The founders of Hireup, a profit-for-purpose business aimed at connecting people with disability in Australia with support workers, are the winners of the 2021 NSW Pearcy Award for Tech Entrepreneur of the Year.

Laura O’Reilly OAM and Jordan O’Reilly received the award on Thursday night, in recognition of the pair's work as leading tech entrepreneurs and for Hireup’s role in assisting the disability sector.

In the six years since the business was founded, Hireup has grown into a community of over 150,000 registered users with the business facilitating more than 72,000 support connections, provided more than 9.3 million hours of support, and saved clients over $87 million in support funding.

Jamila Gordon, chair of the Pearcey NSW judging committee and recipient of the 2020 NSW Award said “Jordan and Laura have been selected as the recipients of the 2021 Pearcey NSW Entrepreneur of the Year Award due to the incredible impact their purpose-for-profit business Hireup has had on the Australian disability sector.

"Hireup has fundamentally changed the way that people with disability access support in the community. Through their inspirational leadership, Laura and Jordan are using technology to help create a new future for disability and a good life for all.”

In 2018, Hireup was named a Google.org Impact Challenge winner, as well as taking out the top spot in Deloitte's 2017 Tech Fast 50 program.

Along with founding Hireup, in 2011 Jordan and Laura launched Fighting Chance, a not-for-profit organisation working to identify the challenges, hurdles and barriers faced by people with disability in their everyday lives. Today, Fighting Chance supports more than 1,000 people across Australia through the operation of its social enterprises, including Avenue and Jigsaw - supporting people with disability to work.

Laura and Jordan will represent the state at the national Pearcey Awards to be held on November 24. ACS NSW is one of the NSW Pearcey Award for the Tech Entrepreneur of the Year.

The University Pitching competition, also supported by ACS, was won by Vidup - UNSW, with second place going to Pixii - Sydney University and third place to Lamynox - Newcastle University. Congratulations to all the pitching teams and their inspiring startups.

The event includes the University pitching competition featuring startups from University of Sydney, University of NSW, University of Technology Sydney, University of Newcastle and Macquarie University competing for a prize pool of $6,000.