Camille Goldstone-Henry | CEO & Founder of Xylo Systems

What inspired you to go into conservation? 

I grew up in Newcastle surrounded by wildlife but there are two standout memories that drew me to conservation. The earliest moment was seeing tiny hermit crabs on K’gari (Fraser Island). I was so in awe that I wanted to collect them and take them home with me. I obviously didn't do that but it really started my love of nature. 

The real tipping point, though, was being exposed to the concept of climate change for the first time. I was about eight years’ old and I saw an ABC news segment about how scientists were sounding the alarm on climate change. 

It was the late 90s and they were explaining the impact that climate change would have on my generation and future generations. I was absolutely devastated. I couldn't believe that we had let the world get to that point and I was really scared for myself and for future generations. 

I thought then that saving our wildlife would be the way I could contribute to helping the climate in a positive way.

Why did you choose vet bioscience? 

Anyone who has an interest in animals and wildlife automatically thinks of veterinary science but veterinary science means you usually go down the clinical pathway. I wanted to work with wildlife in the field, which is what animal and veterinary bioscience offered. I think it’s served me really well in my career because I'm able to draw on different sectors under the broader animal and biology umbrella to help conservation. 

What was your early introduction to the conservation space? 

At uni, I got into fundraising for conservation and specifically supporting research into Tasmanian devil facial tumor disease. I was also lucky enough to go to Darwin to study the effects of cane toads on our native species up there, particularly quolls. Seeing the huge impact the cane toads were having was really eye-opening and it cemented the idea that wildlife conservation was what I wanted to do.

In my honours project, I was lucky enough to work with Dr Carolyn Hogg, a prominent conservationist in Australia and still one of my closest mentors. It was looking at the Greater Bilby breeding and release program. It had been running for about 30 years but no one had actually looked at the population, demographics and genetics to see if it was actually successful.

The problem was, all of the data was on paper. And this was in 2014! To do any of my analysis, I had to put all of that physical data into a spreadsheet – it took me months. I think this is really where the idea for Xylo Systems started forming. 

At the end of my honours project, I got a full time job with the Zoo and Aquarium Association and eventually became their conservation manager, managing really large conservation projects here in Australia and around the world. 

And I saw that the physical data problem in my honours project wasn’t an isolated case. Whether I was working with Koalas, Tasmanian devils or even a critically endangered species called the Orange Belly Parrot – there were less than 50 left in the wild at the time – all the data was on paper.

You have to realise that conservation is often extremely under-resourced, so people spend most of their time staying afloat and trying to have a conservation impact. They don't have time to look at new processes and new ways of creating efficiencies in the way that they work.

How do you address a large systemic problem like that?

That’s essentially why I set up Xylo Systems. We want to bring conservation into the 21st century. We're working with our early partners and customers to help them digitise a lot of their existing data sets.

Some organisations are quite advanced and often have really data-rich databases. The thing is, no-one's thinking about using analytics to drive decision-making because they don't have the time or the skills to develop the analytics to help them draw out the right insights.

Xylo was a response to the problem of data and under-resourcing in a country, and a world, where there’s an ever increasing number of threatened species.

“ I love pairing tech and conservation and I think it really is going to be the game changer for how we preserve biodiversity around the world. ”

How has Xylo evolved? 

One of the main problems is duplication of effort, where multiple organisations are fighting for resources but working on the same projects in the same areas.

So when I first started putting the business plan down on paper in 2020, in the middle of lockdown, my first thought was trying to match researchers or conservation organisations working on similar projects with similar goals so that they could share data and pool resources. It was going to be a Tinder for conservationists!

Then I realised that the real need was filling data gaps in conservation organisations, from sharing data or getting data from open sources or governments. This would help draw out faster insights in as close to real time as possible. 

During the 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfires, we were approached to help the recovery efforts of critically endangered species on the NSW south coast. In one example, local organisations were dropping carrots to wallabies in heavily burnt habitat. But they had no idea which areas to prioritise so it was more a ‘spray and pray’ approach. Xylo was able to help them get much better insights in real time.

What are the most important aspects of being an early stage start-up founder? 

Letting go of ego is probably the first thing. When you come up with an idea as an early stage founder, you are so wedded to it and won’t change, no matter what. That's the downfall of a lot of startups. You need to listen to what people need. 

The second is skilling up. For me, helping conservation organisations fill those data gaps meant learning about cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI). One of the ways we are helping fill data gaps and aggregate disparate conservation data is by building machine learning algorithms so that different data sets can be utilised together.

I’m lucky that I’m studying my MBA so I specifically picked all of the technology subjects to drive Xylo Systems and help us pivot to the analytics and AI platform that our customers were saying that they wanted. It’s just so important to bring different skills to solving this huge global problem of biodiversity loss and the extinction crisis.

And how are you seeing results on the ground?

My favourite example has been working with Taronga Zoo to set up a breeding program for a critically endangered snail species. A lot of people laugh at saving a snail but until a few years ago, people thought they were extinct. Then they were found on Norfolk Island. 

The problem was that Taronga had only been given a small amount of funding and it was super expensive to fly staff to Norfolk to collect information on this species. So we've been working with them to help deploy remote sensing technology that beams real-time data back to our platform.

It not only gives the team at Taronga breeding insights but by saving money on data collection and analysis, they can extend the project.

What’s the next big step for you?

Right now we are working with any organisation involved with on-the-ground action for threatened species – governments, not-for-profits, universities, landholders and community groups. But we've recognised an incredible opportunity in the corporate space where we can leverage some of the data we’re collecting on species to help them understand their biodiversity impacts and mitigate their biodiversity impacts.

Similar to the wave that we're seeing in carbon reduction and net zero, we are soon going to see that in biodiversity. Reducing carbon emissions and net zero is just one piece of the climate puzzle. We also need a way of halting the extinction crisis around the world, and we really want to tackle that using data and helping any organisation, any business understand the impact that they’re having and to contribute to a nature-positive world.

A great example is making people think about precious metals, such as lithium, that are used in their smartphone and laptop batteries. Some of the largest lithium mines are in Western Australia and are built on the prime habitat of a critically endangered species called a Numbat. So we also want to help educate everyone on what their individual biodiversity impacts are and give them the tools to contribute to the preservation of wildlife. 

In terms of international reach, we’re working with an organisation in New Zealand but we’ve also received expressions of interest from Mexico, the US, France and Asia, so we know that there's demand for this overseas. We're hoping to launch our platform to capture data sets from all over the world by 2024.

As a first nations woman from the Kamilaroi nation, where do you see First Nations wisdom coming into conservation efforts?

It's so important to have First Nations knowledge and wisdom in what we're doing and we’re lucky to be a double female-and indigenous-led startup. First Nations people have managed our landscapes and our wildlife for tens of thousands of years, so understanding how First Nations wisdom can inform conservation management is a key piece of what we're building. 

On top of that, AI and machine learning algorithms that have been developed to date don't have diversity behind them. And if we don't have diversity in building algorithms, we start to see the injustices that we've seen in our world replicated in the digital world. 

But it's not enough just to build something that can help on-the-ground management. You need to have these communities involved and ensure that you are building something that will benefit them in the long-term. We're working with mobs here in New South Wales to ensure that not only do we capture their wisdom, knowledge and wildlife management practices but we’re building a platform that can also benefit them. 

One of the major challenges is getting more young Indigenous people into STEM careers. A lot of Indigenous communities don't have access to the STEM resources that we have in major cities. There's a fantastic organisation called Deadly Science run by a friend of mine, Corey Tutt, that sends stem resources to remote Indigenous communities. 

I’m also currently involved with a CSIRO program for mentoring young Indigenous people in stem mentoring programs. I wouldn’t be where I am today without two amazing women mentors - Dr Carolyn Hogg and Professor Katherine Belov –  who encouraged me to be ambitious and confident about my career. I'm now mentoring three fantastic Indigenous women, which is so, so exciting. 

How can you combat “conservation burnout”?

Conservation burnout is really common, particularly with the younger people entering into a conservation career where you are faced with a lot of really scary realities very, very quickly. I experienced a little bit of burnout in my early conservation career when I was having conversations with governments and other organisations as to whether we would put resources into a critically endangered species or let it continue down the extinction pathway.

When Don't Look Up was released, I winced through the entire movie because I knew that feeling of screaming about the extinction crisis and how devastating it will be but feeling like there wasn’t anyone listening.

At that point, I decided to step out of conservation and skill up in business and technology. It meant I could reinvigorate my purpose, and come back with new tools and new ways of thinking so that I could tackle this issue from another angle.

What stage are you at with your capital raising journey?

We raised a small round earlier this year via the Startmate Accelerator and we've also been backed by Investible under their Climate Tech fund.

In October, we’re looking to raise $1.5 million dollars from VCs angels, family offices, anyone with a climate or environment and impact focus

What is the most rewarding thing you've done? 

It's hard not to say starting Xylo Systems and seeing it grow from an idea in my head to an actual platform with paying customers, solving people's problems. It’s actually the most mind blowing thing that I've ever experienced and I still cannot believe that we are here and I get to do this. I'm solving the problems that I saw throughout my early career, and now I’m able to go out there and solve the same problems for other people.

I'm super proud of what my team and I are doing.

“For me, it’s always been about leaving the world a better place than how I found it and I really feel like I’m fulfilling that.”

One more question! Why is it called Xylo Systems?

So Xylo is the Greek word for wood and I really liked the sound of the word. But I also always had in my mind, working as a conservationist, the saying that you can’t see the wood for the trees. 

It links perfectly to our platform that enables anyone to see what's happening at any level and start to break down those silos, to see what's happening across the entire system.

Read more about Camille here.