New pre-accelerator programs for early-stage founders
As Breakthrough Victoria and LaunchVic combine into Innovation Victoria, nine partner organisations will share government funding to run pre-accelerator programs for founders at the idea stage.
Startup
Ecosystem partner delivering pre-accelerator programs
Melbourne, VIC
Every investor coverage indicates participated in a round HEX raised.
| Investor | Rounds | Invested |
|---|---|---|
| SBE Australia | Accelerator | - |
| SmartCompany | Accelerator | - |
Investors whose own portfolio pages list HEX, even though we haven't found any coverage of the round yet.
| Investor | Listed on |
|---|---|
| Giant Leap | its portfolio page ↗ |
Companies HEX acquired or merged with, per published coverage. Buying a company is not investing in one: nothing here counts in the deals column.
| Name | Role | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| Jeanette Cheah | CEO (former) · Founder | SmartCompany (5 Mar 2026), SmartCompany (17 Sep 2025), Startup Daily (24 Jan 2025), LaunchVic (27 Jul 2024), Startup Daily (27 Jun 2024), LaunchVic (29 Mar 2023), LaunchVic (18 Apr 2022), Startup Daily (28 Mar 2022), SmartCompany (8 Mar 2022), SmartCompany (8 Mar 2022) |
| Frances Goh | Entrepreneur in Residence | SmartCompany |
| Frances Goh | Entrepreneur-in-residence | Startup Daily |
Stories naming HEX. Where several outlets covered the same round, they are bundled under whichever ran the fullest account.
As Breakthrough Victoria and LaunchVic combine into Innovation Victoria, nine partner organisations will share government funding to run pre-accelerator programs for founders at the idea stage.
One Roof, a Melbourne community for women founders, has promoted Frances Goh to its top job, succeeding cofounder Sheree Rubinstein, who joins a telehealth firm as general manager and stays on as advisor.
Edtech firm HEX has hired Frances Goh, One Roof's co-founder, as Entrepreneur in Residence to back women-led ventures and co-lead a 13-week program connecting women founders across ASEAN, Australia and Timor-Leste.
Education startup HEX has bought Sydney-based learning platform EntryLevel for an undisclosed amount, while securing another year of Atlassian Foundation backing and partnering with Toyota's trust on a STEM program for regional students.
SeenCulture, a workplace platform, has secured $1 million in a pre-seed round from Alice Anderson Fund, M8 Ventures, InterValley Ventures and Torus, having earlier joined Techstars' first Sydney cohort with Cut Through Angels backing.
Also SmartCompany·SmartCompany
Victorian Governor's awards name DAS top startup and Acusensus top scaleup; HEX's Jeanette Cheah is Ecosystem Hero, with Tractor's Jodie Imam and Giant Leap's Rachel Yang sharing Investor of the Year.
Also LaunchVic
Profile of HEX, a Victorian startup offering innovation education programs, recalling its founding and noting a seed round backed by LaunchVic's Alice Anderson Fund, plus alumnus T Guthrie's data platform Why Hive.
SBE Australia unveils the ten women-led startups joining its new Global Tech program for international scaling, while noting Evolve alumni have drawn over $1 billion in capital since 2012 without the accelerator taking equity.
Scale Investors co-founder Susan Oliver reflects on backing women founders and details LaunchVic's Alice Anderson Fund, which she chairs, listing six women-led startups it has backed alongside other Victorian capital initiatives.
Also LaunchVic
Op-ed by HEX chief Jeanette Cheah for International Women's Day, recounting her recently closed debut raise and praising peer-investing group Afterwork Ventures, women-led funder shebacks.me and migrant talent agency DivTal.
An International Women's Day feature argues media coverage overweights fundraising as a success measure for women founders, featuring perspectives from several women business owners and noting HEX's recent seed round.
LaunchVic profile of Tractor Ventures, a Victorian revenue-based lending fund co-founded in 2020, covering LaunchVic's initial backing, a $10 million second capital raise, and its support for profitable mid-stage startups.