Women Who Innovate

Vennu: Transforming the use of community spaces

COVID 2021 UPDATE:  Suzanne Campbell, Vennu CEO, reports that in the three months before the 2021 Winter lockdown in Greater Sydney, she saw an 8% increase in registered users and 13% increase in confirmed bookings. Vennu also received its first council and corporate listings from Lendlease: Tweed City Shopping Centre Community Room, and Hunter's Hill Council.

Vennu also got approval for its first co-branded campaign to over 500+ related community spaces in NSW and the ACT.  For COVID support, Vennu are providing COVID-related blogs as a simple and easy way to guide for hosts and guests with relevant links for practical information.

Proposition

With Australia's population growth, changing demographics and housing shifts from the 'suburban sprawl' to higher density inner city urban living, accessible community facilities will play an increasingly important role in the health and wellbeing of our population. Governments and other donors provide funding for recrational and community facilities in the expectation that these assets will be widely used. However this is not always the case.

Pain point

The ‘owners’ of the spaces (schools, local government, churches) do not have an easy way to share their facilities.  The booking process is fragmented, very manual and often managed by volunteers available only by phone and during a limited timeframe.  And what about insurance cover?

Vennu is pursuing a first-mover strategy to aggregate bookings for community space. It has facilitated a an easy to use digital marketplace that showcases an abundance of unique community spaces to hire. CGU Vennu Liability Insurance Policy, from IAG, provides cover for property damage or personal injury claims related to the venue hire.

Progress so far

• Self-funded by founder and WOB member, Suzanne Campbell. 
• Received some government funding - Jobs for NSW MVP Grant.
• Support from Insurer IAG.
• Selected for the Impact Accelerator which is supported by Mirvac and INCO-group.
• Currently in fund raising mode.  

Interested?