Now in its 19th year, the Western Australia's Innovators of the Year Awards 2025 program showcases and supports local innovative and entrepreneurial individuals, businesses and creative minds.
The Rio Tinto Growth category is awarded to a Western Australian winner and runner-up who have developed an outstanding innovative product, technology, process, or service that is post-revenue. The innovations must also clearly demonstrate an economic, social and/or environmental benefit to Western Australia.
The winner of the Rio Tinto Growth category will be awarded a cash prize of $60,000 while the runner-up will receive a cash prize of $15,000.
This year, there are 6 finalists for the Rio Tinto Growth category.
Clear Carbon
Clear Carbon - intelligent, real-time emissions automation for air, water, land
Clear Carbon is a Western Australian climate-tech innovator solving one of heavy industry’s most persistent challenges: the inability to accurately track, report, and reduce emissions across air, water, and land at enterprise scale and in real time.
Manual, siloed processes can’t keep up with complex operations, global compliance standards, and mounting pressure for supply-chain transparency. Our intelligent, cloud-native platform delivers finance-grade accuracy, full audit trails, and actionable insights through proprietary technologies - Emissions Prism™, Carbon Fabric™, Rapid Onboarding Automation, Energy Insights, and advanced predictive analytics.
Clear Carbon transforms compliance into competitive advantage, accelerates industrial decarbonisation, and positions Western Australia as a global centre for sustainability innovation.
Greenroom Robotics
GAMA - Greenroom Advanced Maritime Autonomy
Greenroom Robotics builds the software backbone for maritime autonomy to deliver Safe, Clean, and Protected oceans. GAMA is our upgrade for boats: a software-first, hardware-agnostic platform that lets existing and new vessels operate remotely or autonomously. Think of it as Android for boats.
Operating as a ‘team’ with human crews, GAMA handles the grind, raising vigilance, shrinking human error, while cutting fuel and emissions through precise control and smarter routing. Designed for dual use, it is proving itself across offshore energy, transport, and naval operations. The result is practical innovation that makes the ocean safer, cleaner, and better protected.
Hayes Recycling
Recycling the unrecyclable: Western Australia’s subsea umbilical, riser and flowlines
Paul and Chris Coyte are Co-founders and Directors of Hayes Recycling, a company specializing in the recycling of end of life, subsea pipelines. These subsea pipelines are designed to be near indestructible, making them incredibly difficult to recycle at scale. This groundbreaking, proprietary recycling technology, extracts the various polymer and metals from within the pipelines enabling them to be recycled. With a minimum recycling rate of 95%, the technology that Paul and Chris co-developed sets a new standard for sustainable innovation in Australia, supporting the circular economy.
Hey Sister!
A dual-action treatment for period pain and PMS
This innovation is a world-first, regulatory-approved dual-action treatment for period pain and PMS. Clinically proven in a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial and published in the US-based, peer reviewed, International Journal of Women’s Health.
Results showed vs placebo, a 136% greater pain reduction, 198% psychological improvement (aggression, mood swings, anxiety), and 300% better social functioning, cutting absences from work and school. Pain-drug use fell by 90%. With a world market of 3.1 billion women using painkillers monthly, this breakthrough is set to redefine women’s health care globally.
Living Oceans
Living ecosystems – Western Australia leading the world sustainable marine aquarium industry
Living Oceans is a Western Australia based marine biotechnology company founded by CXO Engineer Martina Brayford, CTO Engineer Jayden Harp, and CEO Chief Scientist Ben Brayford. The team brings global experience in scaling advanced technologies across customer engagement, engineering, and marine science.
They have created the world’s simplest, low maintenance, and sustainable aquarium, designed for diverse global markets. Their work is transitioning the aquarium sector into an accessible, sustainable lifestyle market for homes, businesses, and sectors including home décor, wellness, and education, advancing WA’s leadership in marine biotechnology and creating high value, export ready industries.
SpaceDraft
Visually connecting space time and story
This world-first visual communication platform bridges space, time, and story to bring clarity to complexity. SpaceDraft transforms static documents into dynamic, interactive visual plans that play out like a gamified movie on any device, boosting retention and capturing tacit knowledge for easy sharing.
Our patented platform empowers people to map what needs to happen, when, and where, so everyone understands the why and the how. Already deployed across mining, energy, education, aged care, disability, events, government, entertainment, and defence, it reduces miscommunication, accelerates execution, and makes shared understanding visual. In the future, everyone will say: “Just send me the SpaceDraft.”
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