Canberra AI founders win award for sovereign technology competing with
Rachel and Michael Gately founded Trellis Data in Canberra in 2016. They won an award for building sovereign AI.
Husband-and-wife team Rachel and Michael Gately won the 2026 ACT Chief Minister's Pearcey Award. Over a decade, they built secure, fully Australian AI.
Trellis Data created speech-to-text and translation systems for high-security settings. Foreign cloud systems cannot work there.
The company built its own neural networks from scratch. It did not rely on overseas platforms.
Now it works across federal departments, law enforcement and defence. Trellis Data also launched Agentaus, a public AI platform.
It uses only Australian data centres. The company grows over 100 per cent each year and has expanded into international markets.
- Canberra, 2016
- Founded
- Over 100 per cent
- Annual growth
Why it mattersThe award shows Australian founders can build world-class deep-tech companies. They can compete with tech giants. It proves sovereign AI works commercially and strategically.
AustraliaAn Australian-made AI platform now protects sensitive government and defence data that previously relied on overseas companies, strengthening national security and sovereign capability.
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