telehealth platform. And support them throughout their journey, with our dedicated patient care team. From online booking, to tele-consultations, product selection and dispensing of medication. Montu provide patients with a supportive and judgement-free environment.

Growing portfolio of high-quality brands.

Montu has built an integrated cannabis ecosystem, which streamlines the journey for patients end-to-end, and sets new standards in cannabis care. After decades of scientific negligence of the cannabis plant, research is proving what people already knew thousands of years ago: That cannabis can have a positive impact on peoples’ lives. Australia and New Zealand are predicted to be the next major cannabis markets, estimated to grow to AU$1.7 billion by 2023.

Internationally, superfoods have grown into multi-billion dollar industries, while Australian superfoods have remained largely untapped.

That is, until Roogenic launched and started making effective wellness products that addressed the top health concerns of consumers globally. And it’s worked.

At Roogenic, they passionately support wild-harvest farming practices to help encourage Indigenous employment, Indigenous land care initiatives and the sharing of traditional culture between generations.

Roogenic believe in celebrating Indigenous culture every day and proudly donate part profits from every sale to community.

The company has been profitable for the last 4 years while supporting our Indigenous First Nation partners. This success has come from you, the 800 retailers & 150,000 customers who have benefited from Roogenic’s products.

Roogenic partners with naturopaths to create delicious teas and tonics that offer effective natural remedies for sleep, gut health, inflammation and more.

The medicinal bushfoods included in each blend are wildly harvested or organically grown and all-natural, sustainably sourced from Indigenous communities and small farmers across Australia. After experiencing the potent health benefits of Australian bushfoods, our customers have become passionate brand advocates, culminating in over 8,000+ five-star reviews.

Roogenic operates a successful multi-channel business model with an established presence in e-commerce, retail and national and international wholesale distribution.

Roogenic purposefully have multiple customer touch points, making our products accessible in-store and online.

Today, customers can find their favourite Roogenic products and discover new Roogenic offerings online and in over 800 retailers, including Myer and supermarkets in Singapore and Japan.

From the beginning this investment has been set out to build a community, not a customer base. By providing a personable brand experience with interactive content, our social media following has grown to over 90,000 people and an email database is now at over 50,000 subscribers.

In 2021, the wellness industry was valued at US$4.75 trillion with an annual growth rate of 6.4% but had little representation from Australian bushfood companies despite there being strong demand.

At Roogenic, we plan to work with more International distributors to improve the health of millions of people worldwide with Australian bushfoods. With your support, we can continue to work with Indigenous growers and manufacture new product ranges with unique health benefits that we can take to the rest of the world.

Visit Roogenic here

In 2012 Renae Bunster squeezed in 13 different fruit and veggies in to one bottle of hot sauce and irrevocably changed the condiment landscape.

Since launching off of the back of a good old fashioned crowd funding campaign in 2015, raising $250,000 Bunsters just keeps kicking goals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXvqZb5mkRM&t=25s

Bunsters’ Shit the Bed sauce has been a number-one seller on Amazon in the States, and it’s on the shelves in some 600 independent supermarkets in Australia.

They’ve doubled their hot sauce offering, done a sell out Peanut Butter Collaboration and come up with an entirely new direction for the company in a booming segment: A subscription based Ready to Drink Cocktail Club launching this month.

Bunsters core product range is constantly expanding with fresh creations and collaborations with other brands. The same relentless pursuit of quality is being applied to their ready-to-drink cocktail range.

Fans were blown away as no one had ever put this much care and attention into the flavour, packaging and branding of a hot sauce before. Fast forward 10 years later and Bunsters is doing it again, but in two separate booming industries that have seen massive growth off the back of COVID:

There’s nothing in the world like Bunsters Cocktail Club. Fresh, delicious, fully Australian made classic cocktails in a can, delivered to your door every month.

Today I am excited to announce I have taken an investment and advisory board position at Mozaik Play, the first and only specialised student agency for the creative industries worldwide.

Economic statistics reveal a booming trend the creative industries with the sector providing more than 30 million jobs globally and contributes revenue of US$2.2 trillion.

Mozaik Play was the brainchild of Gabriel Providel, founder and CEO. Gabriel has a strong track record in leading education, digital creative, and technology businesses having previously held roles with Redhill Education and Navitas. I met Gabriel through Simon Ward at Apollo League and organisation that connects leaders with start up companies that fills a real gap on both sides of the investment community for talent.

Gabriel created Mozaik Play two years ago to create a platform to connect the next generation of creative professionals with the most reputable creative media colleges worldwide to fuel growth across the creative economy.

Mozaik Play has over one hundred contractual agreements with the world’s top creative schools across the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, NZ, Singapore, and Malaysia. Creative powerhouses such as Gnomon, Vancouver Film School, and Istituto Marangoni.

Before Mozaik Play, students would struggle to find a way to connect with the right creative college worldwide. Colleges had problems, too, as they did not have the resource or market expertise to recruit the right student worldwide. Even study agents who represent over 10,000 globally would struggle to service creative students because they don’t have the skills or placement contracts with creative schools.

Mozaik Play’s solution was to create a student marketplace connecting students, creative colleges, and recruiters in the creative industries space. Teachers and graduates from these premium colleges have worked on such innovative franchises as Lord of the Rings, Avengers, Frozen, and games like Call of Duty, Counter-Strike, Minecraft.

Mozaik Play partners with study agents to help them service and place creative students and earn commissions. There are over 8,000 significant schools and universities globally and 10,000+ study agents who help students in every country worldwide choose a course, choose a school, get through the admissions process, apply for a visa and attend in person or study online.

This entire industry is focused on standard courses where admissions are based on grades instead of creative portfolios. Study agents globally struggle to advise students on their creative portfolio and do not have, and cannot quickly get, contracts with creative schools.

What I was excited about was Mozaik Play passion to solve this problem. 

Since launching, Mozaik Play has built an MVO with the core operational infrastructure that supports a growing pipeline. They have established twenty-five global offices and partnerships with study agents and launched an exclusive affiliate deal with the most prominent creative student portal, The Rookies.

Mozaik Play is now in Series A funding round to complete and build the B2B SaaS solution enabling sub-agents and members to across course inventory and tools.

I am very much looking forward to working closely with Gabriel and his team at Mozaik Play in achieving our growth plans across the business and empowering people to pursue a career in the creative industries.

More to come.

In today’s world, we are ensnared in a cycle of perpetual ‘doing’—incessantly engaged with work and digital distractions, neglecting the essential states of stillness, mindfulness, and presence.

Recognising this gap, I embarked on a two-month experimental journey to explore how natural, organic essential oils, when synergised with cutting-edge technology, can foster well-being, enhance alertness, deepen relationships, and promote tranquility.

The culmination of this exploration is the creation of Auric—the world’s first sophisticated, connected, and personalised essential oils experience.

The name “Auric” itself, derived from gold, symbolises brilliance, value, and an ethereal quality that surrounds and emanates from a person or object. This essence perfectly encapsulates the transformative experience Auric offers.

Auric is more than just a product; it is a platform—a digital diffusing device designed for the modern home. It ingeniously combines essential oils with curated content experiences, delivering a daily sequenced ‘playlist’ for your senses. This sensory sequence is designed to cleanse the mind, purify the body, and elevate awareness, facilitating a deeper connection with oneself and enhancing intimacy with others.

Our innovative approach also integrates the power of aromas, which have been scientifically proven to impact well-being significantly. Until now, the potential of integrating aroma with technology has remained largely untapped. Auric disrupts this status quo by leveraging scent as a potent conduit for health and emotional well-being, creating a groundbreaking avenue in health tech that engages and revitalises every user.

auric’s vision is to have a beautiful range of essential oils that are designed to give you what you need at the right moment, and are activated and sequenced via our mobile app.

It’s a bold idea to create a hardware recurring business model. It will require considerable time, expertise and stamina to bring this product to market.

Through Auric, we offer not just a product but a revolution in personal wellness, inviting users to experience a life where technology enhances our natural human capacities to live fully and deeply.

To be part of the auric community, to offer your expertise and support the project venture sign up here.