- Twenty-three businesses finalists for the WA Innovators of the Year 2026
- More than 130 applications were received for the awards
- This year marks 20 years of the State celebrating innovators
- Cook Labor Government backing innovation and jobs made in WA
The WA Innovators of the Year (WAIOTY) awards continue to celebrate the incredible achievements of local businesses with finalists revealed.
Twenty-three different businesses have been announced as finalists for the following categories:
- Emerging Innovation Award;
- Growth Innovation Award;
- Advanced Manufacturing Award;
- Community Benefit and Wellbeing Award;
- Energy Innovation Award; and
- Great for the State Award.
More than 130 applications were received for the six categories and were subject to a highly competitive process which included assessment by independent, external evaluation panels made up of stakeholders from the Western Australian innovation sector.
The endeavours of this year's finalists have the potential for wide-reaching positive impacts, including improved treatment of diseases and safety in the community, efficiencies in building and construction, and increased renewable energy generation.
Finalists for the remaining two categories for the awards, Government and Young Innovator, will be announced later this year.
The awards program recognises local businesses, government entities and young people that have developed an outstanding innovative product, technology or service. It addresses the goals of the WA Government's Innovation Strategy, ensuring the State is a world leader in research and inventiveness and a place where innovation is inclusive, purposeful, rewarded and respected.
Since being launched in 2006, the program has celebrated WA's innovative and entrepreneurial spirit for 20 years.
Previous winners include:
- Kanopy in 2012, a global streaming service used by thousands of public and university libraries, sold to OverDrive in 2021;
- Track'em in 2015, a leading enterprise software provider operating across international mining, oil and gas operations; and
- Greenroom Robotics in 2025, which has scaled from developing environmental tracking software to become a vital sovereign defence and maritime innovator.
This year's ceremony, held on 2 November 2026, will see a prize pool of $310,000 shared between winners.
The Cook Labor Government supports the awards through the $40 million New Industries and Innovation Fund, which is focused on developing and accelerating local innovation-based technologies. WAIOTY is managed by the Department of Energy and Economic Diversification.
There have been several contributors to this year's awards, including WAIOTY major sponsor Malka Foundation and supporting sponsors Adarsh Australia, Biodesign Australia, Business News, Wesfarmers, Woodside Energy, Young Entrepreneurs Academy of Western Australia, Bankwest, Wrays, Moore Australia, Australian Innovation Management Institute, BetterLabs, Centre for Entrepreneurial Research and Innovation and Visagio Australia.
For more information see: New Industries and Innovation Fund: WA Innovators of the Year
As stated by Science and Innovation Minister Stephen Dawson:
"Our local innovation ecosystem continues to grow from strength to strength and the WA Innovators of the Year awards are a fantastic opportunity to celebrate achievements.
"Congratulations to all who have become finalists, particularly with this year being the 20th anniversary of the awards. WA innovation has never been stronger.
"I wish each finalist the best of luck and am looking forward to attending the awards ceremony where I can see firsthand your achievements."
Finalist |
Project |
Emerging Innovation Award sponsored by Malka Foundation |
|
Atherid Therapeutics |
Atherid Therapeutics' vision is to redefine the treatment of cardiovascular disease, transforming care from lifelong risk management to durable plaque clearance, preventing death and disability. The company has developed a first-in-class drug, ATH01, designed to clear this fatty build-up directly. |
Oto Medicines |
SpritzOM is a novel, patentprotected nasal spray designed to prevent middle ear infections (otitis media) in children - one of the most common and burdensome childhood diseases worldwide. |
ROC Technologies trading as WaveX |
WaveX is a renewable energy technology based in Perth. Recognising the significance of the State's sovereign ocean resource, WaveX reimagined wave energy conversion through the development of its DSpar Power Platform - a reliable source of autonomous electricity in high value and strategic marine locations for operators and users of coastal infrastructure. |
Genvis |
Genvis has built the integrated technology response to one of the most persistent gaps in Australia's family and domestic violence (FDV) system. |
Materia Health |
MateriaPOD is a world-first universal preservation platform designed to safely transport living biological materials, including donor organs and tissues for transplantation, blood products for defence and emergency care, and reproductive cells for veterinary applications. |
CAD SPECTRAL Technologies |
CAD SPECTRAL Technologies is manufacturing a special type of camera for heart disease monitoring. SPECTRA-Mini is a portable medical imaging device that screens for coronary artery disease (CAD) through a four-second, non-invasive eye scan. |
Growth Innovation Award sponsored by Malka Foundation |
|
Capability X |
CX Protect is an intelligent workplace safety platform designed to prevent accidents before they occur by acting as a constantly aware digital safety co-worker. |
Hyperion Systems |
The TitanCell by Hyperion Systems is a deployable "factory-in-a-box" that allows large products to be manufactured almost anywhere using advanced robotic 3D printing technology. |
biio. |
biio. is a WA-built clinical-and-technology service for people with complex invisible illness - conditions that cross specialties and leave patients co-ordinating fragmented care themselves. |
Augment Technologies |
Augment Technologies' cornerstone platform, Ore Movement Policy, incorporates the first and only blast movement solution in mining that combines a physics engine with machine learning to transform the in situ open pit grade control block model into an accurate post-blast Muckpile Block Model. |
Contec Australia |
Contec Australia delivers structural concrete using large-scale 3D concrete printing, applying robotics, automated material placement and digital construction workflows to increase construction capacity in Western Australia through a faster, scalable and design-flexible delivery method. |
Wevolt |
Wevolt turns thousands of chargers from any vendor into one orchestrated, grid-aware fleet - managed by electricity networks as a flexibility resource and run by operators as one business. |
Advanced Manufacturing Award sponsored by Adarsh Australia |
|
SpiroPak |
SpiroPak is a novel approach to the internal structure of columns at the heart of chemical, LNG, refining and carbon-capture plants, lowering their energy use, cost and physical footprint. |
Blakemere Engineering |
ZeroStab is a subsea hydraulic connector that uses laser-sintered metal additive manufacturing to break a design ceiling the offshore industry has lived with for decades. |
Element Zero |
Element Zero is commercialising a novel, low temperature mineral processing platform to decarbonise mining and mineral resources. |
Alba Edible Oils |
Alba Edible Oils is the only edible oil refinery in WA and has developed a chemical-free patent-pending refining technology that is redefining how premium edible oils are produced worldwide. |
Community Benefit and Wellbeing Award sponsored by Wesfarmers |
|
Atherid Therapeutics |
Atherid Therapeutics' vision is to redefine the treatment of cardiovascular disease, transforming care from lifelong risk management to durable plaque clearance, preventing death and disability. |
CAD SPECTRAL Technologies |
CAD SPECTRAL Technologies is manufacturing a special type of camera for heart disease monitoring. SPECTRA-Mini is a portable medical imaging device that screens for coronary artery disease through a four-second, non-invasive eye scan. |
Oto Medicines |
SpritzOM is a novel, patentprotected nasal spray designed to prevent middle ear infections (otitis media) in children - one of the most common and burdensome childhood diseases worldwide. |
Sadleir Laboratories |
IRIS - the Increasing Rate Infusion System - is a precision-manufactured drug-mixing syringe (TGA Class IIa, sterile, single-use; ARTG 519672) designed to deliver intravenous antibiotics safely to surgical patients who carry an antibiotic allergy label. |
Materia Health |
MateriaPOD is a world-first universal preservation platform designed to safely transport living biological materials, including donor organs and tissues for transplantation, blood products for defence and emergency care, and reproductive cells for veterinary applications. |
Energy Innovation Award sponsored by Woodside Energy |
|
Wevolt |
Wevolt turns thousands of chargers from any vendor into one orchestrated, grid-aware fleet - managed by electricity networks as a flexibility resource and run by operators as one business. |
ROC Technologies trading as WaveX |
WaveX is a renewable energy technology based in Perth. Recognising the significance of the State's sovereign ocean resource, WaveX reimagined wave energy conversion through the development of its DSpar Power Platform - a reliable source of autonomous electricity in high value and strategic marine locations for operators and users of coastal infrastructure. |
Electric Power Conversions Australia |
Proudly Aboriginal-owned and operated by Clayton Franklin, EPCA retrofits existing diesel-powered mining haulage trucks to electric and contributes to the mining industry transition for a sustainable future. |
Tessele Consultants |
Tessele Consultants has developed an innovative anaerobic co-digestion (AnCoD) pilot platform designed to accelerate renewable energy generation and circular resource recovery across Western Australia's agri-food and industrial sectors. |
Great for the State Award sponsored by Business News |
|
Sunfish Robotics |
Sunfish Robotics has developed a new class of autonomous ocean robot - a solar-powered underwater vehicle capable of extended, uncrewed operation across vast marine areas without any fixed support infrastructure. |
Ocean Hex |
Ocean Hex has developed The HIVE system with the purpose of reducing the cost and operational burden of maintaining subsea port and marina infrastructure (jetty pylons, wharves and piles), while also turning the lifeless grey infrastructure into a living habitat that owners can point to as proof of their environmental impact. |
Myco Metals |
Myco Metals uses the natural abilities of fungi to recover critical minerals from mining waste. |
Novolo |
Novolo is a breakthrough food-stabilisation platform that adapts advanced pharmaceutical delivery science to agriculture. Co-founded by a pharmaceutical formulation expert and a systems engineer, Novolo effectively bridges the gap between lab-proven preservation compounds and rugged, real-world supply chains. |
