$850K+
Grants and catalytic capital deployed
Directly hosted via Challenger Summit and Pitch for Health since 2024, including donor catalytic capital
$19.5M+
Non-dilutive funding attracted post-incubation
Competitive federal grants won by companies after Proto Axiom incubation
950+
People convened
Across Pitch for Health, Women in Life Sciences, and partner events
200+
Applications received
Across Challenger Summit and Pitch for Health since 2024
14
Live pitches at Pitch for Health 2026
Finalists from universities and health systems nationally
Why this matters for Women's Health Foundry
Translation platforms do not emerge from strategy documents alone. They require demonstrated ability to convene the right people, evaluate early-stage science credibly, and deploy capital where it can make ventures more investable. Proto Axiom has been building that capability through national events, institutional partnerships, and direct engagement with Australia's research ecosystem.
The Challenger Summit and Pitch for Health programs have created a pipeline of relationships with researchers, university tech transfer offices, hospital research networks, and institutional investors — precisely the ecosystem that Women's Health Foundry is designed to serve.
Ecosystem follow-on
Funding attracted after Proto Axiom incubation
Two distinct measures sit alongside the researcher grants Proto Axiom hosts directly. The first tracks competitive non-dilutive capital won by companies after incubation. The second tracks private financing raised by those same companies. Together they show that the operating model produces ventures the rest of the market is willing to back.
Non-dilutive funding attracted post-incubation
A$19.5M+
Competitive Australian Government grants won by companies after Proto Axiom incubation, including MRFF Frontiers, MTPConnect TTRA, and AEA Ignite awards. Evidence that ventures shaped through the operating model go on to clear the bar set by Australia's most rigorous federal translation programs.
Private financing secured post-incubation
A$170M+
Equity capital raised by companies after Proto Axiom incubation across institutional and strategic rounds. Evidence that private capital underwrites the same ventures the federal grant system has already validated.
Figures reflect competitive Australian Government translation awards. Individual company attribution is held confidentially under partner and investor agreements.
Flagship event
Challenger Pitch for Health 2026
Co-hosted by St Vincent's Curran Foundation and Proto Axiom in Sydney, March 2026. Australia's largest medical pitch day — entirely bootstrapped and donor-led. Over 300 researchers, clinicians, founders, investors, philanthropists, industry leaders, and policymakers came together around a simple proposition: Australia produces extraordinary health and medical research, but we still need better, faster, and more repeatable pathways to turn that research into real-world impact.
Grant winners
Proto Axiom Challenger stream · Challenger Prize
Dr Jerry Zhou
Western Sydney University
Ins & Outs: Bowel Disorder Treatment at Home — developing a home-based system that helps people manage bowel conditions, bringing a proven therapy from the clinic into the home.
Proto Axiom Challenger stream · Open Prize
Dr Annaliese Dillon
Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences
A First-in-Class Therapeutic for Heart Failure — developing a first-in-class therapy for heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, a common and fast-growing condition with no treatment that can slow or stop the underlying disease.
St Vincent’s stream · Winner
Dr Melissa Thomas
Garvan Institute of Medical Research
Beyond PSA: A Simple Blood Test to Improve Prostate Cancer Care — a fast and accurate DNA blood test for advanced prostate cancer to quickly detect treatment failure, enabling personalised treatment.
St Vincent’s stream · Winner
Prof Mike Rogers
Garvan Institute of Medical Research
Improving Diagnosis of Rare Genetic Conditions — solving the unmet need for a diagnostic test for certain rare but devastating genetic diseases, simplifying an accurate lab test into a quick procedure using a small blood sample.
St Vincent's Curran Foundation Pitch for Health 2025
The inaugural Pitch for Health, hosted by St Vincent's Curran Foundation in March 2025. Proto Axiom CEO Anthony Liveris served as Chair and Proto Axiom Science Analyst Laura Wimberger served as judge: the beginning of the institutional partnership that led to the co-hosted 2026 format.
Beyond the formal prize pool, a single donor contributed an additional A$100,000 in catalytic capital on top of the awarded grants, an early signal of the philanthropic confidence the model attracts.
This event established the model: competitive pitches from clinician-scientists, evaluated by panels with cross-sector expertise, with grant capital deployed to accelerate translation. The success of the 2025 format, and the relationship between Proto Axiom and the Curran Foundation, directly shaped the expanded Challenger Pitch for Health 2026.
Challenger Summit 2024
Proto Axiom's inaugural national biotech pitch event, held in October 2024 at St Vincent's Health Innovation Precinct in Sydney. Ten leading scientists from universities and research institutes across Australia and New Zealand presented their innovations to an expert panel of venture capitalists, industry leaders, and philanthropists, with over $250,000 in unencumbered grant financing awarded.
Challenger Prize ($150,000)
Dr Daniel Beard
University of Newcastle
Stroke recovery — improving blood flow to minimise long-term stroke effects
Axiom Prize ($100,000)
Chynna-Loren Sheremeta
University of Queensland
Innovative treatment for paediatric atopic dermatitis
AusBiotech collaboration: women's health focus
Through 2026, Proto Axiom and AusBiotech — Australia's peak industry body for biotechnology — have been working together on shared activity focused on translational innovation in women's health. The work brings together AusBiotech's national industry network and Proto Axiom's translation methodology and investor relationships. The first joint activity is a dedicated Women's Health Investment Roundtable in August 2026, co-convened with AusBiotech and Tenmile, bringing investors and sector leaders together to explore pathways for increasing investment into women's health innovation.
The collaboration reflects strong industry engagement with the category thesis and opens a channel to pharmaceutical and medtech companies that can serve as development partners, licensees, or acquirers for Foundry-supported ventures.
News and milestones
Board appointments, event announcements, and ecosystem milestones — from the Davos 2026 investment outlook to the NSW Government–supported Women's Health Symposium — are tracked on the News page.