Business News

Wed Jul 22

Amazonia Wins 2015 Telstra NSW Business Of The Year Award

Written by Elise Hendriksen

22^ndJuly 2015 - 29 year old Dwayne Martens has added one of the highest business accolades in the country to a string of awards for his leading health food business Amazonia, winning the 2015 New South Wales Business Of The Year Award in the Telstra Australian Business Awards last night.

The Telstra Business Awards have been running since 1992 celebrating the achievements and entrepreneurial spirit of Australia’s micro, small and medium businesses.

Will Irving, Telstra Business Group Managing Director and Telstra Business Awards Ambassador, said: “The five New South Wales winners are brilliant and inspiring businesses that are being celebrated for innovation, industry leadership, creative use of technology and their contribution to the local economy.

“Amazonia is a very value-driven and highly ethical business that shows good diversity.”

Founded eight years ago by 22-year-old Dwayne Martens in pursuit of bringing the nutritious acai berry to fame, Amazonia is now a multi-national, multi-million dollar sustainable business.

Dwayne accepted his award last night, highlighting the passion behind Amazonia’s vision for change.

“We are part of the change, the betterment of humanity and we’re just getting started. We are addressing the biggest issue humanity has faced so far; Lifestyle disease contributes to over sixty percent of deaths in developed countries. We are a solutions based business and understand that it’s not simply about taking products, but providing education and support to encourage healthier habits."

"We live and breathe this, so it’s as simple as emphasizing our passion.”

The first Amazonia product was an organic freeze-dried acai powder, packaged out the back of a commercial kitchen and distributed by a passionate young Dwayne Martens, before joining business partner Chris Norden to expand the Amazonia business. Now accompanying their freeze-dried acai product, Amazonia offer a frozen acai range and popular supplement range called Raw, which contains a variety of nutritional products, free from synthetics and additives.

“My proudest achievement, by far, is Amazonia’s commitment to sustainably producing products from plant to packaging. Organic farming, maintaining and creating thriving eco systems in the Amazon, supporting local families through fair trade and using recyclable, vegetable-ink printed packaging are just some of the initiatives we’ve implemented.”

“We’ve faced our challenges over the years and one of our biggest strengths has been our resilience in the face of adversity. At one stage we lost everything in the QLD floods and had to essentially start from scratch,” said Martens.

“From those first years of door-to-door selling, to now having a whole team behind me and the freedom to innovate and create, I’m so grateful for what we’ve accomplished.”

Also a finalist for this year’s Earnst & Young Entrepreneur of The Year Award, Amazonia are at the forefront of innovation and are a shining example of entrepreneurial spirit and the future of sustainable business.

Telstra Business Awards: https://www.telstrabusinessawards.com/about/about-awards/

Amazonia: http://www.amazonia.com.au/

ABOUT AMAZONIA

Amazonia is an innovative Australian health-food business that import acai berries from the Amazon and offer a range of whole food supplements, which are largely certified organic and vegan. In 8 years, Amazonia has grown from a single market stall to a multi-million dollar enterprise, whilst maintaining a strict ethos of social and environmental responsibility. Extending into whole food supplements with their Raw Range, Amazonia is fast becoming one of Australia’s largest food and supplement suppliers with a focus on simple, raw and whole nutrition. Dwayne and his team have preserved over 4000 acres of Acai trees in the Amazon, helped over 4000 families and converted over 2000 acres of coconut trees to organic standards in Thailand, to name but a few of their sustainable initiatives. This is a direct reflection of Dwayne’s desire to create positive change through business. Their latest Raw Nutritional range was developed by nutritionists, naturopaths and doctors and includes greens, protein, vitamin C, immune, multi, energy and pre-biotics. The recognition of quality and efficacy is evident with six private hospitals already using the range and many more to come.

Mon Jul 20

EXPERT360 secures $4.1million in capital funding

Written by Justin Kelly

Sydney 20 July 2015. Booming Australian start-up, Expert360 https://expert360.com has closed an oversubscribed capital raising for $4.1M to transform the sleepy $350 billion global consulting industry with it’s online consulting marketplace.

New and existing shareholders in Australia, the US and Europe have injected $4.1 million of fresh capital investment into the business, including VC fund Frontier Ventures, leading Australian technology fund rampersand, institutional investors, existing shareholders, and high net worth individuals such as former Macquarie Bank MD Allan Moss AO.

Expert360’s model is truly disruptive in how it is connecting the world's top consultants with the world's most interesting companies, bypassing corporate overheads associated with traditional consulting firms. While freelancing platforms have transformed other industries (e.g. coding, design, transport, logistics) this is the first time the world's top business minds have come together on a single platform, giving every company, from large corporates to ambitious SMEs or individuals, the ability to engage top consultants for as little as $1000, and for consultants to get appropriately and directly rewarded for their work.

Bridget Loudon, CEO of Expert360, says: “Our vision is simple; It’s about harnessing technology to connect clients and their projects with great consultants, anywhere, anytime and in a way that delivers outstanding value for both parties. We initially thought that unbundled consulting services would be in highest demand from SMEs, investment and consulting clients but since our last cap raise we’ve been blown away by the inbound demand from enterprise clients in particular.”

Expert360’s cofounder and COO, Emily Yue, says the newly raised capital will see Expert360 expand its support for consultants through access to research, data and other IP which help make them more powerful consultants. She says the money will also be used to expand their Enterprise services offering so that executives in larger organisations can get instant access to a pool of consulting talent and also get support from a project manager to scope work and assemble teams.

Former CEO of global online work platform oDesk, Gary Swart is a shareholder in Expert360 and is a member of the advisory board. He has been impressed by the company’s growth and is excited about the opportunity.

“The next wave in online work is strategic and high-end and Expert360 is at the forefront of this trend. Professional services is typically project-based and so much of the work lends itself perfectly to a cloud-based marketplace for big and small enterprises. Expert360 is executing very well on this massive market opportunity,” he said.

Since inception in 2013, Expert360 has become Australia’s online market leader for online “micro-consulting”, with more than 4,500 independent consultants available from around the world. From an initial small team in Sydney, Expert360 now has 15 full-time employees across Australia and South East Asia.

VC fund Frontier Ventures, which invests in global Internet businesses, including the Russian version of Netflix, South-East Asian version of OpenTable and Profi.ru, Russia's largest online service marketplace, has invested in Expert360, impressed by the scalability of the model.

Frontier Ventures Founder, Dmitry Alimov, said: “Expert360 is a highly scalable disruptor with huge potential and genuine international appeal. It breaks apart traditional consulting methodology by using the power of technology, global connectivity and individual expertise to provide superior client solutions. We are very impressed by the company’s team, its speed of execution, product quality, and outstanding growth trajectory. We know online service marketplaces and we're excited to back this one.”

Frontier Ventures is the lead investor in the round with Mr Alimov also taking a board seat. Frontier is joined by rampersand, an Australian technology venture capital fund with a history of success in Australia, Silicon Valley and globally.

rampersand cofounder and managing partner Jim Cassidy said: “Emily and Bridget are attacking a giant market ripe for disruption and created a model that adds significant value for all participants. Marketplaces are evolving from pure transactional to highly relational, and Expert360 has the unique tools to drive this forward. Most importantly, with Expert360 we believe we’re backing a great team.”

ABOUT EXPERT360

Founded in July 2013, Expert360 https://expert360.com/ is a global digital platform that provides businesses with access to the best and brightest independent consultants. Expert360 has unbundled traditional consulting and put it on a world-class platform giving companies access to high quality talent, flexibility in how they engage them, and at a price that delivers good value. It has grown to over 4800 top consultants across the world. Clients include large corporates, investment firms, consulting firms, SMEs, entrepreneurs and freelance individuals who have discovered how to capitalise upon this rich talent pool.