An independent charity helping startups to thrive
Spark Foundation is a not-for-profit collective sparking engagement into and across Australia's startup ecosystem – and the home of Spark Festival since 2016.
Our mission
To spark engagement into and across the Australian startup ecosystem
Spark started in 2016 to solve a simple problem: NSW's emerging startup ecosystem was full of activity, but disconnected. Back then, the spark that was needed was connection – bringing people into and across events that already existed.
A decade on, the landscape has changed, and so has our job. It's no longer enough to point people toward what's already there. The spark that's needed now is one to reignite community activity itself, and to back the next generation of ecosystem leaders who can build the gatherings that don't exist yet, in the areas that need them most.
That has meant expanding our focus – not just driving people into existing events, but consciously filling the gaps: rebuilding a regular, year-round schedule of meaningful startup activity for NSW, wherever the ecosystem needs it.
Alongside that, we are the voice for Australian startups in the public policy landscape – giving a platform to those who can't (and shouldn't have to) make political donations or pay for expensive industry body memberships to get access to the policymakers who need to hear them.
Who we are
Run by the community. Built for the community.
Spark is a not-for-profit and a registered charity, and always has been. But more than that, it's the people who make it happen – the volunteers who give their time because they believe in what it builds, the founders and investors and corporates who show up year after year, and everyone who has ever brought an idea, a venue, or a bit of energy to the table and asked "how can I help?"
We're not run by a company. We're run by the ecosystem itself – the people willing to pay it forward, so the next founder, the next idea, the next connection can happen.
Meet the team
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Harry Godber
Read biography
HGHarry Godber is a tech investor, adviser and policymaker based in Sydney and New York. Over the past decade, he led the unicorn exit of Australian fintech Flare to private equity, and was a senior adviser to the Turnbull and Morrison Governments on technology policy and financial regulation. Harry has also worked extensively with multinational VCs and peak bodies – notably, the Tech Council of Australia, and Fintech Australia, where he served as a Non-Executive Director. Harry Godber established the Spark Foundation as a permanent, independent charity to support Australia’s startup ecosystem; the Spark Foundation galvanises the charitable support for the long-running Spark Festival, which Harry has led as CEO since 2023.
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SPSince 2016 – sparking engagement across the Australian startup ecosystem
Eleven years of impact
Spark is the home of startups in NSW – with every successful startup, venture capital fund, major university and innovation hub in this state having participated in Spark events over the last decade.
