Launch Pad – Where Western Sydney Entrepreneurs Can Take-Off

The high concentration of startup hubs in the Sydney CBD and surrounds compared to the dearth of such entrepreneurial infrastructure in the rest of Sydney is often a cause for discussion amongst those interested in the ecosystem. Particularly given the huge number of small (and large) businesses in areas such as Western Sydney, the rapid growth of commercial centres such as Parramatta and the presence of numerous university campuses and research centres outside the Sydney CBD.

​Breaking the trend, Western Sydney University has pioneered an incubator for startups and SMEs with principal sites at Parramatta and Penrith, as well as a satellite at Oran Park. Launch Pad, established in 2015, is now renowned as a key centre for startups and SMEs in Western Sydney.

Having visited the Parramatta and Penrith Launch Pad facilities on multiple occasions over the past few years, RDA Sydney has been witness to the growing popularity and vibrancy of the incubator. The success of an incubator can be evidenced by how busy it is and the “buzz” and, using this criteria, Launch Pad Is certainly making a difference.

With primary locations at the Western Sydney University campus in Penrith and the Parramatta CBD, Launch Pad has a team of business experts and mentors on hand, meaning that entrepreneurs have ready access to advice and expertise to grow their business.

The Western Sydney Context

For the purposes of this article, Western Sydney is defined as the area from Parramatta in the east to the Blue Mountains in the west, and from Wollondilly in the south to The Hills and Hawkesbury in the north.

Some key statistics for the region include:

​Population as at the 2016 Census was 1.96 million compared to the rest of Sydney at 2.5 million.

• According to the 2016 Census, over 827,000 people from Western Sydney were in employment. Of these, 255,000 or 31% travel outside the region for work. This is the jobs deficit for Western Sydney and has many implications in terms of travel time, infrastructure demands, demand for services and so on.

• Western Sydney has a limited number of business incubators, coworking and other spaces that support business growth from the startup stage through to the SME stage. Apart from Launch Pad, these spaces include:

  • Business incubators – South West Sydney Business Enterprise Centre; BREED Business Centre; Foundational Business Centre.

  • Coworking spaces – Creative Fringe; WOTSO; Oran Park Smart Work Hub; Space & Co.; Grounded Space; The Workary.

• The February 2019 ABS Count of Australian Businesses showed that there are 521,179 small and medium businesses across Sydney. 172,947 of these are in Western Sydney and 348,232 in the rest of Sydney.

What the statistics reveal is that Western Sydney is a huge economy in its own right. With a population of 2 million that is growing rapidly compared to the rest of Sydney, and a booming small business market, Western Sydney is Australia’s 3rd largest economy (NAB 2019; note, this includes Canterbury-Bankstown).

And yet the data also shows that startup and SME incubators in Western Sydney are very few and far between. While there are clear reasons why the concentration in the Sydney CBD is critical to the dynamism of the sector, it is perhaps surprising that more coworking centres and incubators have not developed in Western Sydney (and other areas).

It is in this context that Western Sydney University took the critical step to establish Launch Pad.  It started as a one-stop shop for business and innovation support programs, providing facilities, assistance and resources for start-up and existing high growth technology-based businesses in Western Sydney.

Startup SydWest Accelerator Program