Right Around The Corner: Peter Farrell Cup 2026 Finals
The countdown is on.
Friday 18 September the Roundhouse will be buzzing with over 400 students ready to crown the 2026 the Peter Farrell Cup winners!
Launched in 2001 the Peter Farrell Cup is NSW's longest-running university startup competition. Philanthropically funded by Dr Peter Farrell, the program is designed to provide the foundation skills to students to transform into the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs.
Open to all UNSW students, the free program provides industry mentorship, dedicated workshops, coaching and prize funding.
At the core, The Peter Farrell Cup’s goal is simple, help students move an early idea to a tested concept. What makes it real is that UNSW Founders then provides the first cheque to back them to continue building something better for the world.
While the PFC is designed to build practical skills, last year’s finalists found that the experience offered much more. From building confidence to finding a community of people backing their ideas.
“It's such a safe environment to try, fail, and try again. The support you get from your team, your mentors, and the wider PFC community is what actually helps a startup get off the ground. There’s not that many opportunities in life to get that kind of encouragement and low-stakes space to experiment and help you take the leap to build something in the first place.”
- Kaetie Yuan, Ripple 2025 top 10 finalist
And the connections don’t end when the program does. The relationships built through the Peter Farrell Cup can continue long after the final pitch.
“Through industry relationships and mentors we met through PFC, we were able to present to relevant Australian Government stakeholders and are now progressing through the necessary steps towards procurement.”
- Jasmine Deol, Help Now 2025 top 10 finalist
Introducing the 2026 Finalists!
Looking at this year’s top 10, we see a new group of students taking their ideas and turning them into something with real potential.
They’ve been building within the PFC since June through the PFC's workshops working with their industry mentors and pushing their ideas to the max to see what they can achieve.
And they’re now ready to take the stage and pitch to compete for a share of the $90,000 prize pool.
The Top 10 teams for the 2026 Peter Farrell Cup Finals are:
Civly
Civly is the fastest way for firms to go from brief to a full 3D BIM model. We carry the weight of compliance, structural engineering, and MEP by streamlining the drafting process from the very first sketch, so architects are free to be as ambitious as they want. Civly turns a brief into a coordinated, buildable model, and gives the profession back the thing it was founded on: design
CompFlow
Competition day should be about performing, not chasing schedules or trying to keep everyone on track. For coaches and athletes, last-minute changes and unclear communication can turn an exciting competition into a stressful one. CompFlow is a software that brings everything into one simple platform, linking organisers with coaches and athletes through real-time updates for clearer communication on competition day.
Forte
Learning an instrument takes a lot of practice, and most of that practice is done alone. Forte gives musicians a way to share that journey with others. Musicians can share a summary of their practice session to their socials, including how long they practiced for, the instrument they were playing, and what they worked on. Forte is live on the App Store, has gained over 200k impressions across socials, and is gaining new users every day.
MercuriL
MercuriL is on-road flood sensors that measures the speed of floodwater, not just its depth: the difference between wet and lethal. Sensors are coupled with a smart network that classifies the hazard against the national standard, and pushes verified closures and reopenings to navigation apps and emergency services in real time.
Myodot
Myodot transforms invisible neuromuscular function into objective, actionable data. It’s world-first compact wearable delivers real-time biofeedback to patients at home and streams data directly to clinicians. Myodot is re-engineering recovery by eliminating subjective guesswork from motor rehabilitation for everyone, everywhere.
Nemanta
Youth exposure to mistargeted alcohol advertising is associated with 50% higher alcohol consumption, yet digital billboards still can't stop inappropriate ads from reaching vulnerable audiences. Nemanta uses face-free detection to identify when vulnerable viewers are present and automatically filter inappropriate advertising. Helping brands, advertisers, and billboard owners meet their social responsibility, while serving more relevant ads to the right audience.
Ossethread
Osseothread is a new material designed for ACL reconstruction surgery, where applications across tendon-to-bone fixation procedures. Ossothread aims to replace standard suture materials with it’s unique material that actively promote healing at the site of implantation, without changing surgical technique.
Prockets
Prockets is focused on delivering social impact by developing affordable, modular lower limb prosthetic solutions that improve mobility and access for people with limb loss. Our approach combines cost effective manufacturing and modular design to create prosthetic components that can be more easily adapted to individual users.
Simplifi
AI didn’t break learning. Answer-first AI use did. Simplifii is neuroinclusive, pro-AI learning infrastructure that supports students through the full learning process, from understanding and planning to researching, writing and reflection. Rather than detecting AI use, Simplifii provides evidence of understanding. It gives students a student-owned workspace while giving universities anonymised insights to strengthen academic integrity, retention and completion, particularly for equity cohorts.
Whosays
WhoSays is an accessible communication mobile application that helps Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing students and employees participate in group conversations through real-time captions, speaker identification, sound cues, and type-to-speak.
Come along to the 2026 Peter Farrell Cup Finals, 18 September at the Roundhouse, and see this next wave of student innovators pitch their ideas, share their vision and take their next step towards turning an idea into action.