University of Melbourne joins with CMB to launch innovative programme for young Australian entrepreneur

CMB Capital is excited to announce a ground-breaking partnership with the University of Melbourne’s MAP (Melbourne Accelerator Program) to help young entrepreneurs. The partnership, called the Ingenium Cadetship, offers students the opportunity to take part in a 12 week paid program. The program places them in 3 rotations through CMB and its 12 portfolio companies to learn from some of the best Australian and New Zealand startup entrepreneurs. Each student chosen will also be paid $12,000 and have the chance to pitch their startup business to a group of investors at the end of the program. If successful, CMB will also lead a seed funding round for them.

Having just completed the initial rotation over July, the program has exceeded all of our expectations. Some of the highlights and experience gained by the cadets include:

• Both cadets who spent 3 weeks with the Roller team in Melbourne (Liam and Kishan) were offered part time business development roles and have been responsible for generating significant revenue for Roller
• Shahed, who spent his 3 week winter rotation at CMB’s Sydney head office has had the opportunity to sit in on pitch presentations to high net worth investors for 2 different companies that CMB is looking to invest in
• The cadets had the opportunity to spend 2 hours with Andy Sheats, the CEO of Health.com.au, to discuss his experience and insights into creating and building a business
• CMB has held a number of master classes for the cadets to help prepare them fine tune their pitch presentations as well as plan for the growth and expansion of their start up businesses

There will be a 3 week rotation in the lead up to Christmas and a 3 week rotation in January before the cadets have 2 weeks to focus on preparing for the pitch day to be held in mid February 2015. If you would like to more information or are keen to be involved with the program, please let me know.

CMB wants to take the lead in giving young Australian entrepreneurs a leg up. We have had excellent feedback from major Australian corporates (including a number of CMB advisory clients) and hope to expand the program for corporate clients next year.