Celebrating 16 years of high-flying start-up Apromore
Members of the University community and industry supporters recently gathered to celebrate the journey of Apromore P/L – a spectacularly successful University of Melbourne spin-out company.
Apromore is a process intelligence software platform that uses AI to help organisations enhance operational efficiency and business performance.
Apromore CEO and Co-Founder Professor Marcello La Rosa gave the keynote address.
First ideated in 2009, the platform had evolved into a University of Melbourne spin-out by 2019. By 2025, the high-growth, award-winning startup had raised over US$30 million across several funding rounds, become a top Gartner-rated company in its field and was acquired by Salesforce.
The celebration was jointly hosted by Apromore, Melbourne Connect and the School of Computing and Information Systems (CIS) at Melbourne Connect on Thursday 16 April.
Apromore CEO and Co-Founder, Professor (Hon) Marcello La Rosa delivered the keynote address, tracing the 16-year journey of Apromore, born from years of research across The University of Melbourne, Queensland University of Technology, University of Tartu (Estonia) and other institutions around the world.
He highlighted key milestones along the way, reflecting on how the Apromore platform grew and matured over time.
Guests gathered at Melbourne Connect to celebrate the journey of Apromore.
“When I came to the University of Melbourne, I wanted to start at 100, and I knew this University could take us to 1000,” Professor La Rosa said.
Today, Apromore is part of the Salesforce ecosystem and has the potential to reach out to Salesforce’s extensive customer base of over 200,000 organisations worldwide.
CIS Deputy Head, Research, Professor Jenny Waycott also gave a presentation, celebrating the success of Apromore and other research achievements in the School.
“We are very proud of Apromore and the many research projects in CIS that address real-world problems. Some of our recent impactful research includes community-led language technology, smart farming sensors, improving disaster communication through social media, and ethical design of emerging technologies,” she said.
Professor Jenny Waycott presented on the success of Apromore and other CIS research.
Managing Director of Research, Innovation and Commercialisation (RIC), Mr Ken Jefferd shared stories of his work with Professor La Rosa on Apromore and how the company helped pave the way for future spin-offs at the University.
He highlighted the role of RIC and the Melbourne Entrepreneurial Centre in supporting researchers to translate ideas into real-world impact through commercialisation pathways, programs and industry connections, to help drive the University’s mission to foster start-ups and founders.
Mr Ken Jefferd highlighted the Apromore story as an inspiration for others at the University to start their own ventures.
The event included a display of various research projects under way at CIS, with researchers, industry and commercialisations partners showcasing their work with value across a wide range of applications in society.
Projects on display included:
- Process mining – the discipline Apromore stems from
- Human-centred, Internet-of-Things services for smart cities
- Hybrid technology for tabletop play
- Harnessing AI to protect endangered languages
- Software engineering education
- Responsible use of AI in education
- Health informatics for planetary health
- Design for ageing
- Digital tools for civic education regarding votingNatural language processing for social impact.
Researchers presented their work as part of a CIS research display.