South Australia’s Clare Valley wine region is famous for its bike trail along the old railway line, riesling and some of the most famous names in Australian viticulture, including of two of Australia’s 10 oldest family-owned, multi-generational wine labels, Taylors and Jim Barry. A new generation, including the Hughes family, which created Riesling Freak, are… Read more »
The Australian government’s financial system anti-crimes regulator, AUSTRAC, has called in an external auditor at Airwallex over concerns that the fintech unicorn has failed to properly comply with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) laws. AUSTRAC CEO Brendan Thomas, said the external audits will assess serious compliance concerns by the regulator, which is charged with… Read more »
In more than a decade of covering Australian startups – nearly seven years as Startup Daily editor – one notable aspect of dealing with the sector is unlike any other I’ve encountered in 30 years of journalism. As LP Hartley wrote in The Go-Between: “The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.”… Read more »
Sendle staff questioned the parcel delivery startup’s US expansion plan and high cash burn well ahead of its closure, suggesting the business faced existential challenges before its ill-fated merger. The Australian-born scaleup, which allowed small businesses to send parcels through partnerships with major courier networks, shocked customers last week by cancelling all upcoming pick-ups. The closure came… Read more »
Sydney AI security startup Dam Secure has raised $6.1 million (US$4m) in a Seed round led by Washington, DC-based cybersecurity and AI investor, Paladin Capital Group. Dam Secure, founded by Patrick Collins and Simon Harloff, is developing an AI-native platform for organisations to manage the security risks created by the rapid adoption of AI coding… Read more »
A California-based legal tech startup originally founded in New Zealand has raised A$81 million (US$55m) in a Series B. The round for Ivo was led by Blackbird, with support from Costanoa Ventures, Uncork Capital, Fika Ventures, and Kiwi VCs GD1, and Icehouse Ventures, and values the business at $530 million. The Series B comes 12… Read more »
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Advice
If you’re a founder who sends monthly or quarterly investor updates, I have some uncomfortable news. They probably aren’t being read in depth, and your investors don’t care deeply about them. I don’t mean they’re skimming them while checking email. I mean they’re genuinely not retaining anything of value from the carefully curated bullet points… Read more »
Funding
January has already been piping hot for startup funding, and this week is no different. Four ANZ startups raised more than $307 million across rockets, AI and engineering platforms. Here’s who: Gilmour Space: $217 million Gilmour Space Technologies has landed $217 million in a Series E funding round that lifts the Queensland-founded rocket maker’s valuation… Read more »
Cyber security
Scams are more nuanced now. Deepfakes are more convincing. And at a time when one-click checkouts and real-time payments are the norm, security has soared far beyond being a mere ‘tech team problem’. In Mastercard’s January 2025 global survey of more than 5000 small business owners, 79 per cent said effective cybersecurity is critical to… Read more »
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