Melbourne based startup established in 2024, combining expertise in planning, technology and AI.The company was born out of CEO James Mant's lived experience as a planner, and his vision to empower planners to focus on what matters, creating great places.Spero-ai will simplify, speed up and reduce costs in urban planning, particularly in the permit process, for applicants, planners and councils providing significant time and cost savings. We also aim to provide revenue generation streams for councils though our products.At Spero-ai we are committed to delivering AI-native solutions backed by years of industry experience, however we will co-design any solutions with councils, so that we address real world problems.Spero-ai plans to initially work across Australia and NZ to offer solutions to councils. Spero is able to provide low cost and quick solutions to councils.

The co-founders and Executive

James Mant MPIA
Chief Executive OfficerJames is an urban planner and leader with 25 years experience in state and local government. He has led award winning planning projects and been recognised worldwide for his work on 20-minute neighbourhoods. He is a respected planner currently on the elected Planning Institute of Australia (Vic) Committee and is the host of The City People Podcast.

Peter Kelly
Chief Information OfficerPeter is an experienced CIO and a visionary technologist with over 25 years experience. He has a history of spearheading and delivering cutting-edge technological solutions and developed ground-breaking platforms across diverse sectors. Peter is recognised as an innovative technology leader, who drives compliance excellence.

Jennifer George MBA GAICD
Chief Commercialisation OfficerJennifer is an experienced CEO specialising in digital health, smart cities, and climate tech. Jennifer worked in US institutional investment for 10 years and has commercialised sustainable innovations in more than 50 industries over the past 15 years. She is the Chair of the Smart Cities and Communities for Standards Australia, and a former Co-Chair of Australia 4.0, an initiative to identify and build ICT solutions for Australia’s Net Zero Grid for the Pearcey Foundation.

Advisory Board

Dr Jane Homewood
Executive leader, with years of experience leading planning in Victorian state government

George Havakis
Managing Director of GISSA International, with over 35 years of experience in geospatial data management developer of Aspec Standards

Carys Evans
Led Digital Twin Victoria program for the Victorian government including eComply, a digital compliance assessment tool

Andrew Grear
Fellow of the Planning Institute of Australia and experienced executive in the Victorian and South Australian governments.