Technology
Inside Geelong's Tech Boom: What's Actually Happening Right Now
From Ryrie Street co-working spaces to defence-tech spinouts, Geelong's startup ecosystem is moving faster than most residents realise.
How we reported this
Geelong's technology sector posted its strongest quarter on record in the three months to June 30, with the Gordon TAFE's Centre for Innovation and Enterprise reporting 23 new startup registrations, up from 14 in the same period last year. The numbers are modest by Sydney standards, but the trajectory is sharp, and the deals being struck right now suggest the city is past the point of simply talking about a tech transition.
The timing matters because two structural forces are converging at once. Deakin University's Applied Artificial Intelligence Institute, based on the Waurn Ponds campus, finalised a $4.8 million federal funding agreement in late June that will bring three embedded industry partnerships online before December. Simultaneously, global browser and software companies are aggressively recruiting remote talent, making regional tech hubs like Geelong more attractive to workers who no longer need to commute to Melbourne's CBD. That pull factor is showing up in lease data: shared tech workspace in the Wool Museum precinct on Moorabool Street ran at 94 percent capacity through June, the highest rate since the building was converted in 2021.
The Organisations Doing the Heavy Lifting
Runway Geelong, the startup accelerator operating out of a converted warehouse on Brougham Street in the city's north end, wrapped its seventh cohort on June 28. Eleven companies completed the 16-week program this cycle, with four operating in the defence and cybersecurity space, a notable shift from the agricultural and logistics focus of earlier intakes. The pivot is deliberate. Program coordinators have been watching Canberra's 2025 Defence Industry Development Strategy and positioning Geelong founders to tender for contracts that will open through late 2026 and into 2027.
The cybersecurity angle is not abstract. Revelations this week that a senior European politician's phone was compromised using Pegasus spyware, despite that politician spending years investigating surveillance software, underscored for local founders just how large the commercial opportunity in security tooling has become. At least two Runway Geelong graduates are currently building endpoint monitoring products aimed at local government clients, including a pilot being scoped with Greater Geelong City Council.
Down at Deakin's Waterfront Campus on Gheringhap Street, the University's MedTech Research Institute is six months into a partnership with Austin Health that is generating data from wearable cardiac monitors trialled across 340 patients in the Barwon Health network. The project is scheduled to produce its first peer-reviewed output by September, which the institute expects will anchor a commercialisation pitch to at least two ASX-listed medical device companies before the year is out.
What the Numbers Say, and What Founders Should Do Now
Startup Victoria's regional index, published in May, put Geelong's tech employment at 6,200 full-time equivalent positions, a 19 percent increase since 2023. Average salaries in the sector sit around $112,000, above the Victorian regional average of $98,500 but well below Melbourne's tech median of $134,000, a gap that continues to serve as a cost advantage for companies choosing to incorporate here rather than in Fitzroy or Richmond.
Office space remains the practical constraint. Coworking desks at Geelong's two largest tech-oriented facilities, the Brougham Street hub and Entrepreneurship Facilitators' space in the Eastern Gardens precinct, carry a wait list averaging six to eight weeks as of July 1. The Gordon TAFE is expected to announce an expansion of its Fenwick Street campus in Q3 that would add approximately 40 dedicated tech tenancy spaces, though that construction timeline runs to mid-2027.
Founders looking to plug into the ecosystem right now have three immediate options. Runway Geelong opens applications for its eighth cohort on August 4. Deakin's Waurn Ponds campus holds free founder office hours every Tuesday morning through the Applied AI Institute. And Greater Geelong City Council's $500,000 Digital Economy Grants program reopens for expressions of interest on July 14, with grants of between $10,000 and $50,000 available to businesses demonstrating a product or service with export potential. The window closes August 29.