Over the past few months, the Encevia team has been part of the Swinburne Elevate Accelerator, a program designed to help emerging founders validate, refine, and scale their ventures. The experience culminated in Swinburne Venture Cup 2025, where Encevia was named runner-up among an exceptional cohort of startups, a rewarding validation of the work we’ve done so far.

For us, the program wasn’t just a pitch opportunity; it was a forcing function to sharpen our go-to-market strategy and clarify the pathway from early traction to scalable growth. We came into the program with a working product, a major client, and strong early results. Elevate encouraged us to look further ahead, to define how we build a repeatable pipeline, refine our messaging, and expand into new verticals beyond aviation.

What We Learned

A key takeaway from Elevate was that momentum trumps perfection. Like many founders, we initially held off on building out our pipeline until we felt our product was “ready.” In reality, market conversations are what make a product ready. Engaging potential partners early, even before every feature is complete, provides insights that no amount of internal iteration can replace.

We also refined our understanding of our unique position in the market. While many AI vendors chase scale by accepting the limitations of general-purpose models, Encevia’s approach is to engineer accuracy-first AI for complex, high-trust industries. That focus on precision, compliance, and context is what differentiates us, and it’s where we’ll continue to lead.

“Elevate gave us the opportunity to work on the business, not just in the business. It helped us step back from the day-to-day build and think more strategically about how we scale — where to focus our energy, and how to grow sustainably.”
— Mathew Evans, Co-founder, Encevia

Looking Ahead

Our next step is to expand within the sector we know best, aviation, on a global scale. Over the coming months, we’ll be focusing on strengthening our position in this industry and building the operational foundations required for international expansion.

Beyond aviation, our long-term roadmap includes:

• Extending Encevia’s capabilities into healthcare, transport, and government sectors.

• Building partnerships that reflect the same trust-based approach developed with our launch client, the Australian Federation of Air Pilots.

• Continuing to evolve the Encevia platform into a no-code system for agentic AI orchestration, empowering non-technical users to build powerful, accurate AI workflows.

The Swinburne Elevate experience was a reminder that even with a clear vision, every company benefits from moments of reflection and recalibration. The Elevate Program gave us that moment, and a renewed confidence in the path we’re on.