Brisbane Startups to Watch in 2027: Verified Queensland Companies in Learning, DevOps, Vaccines, Hypersonics, Mapping and AI
Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, has produced some of Australia's best-known software companies and a growing group of deep tech firms: needle-free vaccines, hypersonic aircraft, robotic mapping and new kinds of AI chips. The 2026 version of this article listed ten names. When we checked them, several turned out to be based in Sydney or spread across the world, one had become a Microsoft product, and one had no website we could find. For this 2027 edition we started again: in November 2026 we checked each company on its own website to confirm that it still operates, that it gives a Brisbane address, what it sells and what it publishes about its funding. What happened to the old names is listed near the end.
Quick answer: the Brisbane startups to watch in 2027 are Go1 (workplace learning), Octopus Deploy (software deployment), Askable (product research), Swyftx (crypto exchange), Vaxxas (needle-free vaccine patches), Hypersonix (hydrogen-powered hypersonic aircraft), Emesent (autonomous lidar mapping) and Cortisonic (low-power AI chips). Octopus Deploy has the biggest published number: a $172.5 million investment from Insight Partners in 2021. For support, start with the Queensland Government's innovation programmes, The Precinct in Fortitude Valley and UniQuest at the University of Queensland.
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Why Brisbane Matters for Founders in 2027
Queensland's government publishes its own numbers for the state's startup scene. Its Science and Innovation Strategy page says Queensland's startup ecosystem was valued at $34.6 billion in 2026, that $504 million of venture capital was invested into Queensland companies in 2025, and that more than 3,000 innovation-driven businesses operate in the state. These are state-wide figures, according to the Queensland Government, and Brisbane is where most of the support is concentrated.
Brisbane companies on this list also show a pattern: two sell software worldwide from day one (Octopus Deploy and Askable), and the rest build hard technology that needs labs, factories or test ranges. To compare Brisbane with other cities, read our guides to the best cities for early-stage startups and our city lists for Auckland across the Tasman, Honolulu, San Diego and Glasgow.
Brisbane Startups to Watch in 2027 Compared
Sources: each company's official website, contact page, company timeline or own news release, checked 1 November 2026.
The Brisbane Startups to Watch in 2027
1. Go1: one subscription for workplace learning
Go1 sells an online learning library and platform that companies use to train their staff. Its about page says it was created in 2015 and offers learning content from more than 300 providers under a single subscription, and its homepage now leads with an AI-powered learning and development platform and an AI agent called Morgan that brings learning into everyday work. Its site gives its company address as 2908 Logan Road, Underwood, Queensland, in Logan on Brisbane's southern edge. Go1 does not publish funding figures on its site, so we cite none.
Lesson for founders: Go1 did not try to write all the courses itself. It gathered other people's content into one subscription, which is easier for a buyer to approve than hundreds of separate contracts.
Best for: founders in edtech, HR tech and B2B content platforms. See also our list of edtech startup grants.
2. Octopus Deploy: bootstrapped from Brisbane to enterprise DevOps
Octopus Deploy makes continuous delivery software that helps engineering teams release code to servers, clouds and Kubernetes in a repeatable way. Its company timeline says Paul and Sonia Stovell incorporated Octopus Deploy in Brisbane in 2012, that it stayed bootstrapped and profitable, and that in 2021 Insight Partners invested $172.5 million, which it describes as the second-largest growth investment into an Australian software company at that time. The same page says it passed $50 million in revenue and 3,700 customers in 2023, acquired the Kubernetes and GitOps company Codefresh in February 2024, and now has more than 250 employees. Its address is Level 4, 199 Grey Street, South Brisbane.
Lesson for founders: Octopus grew for almost a decade on customer revenue before it took a large outside investment. Profitable growth gave the founders the choice of when, and whether, to raise.
Best for: founders building developer tools and B2B SaaS.
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3. Askable: product research with a verified panel
Askable is a product research platform. Teams use it for AI-moderated interviews, live website testing, prototype testing, card sorting and surveys, and recruit participants from its own panel, which it says covers verified people in more than 50 countries. Its about page says Askable began in 2017 as an idea on a sticky note and now has a team across Brisbane, London and Chicago, with its Brisbane office at Level 1, 2 King Street, Bowen Hills. It does not publish funding figures on its site.
Lesson for founders: Askable turned the slowest part of user research, finding the right people to talk to, into its product. If a task blocks your customers every week, it may be worth more than the task they think they are buying.
Best for: founders in research tools, SaaS for product teams and AI data services.
4. Swyftx: a Brisbane-based crypto exchange
Swyftx is a digital asset exchange for Australian investors. Its site says Swyftx Pty Ltd is Australian-owned and operated, headquartered in Brisbane, Queensland (its footer gives Milton), and registered with AUSTRAC as a digital currency exchange provider. It lists more than 410 assets, a minimum trade of $1 for most of them and no minimum deposit for bank transfers or PayID. It does not publish funding figures on its site. Crypto assets are high-risk; this is a company profile, not investment advice.
Lesson for founders: in a regulated market, registration and clear rules are part of the product. Swyftx puts its regulatory status in plain words on its main page.
Best for: founders in fintech and consumer finance apps.
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5. Vaxxas: vaccines without a needle
Vaxxas is developing HD-MAP, a patch with thousands of tiny projections that delivers vaccines into the skin instead of through a needle. Its site says the technology has been tested in six Phase I clinical trials with more than 750 participants across six vaccine types, and that it manufactures under TGA-licensed aseptic conditions at its Brisbane facility; its contact page gives its corporate head office, R&D and manufacturing at 240 MacArthur Avenue, Hamilton. Its about page names partners and funders including SK bioscience, IDT Biologika, HaDEA, BARDA, CEPI, Wellcome and the Gates Foundation, and describes Vaxxas as a OneVentures investee. In September 2026 it launched a European study on how people feel about vaccinating themselves.
Lesson for founders: Vaxxas funds a long medical road with a mix of venture capital and global health funders. For deep health tech, public-good funders can be as important as investors.
Best for: founders in biotech, medtech and global health.
6. Hypersonix: hydrogen-powered hypersonic flight
Hypersonix Launch Systems builds SPARTAN, which it describes as the world's first 3D-printed, fixed-geometry scramjet engine running on hydrogen, and aircraft that use it: DART, a low-cost test vehicle, and VISR, a reusable hypersonic flyer. According to its news release, DART AE made its first flight on 27 February 2026 (US time), launched by Rocket Lab's HASTE from Wallops Island in Virginia under the US Defense Innovation Unit, and reached speeds above Mach 5. The same release says Hypersonix recently closed a $46 million Series A led by High Tor Capital, backed by the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation and Queensland Investment Corporation, with Saab and RKKVC also supporting it. In September 2026 it signed an agreement with Gilmour Space to develop a hypersonic flight-test capability. Its site lists its Brisbane headquarters at 2 Ron Boyle Crescent, Carole Park.
Lesson for founders: Hypersonix proved its engine in a real flight before scaling up. In hardware, one public test result can unlock more money and partners than any pitch deck.
Best for: founders in aerospace, defence tech and clean propulsion.
7. Emesent: mapping places people cannot safely go
Emesent makes mobile lidar scanners and software that map mines, tunnels, buildings and forests: Hovermap (for drones, robots or handheld use), GX1 for ground-based scanning, Aura for processing scans and Commander for mission planning, all running on its Cortex autonomy engine. Its homepage reports more than 2,100 active users in more than 50 countries and more than 110 team members, and announces an A$3 million grant to develop Cortex AI, an open platform for autonomy where GPS does not work. Its contact page gives its head office at Level 1, North Tower, 339 Coronation Drive, Milton, with offices in London and Colorado.
Lesson for founders: Emesent sells to mining and construction, where safety problems are expensive and buyers pay for tools that keep people out of danger.
Best for: founders in robotics, mining tech and spatial data.
8. Cortisonic: AI chips that compute with sound
Cortisonic builds what it calls Sonic Processing Units: chips made of arrays of tiny vibrating mechanical oscillators that process signals physically, aiming at always-on AI at the edge with much less power than digital chips. Its site gives Brisbane as its location and says it is backed by the venture firm Main Sequence and supported by UniQuest, the University of Queensland's commercialisation company. It does not publish the size of its funding.
Lesson for founders: Cortisonic is a research-to-company story: a new physics idea, a university commercialisation office and a deep tech investor. If your technology comes from a lab, the university's commercialisation team is often the first partner to call.
Best for: founders in semiconductors, edge AI and university spin-outs.
Where Brisbane Startups Get Support
- Queensland Government innovation programmes: the old Advance Queensland address now forwards to this site, run by the Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation. It lists the Ignite programme (Ignite Spark for concepts and prototypes, Ignite Ideas for first products at MVP stage or beyond, and Ignite+ for high-growth startups), the Corporate Innovation Network, Regional Futures and Deadly Innovation.
- Backing Female Founders Program: the state's programme for Queensland businesses founded by women, with a Female Founders Co-investment Fund for early-stage raises, the Accelerating Female Founders Program and Investment Readiness support. The government says nearly 2,000 female founders have benefited so far.
- The Precinct: a government-supported startup hub in Fortitude Valley with office space, coworking desks, accelerator programmes and more than 600 events a year; its event spaces are free for startup events and meetups.
- UniQuest: the University of Queensland's commercialisation company. It says 141 companies have been created from its intellectual property portfolio and more than $1.25 billion has been raised to take university technology to market.
- Brisbane Angels: an angel investing group based in Brisbane that invests seed and early-stage money in high-growth startups and takes applications for funding through its site.
Brisbane Companies From the Old List That Changed or Could Not Be Verified
The 2026 version of this article listed ten names. Here is what we found when we checked each one in November 2026:
- Kept: Go1, Octopus Deploy and Askable still operate and give Brisbane addresses on their sites.
- Clipchamp: the browser video editor still says it is headquartered in Brisbane, but it is now Microsoft Clipchamp, built into Windows and sold with Microsoft 365. It is a Microsoft product now, not a startup, so it left the list.
- Skedulo: its site lists San Francisco first among its offices, with a Brisbane office in Fortitude Valley. Because we could not confirm a Brisbane headquarters, we left it out.
- Eucalyptus, Inventia Life Science and Karbon: none gives a Brisbane address. Inventia's site gives Sydney, Eucalyptus is Sydney-based according to Wikipedia, and Karbon describes a team spread across the US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the UK.
- Convergence Medical: we found no official website, only data aggregator profiles, so we removed it.
- SNAPI: its site sells AI digital meter reading rather than the smart city projects the old article described, and gives no Brisbane address, so we removed it.
- River City Labs: the old Brisbane startup hub's web address now forwards to Harbour City Labs, the ACS hub in Sydney, whose site lists no Brisbane location. The Precinct is the place to start instead.
We also removed the old article's city ranking claim from a third-party startup list and its links to third-party company directories, and used the Queensland Government's own figures instead.
Which Brisbane Startup Should You Learn From?
- You build B2B software: study Octopus Deploy for profitable, bootstrapped growth and Askable for turning a painful task into a product.
- You build for learning or HR: study Go1, which bundled other people's content into one subscription.
- You build in fintech: study Swyftx for putting regulation front and centre.
- You build in health: study Vaxxas for combining venture money with global health funders.
- You build hardware or deep tech: study Hypersonix for proving the technology in a real test, Emesent for selling safety to heavy industry and Cortisonic for the path from university lab to company.
- You are just starting: look at the Ignite programme and The Precinct; if you are a woman founder, start with the Backing Female Founders Program; if your idea comes from UQ research, talk to UniQuest.
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How Founders Use Brisbane's Startup Scene
Notice the two paths here. Software companies like Octopus Deploy and Askable sold to customers abroad early, while deep tech companies like Vaxxas, Hypersonix and Cortisonic combined research, grants, government-linked investors and venture capital. Plan your own path before you raise. Compare programmes in our guides to startup incubators in Asia and accelerators for AI startups. For money, see early-stage VCs in Asia, early-stage VC firms, angel investors for AI startups and grants for female entrepreneurs.
If you are still choosing a base, compare Australia with other options in our guide to the best countries for early-stage startups and the best countries for AI startups, and meet other founders at startup events for female entrepreneurs.
Before you copy any of these business models, validate your startup idea with real customers. Then make your startup easy to find: list it in the F/MS marketing directories, publish your startup press release, and write about your product with the F/MS AI SEO Tool or the AI SEO Blog so customers, investors and AI assistants can find you.
FAQ About Brisbane Startups to Watch in 2027
Which Brisbane startups should I watch in 2027?
Our verified list: Go1, Octopus Deploy, Askable, Swyftx, Vaxxas, Hypersonix, Emesent and Cortisonic. Each still operates and gives a Brisbane address or location on its own site, checked in November 2026.
Which Brisbane startup has raised the most money?
Of the figures the companies publish themselves, the largest is Octopus Deploy's $172.5 million investment from Insight Partners in 2021. Hypersonix reports a $46 million Series A.
Is Go1 still based in Brisbane?
Go1's site gives its company address as 2908 Logan Road, Underwood, Queensland, in Logan on Brisbane's southern edge. It says it was created in 2015.
Which Brisbane startups work in deep tech?
Vaxxas (needle-free vaccine patches), Hypersonix (hydrogen-powered hypersonic aircraft), Emesent (autonomous lidar mapping) and Cortisonic (AI chips that compute with sound waves).
How big is Queensland's startup ecosystem?
According to the Queensland Government, the state's startup ecosystem was valued at $34.6 billion in 2026, and $504 million of venture capital was invested into Queensland companies in 2025.
Where can founders in Brisbane get support?
The Queensland Government's innovation site lists the Ignite programme and other grants, The Precinct in Fortitude Valley offers space and programmes, UniQuest helps University of Queensland research become companies, and Brisbane Angels invests in early-stage startups.
Is there support for female founders in Brisbane?
Yes. The Queensland Government's Backing Female Founders Program includes a Female Founders Co-investment Fund, the Accelerating Female Founders Program and Investment Readiness support. Our guide to grants for female entrepreneurs lists more options.
What happened to the startups on the old list?
Go1, Octopus Deploy and Askable stay. Clipchamp is now part of Microsoft, Skedulo lists San Francisco first, Eucalyptus, Inventia and Karbon give no Brisbane address, and we found no official site for Convergence Medical or a Brisbane address for SNAPI.
Is River City Labs still open?
Its web address now forwards to Harbour City Labs, the ACS startup hub in Sydney, and that site lists no Brisbane location. For a Brisbane startup hub, start with The Precinct.
Where can I get a backlink by writing about my startup?
You can publish a guest post in one of the Fe/male Switch startup blogs, which rank in Google and in AI tools. Get a quality backlink.
About the Author
Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.
