A platform aimed at unlocking under-utilised community spaces, Vennu, has won the top prize at the 2025 Top of the Props pitch battle, hosted by REACH Australia and New Zealand.
The live pitch event brought together seven PropTech finalists from Australia and New Zealand. Each delivered a four-minute pitch followed by a three-minute Q&A with a panel of expert judges.
The winning business received $10,000 in prize money from REACH and a $5,000 partnership package from event sponsor MRI Software.
Winner Suzanne Campbell, CEO and founder of Vennu, explained her business focuses on making community and event spaces easier to find, book, and manage.
It offers tools for space owners and users, and aims to create value through better data curation, smart search, and streamlined transactions.
In her pitch, Suzanne described the opportunity clearly: “Thousands of community spaces remain under-utilised, hard to find, and harder to book. Our solution, Vennu, is the easiest way to discover, book and manage community spaces.”
She also outlined Vennu’s fast-paced growth in the last quarter with bookings up by 55%, and gross market value up by 39%.
Suzanne put some of that success down to the fact the platform was smartly co-designed with service providers and users.
After being announced the winner, Suzanne thanked the organisers and reserved praise for Peter Schravemade, Managing Partner, REACH Australia and New Zealand.
“Peter, thank you for your LinkedIn message just a few weeks before the closing date — and it’s like, ‘Oh, PropTech? I’m not sure we’re PropTech. We’re solving a problem, but are we PropTech?’ And you said, ‘No, just pop it in there.’ So thank you for the encouragement.”
Suzanne also made a point of acknowledging her team.
“I just wanted to make a call-out to them. We’ve got a really extraordinary team, capable team … three amazing women in our core team. And they do a great job on product and marketing and also on the data curation and the data creation.”
Judges praise practicality and passion
The judging panel included:
- Antonia Mercorella, CEO, Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ)
- Ashton Cullum, Founder of PropTech Hub WA and Director of Builderz WA
- Hedy Ivanovski, Business Architect at Milk Chocolate Property
- Rami Mukhtar, Founding Partner at 1835i Ventures
Judge Antonia Mercorella commented:
“We loved the passion behind it, just the sense of really genuine commitment to what it’s about… especially [since] half her slides were missing apparently. Suzanne, I think you’re on a winner here.”
Ashton Cullum also offered support:
“Properties are out there. If you get them on the platform, people will want to use those… and if you make it easy, it’ll happen. So good luck.”
Hedy Ivanovski noted the platform’s potential to replace outdated processes:
“We look forward to the end of the tacky one-page websites trying to advertise a community hall… and seeing a really groovy mobile app.”
Scale. app takes People’s Choice Award
Nick Melrose, founder of Scale.app, won the People’s Choice Award, determined via QR-code voting by both the in-person and livestream audiences.
Scale.app is a consumer-facing financial simulation tool designed to help renters and buyers plan and model property purchases and long-term strategies.
Other finalists included:
- SellSmart – digital home prep and trade coordination platform
- Unio – modular living systems for flexible residential use
- Agent Profit Planner – business modelling and forecasting tool for real estate agencies
- Leesy – leasing automation and rental review solution using data models
- FoundAt – augmented reality-based digital asset access for commercial infrastructure
Top of the Props is proudly organised and funded by the REACH Australia and New Zealand team: Peter Schravemade, Ebonnie Schravemade, and Tom Ellis.
“At REACH Australia and New Zealand, we see it as our responsibility to unearth and elevate the very best in property technology,” said Peter.
“But just as important as the innovation itself is the ability to communicate it clearly. We’ve always said communication sits at the heart of successful PropTech.
“Top of the Props gives emerging technology companies the perfect platform to demonstrate not just what they’ve built, but why it matters — and to do so in front of an audience that spans nearly every corner of the property ecosystem.”
