Tech
From Gosford's revamped innovation precinct to a clutch of new seed rounds closing before the financial year ends, the local tech scene is moving faster than it has in years.
Three Central Coast startups closed seed funding rounds in June alone, collectively pulling in just over $4.2 million — the strongest quarter for early-stage capital in the region since mid-2023, according to figures compiled by the Central Coast Innovation Network. The money is arriving just as the federal government's $180 million Regional Tech Investment Program enters its second disbursement phase, making this a rare moment when local timing and national policy actually align.
The broader backdrop matters here. Globally, tech companies are under pressure to find cheaper, talent-rich alternatives to Sydney's CBD and Melbourne's inner suburbs, where office leases on Collins Street and George Street can run past $1,200 per square metre annually. Central Coast — sitting 90 minutes from Sydney's CBD with a median commercial rent closer to $380 per square metre in Gosford's central business district — is starting to look less like a regional consolation prize and more like a deliberate strategic choice.
The Central Coast Smart Work Hub on Georgiana Terrace in Gosford relaunched on June 30 with 47 new hot-desk memberships and a dedicated hardware prototyping lab fitted with three Bambu Lab X1 Carbon 3D printers and a laser cutter. The Hub, operated by the Central Coast Council in partnership with the University of Newcastle's Central Coast campus on Chittaway Road, now hosts 14 resident companies — up from nine at the start of the year.
Among the resident companies is Swellnet Analytics, a Terrigal-based firm building AI-driven coastal monitoring tools that recently won a $320,000 NSW Government Accelerating Space and Technology grant. Another, Woy Woy-founded logistics software firm Paceway, signed its first enterprise client — a regional transport operator — in May and is now recruiting for two senior developer roles. Neither company had more than four employees twelve months ago.
The Hub's expansion comes as Wyong also makes a play. The Wyong Enterprise Corridor — a 14-kilometre stretch along the Pacific Highway between Tuggerah and Warnervale — has had six tech-adjacent businesses take up tenancy since January, including a drone inspection services company that counts Pacific Link Housing among its clients. Tuggerah Business Park, long dominated by logistics and light manufacturing, now lists seven software or data companies on its tenancy register, a number that was effectively zero in 2022.
The browser fragmentation story dominating tech media internationally has a local angle: at least two Central Coast development studios — both based in the Gosford precinct — told the Innovation Network's June survey that they are now budgeting extra QA hours to support five distinct browser environments for client projects, up from three in 2024. That adds roughly $8,000 to $12,000 to a mid-size web project and is already reshaping how local agencies price work.
Hardware is also having a quiet moment here. The maker community that has long gathered at Ourimbah's FabLab, running out of the TAFE NSW Central Coast campus, reported a 38 percent jump in membership applications between April and June. Facilitators there attribute it partly to renewed interest in physical computing projects — programmable keypads, custom meeting room controllers, embedded IoT devices — among small business owners who spent the pandemic convinced everything would be solved by software.
Cybersecurity anxiety, meanwhile, is translating into real spending. Following high-profile spyware revelations in Europe and North America, the Central Coast Cyber Collective — a loose industry group that meets monthly at the Laycock Street Community Theatre in Gosford — reported that three of its member firms received unsolicited inbound inquiries from local councils and health providers in June, the most in a single month since the group formed in 2024.
The next concrete milestone to watch is August 15, the closing date for Round Two of the Central Coast Council's CoastTech Grants program, which offers up to $25,000 for registered local businesses with fewer than 20 employees. Last year's round was oversubscribed by a factor of three. If the same demand shows up again this cycle, it will be the clearest single data point yet that the region's startup culture has moved past novelty and into something with staying power.
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Published by The Daily Central Coast