The Duke of York attends Pitch@Palace in Melbourne

The Duke of York attended a Pitch@Palace event in Melbourne on Wednesday evening, where he watched entrepreneurs pitch for a chance to go to boot camp.

Linda Dessau, the Governor of Victoria, hosted the well-attended event at RMIT University, with hundreds of guests present.

Before entrepreneurs took to the stage, Prince Andrew gave a short address in which he said: “This is all about the entrepreneurs. It is about changing the world, and solving problems.”

In total, there were 20 pitches delivered during the evening, but only eight were successful and made it to boot camp at the University of Wollongong.

Those winning businesses were:

Roamni – An app which allows people to upload and share guided tours
Lithodomos VR – A business allowing you to visit archaeologically accurate ancient sites using virtual reality
Trendy Rhino – Connects Facebook groups with the brands that want to access them
Link4 Cloud – Online cloud service which has made a simple, seamless invoice exchange that’s perfect for small and medium-sized enterprises.
VicHyper – Innovating domestic travel through Hyperloop
digitalYield – Provides food security by helping farmers protect the quality, health and fertility of their land
Make a CHANG3 – Has made a digital tool that simplifies the process of understanding the charities you donate to
Ohm Power – Makes it easy to find the best battery storage system for your home
Pitch@Palace is a scheme organised by the Duke of York, and it gives support, advice, and mentorship to budding entrepreneurs. Those selected go on a boot camp and receive advice on how to hone their pitch – so when faced with a situation like “Dragons Den” they can answer with confidence and give a reasoned response.

All those invited to the boot camp, get to go to the final event held at St James’s Palace – hence the title; the best ones getting to actually pitch directly to some of the movers and shakers of technology, media and investment together with other entrepreneurs.