Startups click online Down Under

Even sports people are turning to crowdfunding sites to raise money.

Australian steeplechase athlete Victoria Mitchell is hoping to raise up to A$30,000 through the sport-focused crowdfunding platform Star Stadium to help in her preparations for the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.

Mitchell told the Australian Broadcasting Corp recently: "Most people assume that elite athletes get paid to be an athlete. The reality is we don't."

Rick Chen, cofounder of Pozible.

"You can get what we call 'kit deals' where Nike will give you so many dollars worth of products per year. But to actually get money to live and train as a professional athlete is really difficult," she said.

"The big radical reward is if you sponsor me for A$30,000, which is A$10,000 per year because there are three years until Rio, I will tattoo your logo or symbol permanently on my ankle so every time I run it will be seen."

Pozible has already expanded into Southeast Asia and this month launched its first Chinese project - the Ai.Frame Robot.

"This is the first time we have put a Chinese-driven project on a global stage," Pozible's Chen says.

"China is one of the most exciting markets in the world with an enormous amount of technology and innovation taking place but little of it is getting out to the wider world."

He believes no other market in the world compares with China's potential, adding that "most Western markets have been explored inside-out but the understanding of the innovations coming from China remains quite low".

By giving China's innovators a platform to the world, Chen hopes projects can now get off the ground.

The toy-size Ai.Frame Robot can outperform many human-size robots with more than 300 movements and a motion sensor preventing it from running into things, said its Shanghai designers Hu Jiaqi and Sun Zebo.

"What makes this interesting is that you can make the robot using 3D technology and then program it using your own programs," Chen says.

And at $259, the Ai.Frame Robot is the "most affordable, sophisticated humanoid robot on the market" today and a quarter of the price of most of its competitors, according to the developers.

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